Chania will soon acquire a new Archaeological Museum
For the past 46 years, the Archaeological Museum of Chania has been housed in the church of the Franciscan Monastery on Chalidon Street, with part of the history of Crete contained in its rooms.
Chania will soon acquire a new Archaeological Museum, to be built in the Chatzidakis Camp in the historical Chalepa area overlooking the sea. The museum will be a modern building designed by Theofanis Bobotis, who also designed the recently-built Patras Museum.
“When designing museums, you have to keep an eye on the future, since new finds may come to light and you may have to change the ways things are displayed. With that in mind, the museum was designed to allow for added space or different uses of space,” says the architect.
Construction could start in 2008 and be finished within two years. The museum is to cover 6,500 square meters, which includes 1,800 square meters for exhibition halls, 140 square meters for the gallery and a 140-seat amphitheatre.
Externally, the building consists of three discrete linear monolithic masses rising from the earth around an atrium, forming an inward-looking shell with selected openings to the sea.
This will create a discreet but dynamic, imposing and recognizable building, as befits a public cultural establishment. Its external simplicity also extends to the interior layout, access and aesthetics. This ensures that the right conditions are met for the display, observation and understanding of the exhibits, the main aim of the architectural design.
The new Archaeological museum of Chania will also include interior and open-air exhibition areas, skywalks, an amphitheatre, a shop, a cafeteria and various support rooms.