A new home for Ötzi: Museum Quarter in Bolzano by Snøhetta

Ötzi's new home will be located on the Virgl, Bolzano's "own" mountain. Snøhetta's has designed an imposing Museum Quarter for its peak, forming a sort of elevated terrace high above the roofs of the South Tyrolean capital. The elongated museum structure, which includes a forecourt,  grandstand and a Garden of Tranquillity, will provide exhibition space for the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology and the Bolzano Municipal Museum as well as special exhibition rooms for Ötzi.

Kjetil Trædal Thorsen, founding partner of Snøhetta describes the project as a synthesis of building and landscape, city and nature – not least thanks to the Bolzano cable car, also designed by Snøhetta, that will be linking the city with the Museum Quarter.

After a seven-minute cable car ride, museum visitors will arrive at a ring-shaped summit station. The entrance will consist of a large open space on the roof terrace and provide panoramic views deep into South Tyrol's Alpine valleys. Outer museum spaces can be used as an open-air stage for markets and concerts in an effort to re-establish the Virgl peak – after completion of the off-limits construction work – as a local recreation destination for residents and visitors.