The Museo Nacional del Ecuador and the Colegio de Arquitectos del Ecuador – Provincial Pichincha announced on Mar. 17 that twenty teams have advanced to the next phase of the international competition to design the new building for the Ecuador National Museum.
The selection follows a technical evaluation process that reviewed applications from more than 27 countries, highlighting significant interest from the global architectural community. The project aims to provide Ecuador with a modern cultural infrastructure and establish a regional reference point.
According to organizers, all submissions that met the requirements and deadlines were evaluated by a committee that assessed credentials, experience, and portfolios. The process featured multidisciplinary teams with both Ecuadorian and international professionals; seventy-two teams included Ecuadorian members, promoting knowledge exchange and showcasing national talent.
Evaluation criteria included typological relevance, project scale, conceptual coherence, spatial and formal consistency, technical-constructive solidity, material proposals, and integration with the surrounding environment. Of the twenty finalist teams selected for Stage 2 of the competition—focused on developing an architectural draft—eleven are alliances between Ecuadorian and foreign professionals.
Technical guidelines for this second stage will be published in coming weeks along with programmatic instructions and an official schedule. The evaluation committee thanked all applicants for their participation and noted “the high technical and conceptual quality of the proposals received,” which enabled a highly competitive and transparent process.
Organizers say construction of the new museum building is considered a national project intended to become one of Ecuador’s most important cultural facilities as well as an architectural reference point in the region.
