Plans for the next big City Park project unveiled at the Osaka World Expo

Kazuyo Sejima emphasised that the New National Gallery was designed to give future visitors a sense of the special relationship between nature, art and architecture. "We found it a very exciting challenge to design a new home for a cultural institution that contains unique cultural treasures while being open to nature and people," he said.

Ryue Nishizawa added that the historic city of Budapest and the attraction of the City Park had a great impact on them. "Designing a contemporary museum on the historic site in the middle of the park, on the site of a former building, was a big responsibility and an interesting task."

According to the announcement, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, two prominent figures in contemporary architecture, have come to Osaka at the invitation of the Liget Budapest Project.

In 2010, they also won the profession's most prestigious award

The report recalled that SANAA had previously won the international design competition for the New National Gallery building, in the framework of the Liget Budapest Project. The new museum building is planned to be built on the site of the former Petőfi Hall and will house outstanding works of Hungarian and universal art from the early 19th century to the present day.

As explained, the work of Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa on the SANAA was awarded the industry's most prestigious recognition, the Pritzker Prize, in 2010. Their minimalist, uncluttered style, their playful use of light and transparency, and their desire to create a harmonious relationship between their buildings and their surroundings have made them known worldwide. They have been noted for iconic buildings such as the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, the New Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, the Rolex Learning Center in Lausanne, Switzerland, the Grace Farms Community Center in Connecticut, and the Louvre-Lens Museum in France.

160 nations brought the best of their national treasures to Osaka

Commenting on the Osaka presentation, Benedek Gyorgyevics, CEO of Városliget Zrt., said, "The Ethnographic Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts or the Millennium House, which are part of the Liget project, attract nearly 10 million unique visitors to the City Park every year, most of whom come to Budapest specifically for its cultural heritage. Here in Osaka, at the World Expo, we were able to show what the future holds for Hungary, which will make it worth getting on a plane and seeing not only the architectural plans for the New National Gallery, but the reality."