The architecture studio of David Chipperfield have announced significant progress on two key museum projects in their portfolio: an extension to the Kunsthaus museum in Zurich, Switzerland and an cultural complex near the Taj Mahal in India.

A foundation stone laying ceremony for former project took place on Tuesday (8 November), with guests from the world of Swiss politics, business and culture joining Chipperfield, who helped bury a time capsule on site.

Designed by the architect’s Berlin office, the Kunsthaus Zurich extension will sit opposite Karl Moser’s existing museum on a square in the centre of the city. It will display a collection of classic modernist art, a contemporary collection and the European sculptures and paintings accrued by collector Emil Georg Bührle.

The distinct feature of the new building is the central entrance hall, which will connect a garden at the rear with the square at the front, allowing visitors to experience art in a publicly accessible space outside of the general museum activities. A passageway running underneath the square will link the Kunsthaus with the new extension. Together with the Schauspielhaus theatre on the east side of the square, the museum buildings will form a new ‘gateway to the arts’.

The second project, the Mughal Museum in Agra, has made progress on site after ground was broken back in January, and construction is on schedule to be completed next year.

The museum – which will be dedicated to the history and culture of Northern India's Mughal dynasty – will accommodate 5,200sq m (55,972sq ft) permanent and temporary exhibition space dedicated to the history and culture of the Mughals, a dynasty that ruled over Northern India for over three centuries. It will be formed by a series of cuboid volumes of differing heights, supported by thin columns.

The project is part of a larger masterplan led by Indian architects Archohm for the Taj Mahal area, which also includes the Taj Orientation Centre and the Agra Heritage Centre. The scheme is being developed to promote tourism, art, culture and education in the area around the Taj Mahal – a UNESCO World Heritage site.

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