Fondazione
Prada
OMA
November 02. 2015
Milano, Italy
A new art space for Fondazione Prada located in a former industrial complex
may sound like the cliché of the 21st century gallery. It is, however, anything
but.
The site lies in a sparse southern neighbourhood of Milan. Fondazione Prada
sits within stucco walls topped with terracotta roofs - an unassuming presence
within the local context. The only hint of what lies within it's borders is a
simple industrial 'tower' clad in gold leaf, only just revealing itself to the
street, peeking above the terracotta roofs.
Fondazione Prada is not a conventional museum or gallery, but rather a
cultural institution that displays and explores the foundations main interest,
ideas, in whatever form they manifest: art, literature, cinema, music,
philosophy, science. The site hosts an agglomerate of programs including
children's workshops, residencies, rehearsals, theatre, cinema and a library in
addition to the gallery spaces. Wandering through the new and existing
buildings scattered across the site that hum with various activity, the
atmosphere is more like that of a campus than a gallery - there is an overall sense
of exploration and research.
We have tried to find ways to go
beyond the gallery wall and create a real diversity of typologies and
conditions for the display of art."/Rem KoolhaasNew
buildings and elements slot within the existing built fabric, at times
seamlessly merging and at other times starkly contrasting. The first of these
additional structures is 'The Podium'. A formally minimal building with an
entirely glazed ground floor, topped with a windowless slab dramatically
cantilevering over the glass box, skimming the existing building across the
courtyard.This
striking contrast between old and new is repeated throughout the site, mainly
through an exciting play on materials: foamed aluminium panels meet marble floors,
grated flooring meets cobblestone paving, polished stainless steel sits flush
within stucco walls, existing steel elements are painted fluoro orange.Other new
additions are less obvious. Clad in the same stucco walls as the majority of
the complex and classical in form, a new cinema and theatre gives the
impression that it has been there all along. It seems that the only addition is
a single polished stainless steel facade, which can be opened up onto the
adjacent courtyard for outdoor performances.
Fondazione Prada will not be a
museum, but rather the continuation of an intellectual process founded on the
exploration of doubt and on extensive research."/Miuccia Prada
In parallel
to the clients vision, OMA's main design objective was to counteract today's
limited gallery typology. They have achieved this through thorough site
analysis, exploiting existing conditions to create a variety of gallery
typologies, with some buildings barely altered. In an old grain silo the
original chambers are used as three large exhibition spaces, each housing a
single artwork. The existing 'tower', shimmering in its new gold leaf skin
offers more intimate, almost domestic scale spaces that you climb up through,
eventuating with a view over the site.
In addition
to the various spatial typologies of the interior, there are a range of outdoor
(truly) public spaces - you only pay to enter the gallery buildings. Gorgeous
fig trees with mint green chairs scattered underneath them line the
cobblestoned streets. You can sit in the open courtyard and gaze into the
Podium's glazed gallery space. The terrace and long bench in front of the cafe
(the interior of which was designed Wes Anderson) would be at home anywhere in
the centre of the city, you can eat the best gelato of your life here and pay
just as little as any Milanese cafe.
Totally open
to the city and rooted in the existing fabric of the site, Foundazione Prada
has created a provocative and totally new kind of art space, housing a
diversity of content and activities within the varied spatial typologies of its
architecture.
