We’re not making it up: Leeser Architecture of New York have won a competition to design the World Mammoth and Permafrost Museum in Yakutsk, Siberia.

The super-insulated building is fitted with a host of technologies to reduce its impact on the extreme yet fragile environment while serving as both a research centre and museum.

The centre will contain an intact mammoth discovered nearby and provide access to underground galleries from which the permafrost can be viewed.

Here’s the press release:

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LEESER ARCHITECTURE WINS COMPETITION FOR WORLD MAMMOTH AND PERMAFROST MUSEUM IN THE REPUBLIC OF SAKHA-YAKUTIA IN SIBERIA

Cutting Edge Design Pioneers New Model for Building in Ecologically Sensitive Sites

New York – Leeser Architecture has won the international competition for the World Mammoth and Permafrost Museum in the city of Yakutsk in the Republic of Sakha-Yakutia in the center of Siberia. The Museum and Scientific Research Center and Laboratory study Siberian mammoths and permafrost, the natural habitat where their remains have been found. Leeser Architecture’s pioneering design creates a shelter for life within extreme surroundings, preserving the permafrost and fostering a comfortable learning, working and socializing environment. Renowned for innovating new technologies that respond to particular problems, Leeser Architecture has created an architectural prototype for building in harsh climates and ecologically sensitive sites. Finalists included Antoine Predock (US), Massimilio Fuksas (Italy), SRL (Denmark) and YakuProekt (Republic of Sakha-Yakutia, Russia).

The Museum is sited at the foot of the Tchoutchour Mouran, a hill that punctuates the vast flat landscape of western Yakutsk. The building’s box-like volume, the most efficient and simple of shapes, turns up where it meets the hill to emulate the rising geography. Naturally patterned by the effects of shifting permafrost cycles, cells planted with native grasses, mosses and trees have been reintroduced to the landscape, reflecting the existing topography and improving site hydrology.