“The transformational design walks a delicate line, as Tehrani admits, between framing the pieces—metallurgy, textiles, sarcophagi, statuary—in their correct capacity and giving the context its material specificity, without trying to upstage the work. […] But the project is part of a bigger discussion that rescripts the narrative of ancient cultures. By attempting to evoke these various realities through character, affect, color, materiality, and immersive space, NADAAA’s intervention enters into the complex discussion of what role a museum plays in today’s world.” – Patrick McGraw
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is currently undertaking the renovation of one-quarter of its gallery system. This fall, The Met has invited the three architects leading these distinct projects to participate in MetSpeaks: Designing Tomorrow’s Met, a three-part series of onstage conversations with Met curators.
On November 17, Nader Tehrani, lead architect for the renovation of the galleries for Ancient Near Eastern and Cypriot Art will present the vision for the ANEC project and speak with Kim Benzel, Curator in Charge of Ancient Near Eastern Art, and Seán Hemingway, John A. and Carole O. Moran Curator in Charge of Greek and Roman Art.
The event will take place in the Grace Rainey Rogers Auditorium and will begin at 6pm. Registration is required, more HERE.
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Mathias Agbo Jr. recently interviewed Nader Tehrani and Moody Nolan’s Darius Somers on our collaboration for the new ANEC Galleries for The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Rendering by NADAAA, courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
“For us at NADAAA, this is a new type of project entirely, and thus, it offers opportunities many other projects cannot… This has been an opportunity to put aside our authorship and look at the collection itself as the basis of inspiration: to build the project from the artifacts, and their relationship to their audiences.”
Rendering by NADAAA, courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
NADAAA is pleased to announce our work with The Metropolitan Museum of Art to redesign their Ancient Near East and Cypriot galleries. NADAAA is working in collaboration with Moody Nolan on the $40 million, 15,000 square foot project. Our team is working closely with Museum construction leadership and curators Kim Benzel and Seán Hemingway to develop the design.
“At The Met, architecture serves as the cultural armature for the display of art. Nader Tehrani and NADAAA’s contemporary approach to materials such as clay and metal—which are foundational to the world views of both ancient West Asia and Cyprus—and their partnership with Moody Nolan, a firm renowned for their work with peer institutions and marginalized communities, make this team ideally suited for this complex project.”
-Jhaelen Hernandez-Eli, Head of Construction at The Met
“It’s an honor to be selected for this project, which will address the need for more diverse narratives in the displays of art from the Ancient Near East and Mediterranean regions. In bringing disparate layers of the Museum’s architectural history into dialogue, the proposed design hopes to bring the formal, spatial, and material properties of these galleries into alignment with The Museum’s mission. By working in collaboration with The Met’s curatorial and construction teams, we’ll be able to recondition these spaces while facilitating the connection between cultures, civilizations, and geographies to tell a whole new story.”
