January 1, 1999 the new authority for the National Museum of World Culture was established in Göteborg. It is responsible for the National Museum of Ethnography, the Museum of Mediterranean and Near Eastern Antiquities, and the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, all in Stockholm, and the Gothenburg Ethnographic Museum.

The National Museum of World Culture will build its base on the collections from the Gothenburg Ethnographic Museum with increased interdisciplinary awareness and international collaboration. Through uses of new technologies, new means of collaboration and active community work, the role of the traditional museum will develop. The museum will become a place for meetings even during times when the exhibitions are not open. There will be space for a wide range of many different activities.

The museum will cooperate closely with Gothenburg's University, the Science Centre at Korsvägen and Liseberg.

The Museum has high demands

The National Property Board, which manages most of the government's museums in Sweden, received the commission to realize this project and will manage the building.

The museum has high demands on its building. It offers well functioning spaces for visitors, employees and for the museum objects and fulfils special requirements for security, technology and climate. The National Museum of World Culture has special demands when it comes to flexibility and adaptability. The building is also diligently designed architecturally, enhance the surrounding environment and is an asset to society.

Architectural Competition

To start with, the National Property Board arranged a large international architectural design competition for the new museum during 1998 and 1999. The proposal "Ice Cube" by Edgar Gonzalez and Cécile Brisac, London, was chosen as winner. They have since then established a project office in Gothenburg together with their Swedish partners, Erséus, Frenning & Sjögren architects.

The realization of the project

The building has a complex construction system with very large spans, an exciting atrium with glazed facades and intricate circulation paths. The building's total area is approximately 11 000 m².

During the autumn of 2001 the excavation and foundation work begun and the long phase of producing working drawings will continue. Construction work continued until the spring of 2004, thereafter the interiors and exhibitions were made ready. The museum is open to the public since the end of 2004.

The National Property Board's role has been to manage the entire project, insure that all of the museum's requirements have been fulfilled and to steer the project within the economic framework allocated by the government.

Sustainability aspects in the project.

• The environment was a strong decision criterion during the architect competition. For example, the cubic shape of the building leads to a lesser energy consumption than of a loaf shaped building.
• A heat pump, with ten rock holes, 185 meters down into the rock, heats the museum in the wintertime and cools the museum during the summers.
• All the built-in materials have been reviewed from an environmental and health aspect. Building declarations have been provided for all the materials used.
• The museum is completely free of PVC.
• Consultants and entrepreneurs have carried out environmental reviews throughout the project, in order to guarantee that the established environmental demands have been followed. The environmental demands on the project have, among other things, included demands on environmental and health reviews of material, environmentally educated personnel, rest product handling, and handling of chemicals.
• Throughout the project, work has been done regarding damp safety. During the design development phase, damp dimensioning was done in the whole building. During the construction phase, regular damp controls were completed.
• There has been a big focus on the indoor environment. The purpose is to P-mark the museum. The P-marking is given to a building that lives up to the established demands on the indoor environment. These demands include thermal comfort, air quality, damp, radon, light, noise, as well as electrical and magnetic fields. It is also required that there are established routines for indoor environment controls.