extrastern: pig museum

schweine museum in stuttgart, germany by extrastern

stuttgart-based architecture and design firm extrastern has completed the new schweine museum in a former slaughterhouse in stuttgart, germany. with over 30, 000 artifacts revolving around the theme of the pig, the schweine museum is the largest gallery dedicated to the animal in the world.

the 600 m2 museum is divided into 25 rooms of different themes including a ‘piggy bank’ room, stacked floor to ceiling with piggy banks, and a ‘golden pig’ room which features a large statue of a ‘german large white’ pig on a rotating stage.

many of the rooms are geared toward children: the artifacts are hidden or viewable only through tiny windows, some requiring the opening of hatch doors to see.

the whole museum takes around 1-2 hours to completely experience. the space is thematically divided into five areas such as ‘history’, ‘mythological and symbolic significance’, and ‘arts and crafts collection’.

the ‘pig calendar’ room

the ‘miniature pig’ room

the ‘wild hog’ room

the ‘wild hog’ room features windows along the walls as well as display cases on tree stumps that provide information about the history and zoology of the animal.

the ‘pig stall’ room

the ‘pig pile’ room

the ‘mythical pig’ room

the ‘piggy bank’ room

the ‘golden pig’ room

in addition to the giant golden pig statue in the middle of the room, the ‘golden pig’ room features pictures and information on hundreds of extinct and endangered breeds of the porcine creature.