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World's Coolest Futuristic Buildings
Leigh Carmichael | MONA
MONA (Museum of Old and New Art), Tasmania, Australia
Unlike most of the cool buildings on our list, this one hides largely out of sight. Entrepreneur and art collector David Walsh commissioned Melbourne architect Nonda Katsalidis to create a three-level structure in the cliffs around the Berriedale peninsula near Hobart. Part of the rationale for building so much of the museum underground was to preserve the two historically significant Roy Grounds Modernist houses on the property. But Walsh has also commented that he wanted a museum that "could sneak up on visitors rather than broadcast its presence.” The subterranean areas have no windows, and visitors descend a staircase, then work their way back toward the surface. Ingenious and unsettling, the physical setup is a logical precursor to viewing the avant-garde art, much of which concerns itself with themes of death and sex.
