Opening of MMM Corones by Zaha Hadid Architects

A “Gesamtkunstwerk”, a total work of art - that's how architect Patrik Schumacher from Zaha Hadid Architects defined the Messner Mountain Museum Corones. The museum was unveiled yesterday with an opening ceremony in front of the breathtaking view of the Dolomites on Kronplatz at an altitude of 2275 metres asl. The disclosure of the iconic entrance, veiled with traditional local Loden and a homage rendered to Christo's "wrapped Reichstag" of the mostly subterranean structure was followed by a tour of the museum and a press conference with all the actors.
Having been at the ceremony we can only confirm the description made by Schumacher who has pointed out the strong relationship of Zaha Hadid with the mountains, quoting The Peak Leisure Club in Hong Kong. A proposal from 1982/83 for an archiitectural landmark where the human activities were thought to be allocated in excavated subterranean spaces like we can see here at Plan de Corones.

It was Skirama Kronplatz who came up with the idea, for a better use of the cable cars and infrastructures of Kronplatz, the Ski mountain number 1 in South Tyrolia 1, the whole year long. They found with Zaha Hadid and Reinhold Messner two acclaimed names for a "rope team" to create a unique architecture and a real tourist attraction. Architect Patrik Schumacher pointed out the importance of Messner's vision for the actual output of the museum.
MMMCorones is perfectly embedded in the anthropized environment of the mountain. The materials used (just to speak of the exposed concrete and the cladding of the entrance and the windows) remember the geology of the mountain, of the rock itself - the "supreme discipline of mountaineering" as wanted by Reinhold Messner to complete his museum series.
Today, 24 July, the museum opens to the public: one more reason for a holiday in the Dolomites and to make a trip to Kromplatz to see the latest architectural work of Zaha Hadid in Italy and the first museum with the environmental certifcation CasaClima!

Christiane Bürklein

Project: Zaha Hadid Architects for Skirama Plan de Corones
Location: Plan de Corones, Bruneck, Italy
Year: 2015
Images: Courtesy of Skirama Kronplatz, www.wisthaler.com
Link: Messner Mountain Museum Corones

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