In the Mexican city of Puebla, acclaimed Japanese architect Toyo Ito has designed a museum dedicated to baroque art. The Museo Internacional del Barroco, or simply the MIB, occupies a prominent UNESCO world heritage site in the country’s fourth largest city. The project seeks to translate the baroque movement, which is considered to be one of the first truly international styles, into the building’s design. Consequently the design team established three guidelines for the museum’s construction. In order to achieve a sense of fluidity, the rigid layout was dissolved with a series of curving walls. ‘In the MIB we try to break and dissolve the cold and rigid order to achieve fluid spaces,’ explain the architects: ‘We hope that when people move from one room to another, they experience a baroque space.’
©Edmund Sumner
Overall view late afternoon with colourful locals. Museo Internacional del Barroco MIB, Puebla, Mexico. Architect: Toyo Ito, 2016.
Panoramic overall view late afternoon. Museo Internacional del Barroco MIB, Puebla, Mexico. Architect: Toyo Ito, 2016.
Overall side view over water at twilight. Museo Internacional del Barroco MIB, Puebla, Mexico. Architect: Toyo Ito, 2016.
Main Staircase. Museo Internacional del Barroco MIB, Puebla, Mexico. Architect: Toyo Ito, 2016.
Inner courtyard, overall view. Museo Internacional del Barroco MIB, Puebla, Mexico. Architect: Toyo Ito, 2016.
Typical exhibition space. Museo Internacional del Barroco MIB, Puebla, Mexico. Architect: Toyo Ito, 2016.
Museum entrance. Museo Internacional del Barroco MIB, Puebla, Mexico. Architect: Toyo Ito, 2016.