Studio Campo Baeza, Madrid, Spain, and Maoda, Quito, Ecuador, have won the international competition to design the new National Museum of Ecuador, MUNA, in the city of Quito.
The proposal was selected by a national and international jury from among the seventeen entries submitted in the final phase of the public competition, which attracted 148 teams from around the world.
About the Competition
The competition involves a state investment of USD 100 million, earmarked for the development of the preliminary architectural design.
The national and international jury comprised the architects Alejandro Zaera-Polo, Eduardo McIntosh, Hernán Crespo Bermejo, Luis López, and Diego Ordoñez Holguín, as well as institutional representatives Roberto Luque Nuques and Carla Arellano Granizo, the Deputy Minister for Culture Romina Muñoz, and the Director of the National Museum of Ecuador, Carlos Montalvo.
The international competition for the preliminary architectural design of the National Museum of Ecuador took place in two phases. The first phase, for the submission of portfolios, closed on 17 February 2026. The second closed on 17 June, during which the twenty selected teams developed their design proposals.
The decision was announced on 6 July 2026 at a public ceremony held in the city of Quito.
The new National Museum of Ecuador is a vessel designed to house the country’s history and its most precious artistic treasures.
The design completes La Carolina Park, at the junction of two major roads. To respond to this setting, it is set back towards the south, creating a large urban square. This square welcomes visitors, thoughtfully landscaped with trees, water features, and shade to provide a transition from the noise of the city to the interior of the museum.
We also wish to reaffirm the city’s vertical character. Quito is a city that reaches for the sky, and the history of Andean architecture reflects this vertical relationship with the sky and the sun. One need only look at its stepped pyramids, the Tolas of Cochasquí, or the Solar Temple of Ingapirca.
In that same spirit, we propose a vertical box where light and the sun take centre stage. A box with courtyards and carved-out voids, enveloped by shaded spaces that act as a filter against the sun. A true box of light and shadow that opens out onto the city and the imposing Andean landscape.
Given the shape of the site, we have opted for a rectangular floor plan that effectively accommodates the programme and allows for the optimisation of the various access points and circulation routes.
There are three distinct zones. The first, to the south, is dedicated to the exhibition spaces. A central zone is dedicated to circulation. A third zone, to the north, includes the four vertical circulation cores — with staircases, lifts, and toilet facilities — and the courtyards, which allow for the control of light while also serving as exhibition spaces for outdoor pieces.
Each courtyard has its own name: on the ground floor, facing east, is the Patio Sol de Oro; in the centre is the La Tolita Terrace; on the first floor is the Patio Pichincha; in the centre of the second floor is the Patio Inti; to the east is the Patio Caspicara; on the fifth upper floor is the Legarda Courtyard; on the sixth upper floor, the Ingapirca Courtyard; and crowning the MUNA is the Quito Terrace, at 2,854 metres above sea level.
We have sought to create the most beautiful museum in the world for Ecuador: a building framed by the light and shadow of Quito.
