THE NEW ACROPOLIS MUSEUM WELCOMES STUA

An iconic building designed by Bernard Tschumi.

Atenas (Greece)
20 November 2009

Company: Stua

Product/Designer: Gas chairs and Zero tables/Stua

Now that six years have passed since its inception in 2003, the Museum of the Acropolis in Athens, which will house the archaeological finds of the city’s famous, ancient monument, finally opened its doors to the public last summer.

The design by Swiss, New York-based architect Bernard Tschumi has exceded all expectations. It’s an ultra-modern, enormous, spacious, spectacular building, which no one could possibly feel indifferent about. Such is its visual impact that it has changed the look of an entire area of Athens. Views of the building – a huge geometric slab at the foot of the Acropolis and opposite the Theatre of Dionysus – can be enjoyed from quite a distance, spied from the city’s taller buildings. At night, it looks even more stunning since your eye is drawn more towards the dramatically illuminated building than to the the holy mountain on the horizon behind it.

The 21,000 sq m building, 14,000 sq m of which are used to exhibit objects, houses over 4,000 artefacts. 16,000 sq m of marble and 4,390 sq m of glass were used for its construction. It’s estimated that it will have more than 2,000,000 visitors a year, which would break down to 10,000 a day and 1,000 an hour.

Spanish company Stua, which won the Premio Nacional de Diseño (National Design Prize) in 2008, was given the honour and enjoyed the privilege of furnishing part of this grand museum – specifically with its Gas chairs and Zero tables, two signatura Stua pieces which have already established themselves as design classics thanks to their very polished forms and to the fact that they’re an international hit sales-wise.

Stua has furnished the museum’s restaurant with 320 leather-upholstered Gas chairs and 80 glass-topped Zero tables. On the outside terrace there are 72 white Gas chairs alongside 18 Zero tables whose tops are also white. Stua furniture can also be found in the museum’s café (100 black-topped Zero tables and leather-upholstered Gas chairs), in the multimedia area (60 black Gas chairs and Zero tables) and finally in the VIP room (one Deneb table, six black Zero tables and 20 Gas chairs). In total the museum, one of the most iconic cultural buildings to have been built in the past few years, boasts almost 700 Stua pieces.

Stua was founded in 1983 by Jesús Gasca with the aim of designing, producing and distributing a range of contemporary furniture with a timeless feel. The Stua aesthetic, as the company’s designers sum it up themselves, is one of Scandinavian simplicity with a touch of Mediterranean warmth. The range comprises pieces which harmonise well with each other – even when mixed and matched. Although very polished, the pieces also have character; indeed they have an individual quality which makes them recognisable wherever you see them. Stua’s Gas and Globus chairs, Malena and Nube armchairs and the outdoor furniture collection Daneb all perfectly illustrate this.

In the 25 years Stua has been in business its furniture has graced such architecturally distinguished buildings as the Museum of Art in Milwaukee, designed by Santiago Calatrava, and Burj Dubai, the world’s biggest shopping mall, which boasts 2,122 Gas chairs.