The Reinhold Messner Museum in the Italian Alps by Zaha Hadid

On Friday, July 24, 2015, the climbing museum of Reinhold Messner was ceremonially opened at the summit of the South Tyrolean mountain Kronplatz at an altitude of 2275 meters. The building, embedded in the mountain peak, is located in the ski resort Plan de Corones near the Alpine village of Bruneck in the Italian Dolomites.
     MMM (Messner Mountain Museum) is already the sixth museum (Firmian, Juval, Dolomites, Ortles, Ripa, Corones) dedicated to the story of Reinhold Messner. In each museum, the collections focus on a specific area, and in the case of Plan de Corones, it is traditional alpinism represented by historical items from Messner's collections. Although a large part of the newly opened museum is hidden underground, it certainly arouses the greatest interest due to its unusual shape and location. Zaha Hadid's design resembles an icicle piercing through the mountain. In fact, it is a construction made up of three hundred sixty prefabricated reinforced concrete parts transported to the mountain peak by helicopter. Visitors can therefore see only the entrance and a trio of observation platforms oriented towards the opposite Geislergruppe (Gruppo delle Odle) mountain range from the outside.
     Unlike previous museums, the financing for the construction did not come from Messner's pocket; instead, the company operating the cable car at Kronplatz contributed three million euros, hoping for a greater number of tourists willing to pay seven euros for entry this summer.

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