This large mu­seum on Skepp­shol­men is the re­sult of an open ar­chi­tec­tu­ral com­pe­ti­tion in 1991, which also in­clu­ded a num­ber of spe­cially in­vi­ted in­ter­na­tio­nal ar­chi­tects. Ra­fael Moneo from Spain won with an entry that, de­s­pite its large vo­lume, sub­ord­i­na­tes to the older buil­dings on Skepp­shol­men. In most re­spects the com­ple­ted buil­ding con­forms with the com­pe­ti­tion scheme. The main con­cept pla­ces the Ar­chi­tec­ture Mu­seum in the for­mer mi­li­tary drill hall, which was pre­viously oc­cu­p­ied by the Mo­dern Mu­seum, while the Mo­dern Mu­seum ac­qui­res a com­ple­tely new buil­ding. The per­ma­nent ex­hi­bi­tion of the Mo­dern Museum's uni­que collec­tion of 20th cen­tury art is hou­sed in a labyrinth-like se­quence of square-shaped rooms with roof lan­terns. Tem­porary ex­hi­bi­ti­ons take place in a large hall that also con­ta­ins clo­sely spaced roof lan­terns. With its new fa­ci­li­ties, the Ar­chi­tec­ture Mu­seum has tri­pled its ex­hi­bi­tion area, crea­ting for Swe­den one of the lar­gest ar­chi­tec­ture mu­se­ums in the world, and with its pla­ce­ment in the old mi­li­tary hall, also one of the most be­au­ti­ful ex­hi­bi­tion spaces in the world. The mu­seum com­plex on Skepp­shol­men de­mons­tra­tes Ra­fael Moneo's great­ness as an ar­chi­tect in every re­spect: »both in his way of in­ter­pre­ting the Stock­holm urban cha­rac­ter, and in the in­no­va­tive in­te­rior dis­po­si­tion of rooms.«

The ar­chi­tec­ture pro­po­sed here is dis­con­ti­ni­uous and bro­ken, just as the city of Stock­holm. The cha­rac­ter and ex­pres­sion of the buil­ding evol­ved from con­side­ra­ti­ons for the con­tent of the collec­tions of the two mu­se­ums. Di­ver­sity is the most out­stan­ding cha­ra­te­ris­tic of the collec­tions. In ad­di­tion to this di­ver­sity, the ar­chi­tec­ture of the new mu­se­ums re­sponds to the de­li­cate sur­roun­dings and does not fall into the temp­ta­tion of »monumentality«, while also es­ta­blis­hing a dia­lo­gue - al­ways in light and dis­crete man­ner - with an en­vi­ron­ment in which frag­men­ta­tion and mi­nin­mal in­ter­ven­tion are the most ty­pi­cal cha­rac­te­ris­tics. The buil­ding mixes square and rectan­gu­lar halls with py­ra­mi­di­cal cei­lings, op­ti­mi­zing il­lu­mi­na­tion and height, qua­li­ties con­side­red fun­da­men­tal for a mu­seum.