Where's the museum?

New museum wants to be a polyvalent cultural container opened to the city.

It builds new public spaces and it doesn’t waive to define an adequate location for needs of contemporary artistic culture.

Uses connected with exhibition activities are placed in an underground giant level while accessory uses are concentrated in a big slab defining a landmark for the entire archipelago.

The burial of exhibition spaces’ volume allows the utilization of the huge covering as a public square and as a space for artistic installations at same time.

Square hall (56m X 56m) with glazed roof represents the core of the exhibition.

The absence of intermediate structural supports (pillars are placed along the perimeter) allows maximum flexibility in the organization of spaces, in line with the changing needs of the artistic offering, that is constituted primarily by temporary exhibitions.

The horizontal grid formed by high steel beams constitutes the main hall’s covering and allows the realization of temporary suspended partitions and the collocation of lighting and shading systems (curtains) to be organizing as needed.

Big horizontal glazed plane constitutes a transparent interface between museum and city, that allows participation in new public space’s life to world of art.

The project provides an additional exhibition gallery for paintings and small artworks.

Slab is characterized by transversal arrangement in confront of coastline and in particular by the square profile representing the ideal vertical overturning of main exhibition hall.

The warped geometry and the flaunted closure of North-Western facade accentuate the building’s monumental attitude that, as backdrop of new esplanade, looks like an assertive monolith.
Opposite front reveals, through a double glass wall, the richness of internal space: café, restaurant, multipurpose room, offices and in particular the atrium with its 25 meters of height.

It represents a junction between slab and underground museum, a switch of different flows and it stands as an available space for temporary artworks.

The corridor-loggia is an internal element of the building and an urban element at same time. On the one hand it builds an intermediate point of view on the great hall, on the other it is a connecting finger with the nearby public park.

The lobby represents the foyer of the conference hall and a place for visitors’ rest.

It is located in underground volume and people can reach it through a ramps systems from the access atrium.

Its distinctive transparent ceiling is covered by a water film contributing to construction of a suggestive indoor environment and it contemporaneously stands as elective floor for open-air big artworks.

Slab’s main structure is formed by reinforced concrete portals while secondary structural order is formed by steel beams and dry floorings.

Internal vertical partitions are realized with prefinished wood panels that creates a typical finishing for rooms.

The use of geothermal resources allows the covering of winter heatingn needs while the presence of the water pool and the big wooded area allow the best exploitation of prevailing winds for summer cooling.