Florence, this is what the new Medici Chapels exit will look like. Competition winner unveiled

Last Thursday, at the Casa Martelli Museum in Florence, the results of the International Design Competition for the new exit of the Medici Chapels Museum were presented, which was announced with a call for entries published on November 15, 2017, and in which as many as 118 qualified competitors, including licensed professionals, engineering companies, and temporary professional societies, all of whom were evaluated by a panel of experts who then drew up the final ranking. The results were presented by Paola D’Agostino, director of the Bargello Museums, Andrea Pessina, superintendent of the Soprintendenza Archeologia Belle Arti e Paesaggio for the metropolitan city of Florence and the provinces of Pistoia and Prato, and Silvia Moretti.

The winner of the competition was the Studio di Architettura Zermani e Associati: during the award ceremony, scheduled for Sept. 17 at 11 a.m., it will receive the economic prize put out to bid of €16,936.28. The use of an underground area, connected to the Crypts, for the creation of the new museum services, will lead to the creation of a new little square above, set between the walls of Michelangelo’s New Sacristy and the Chapel of the Princes, where visitors will emerge by climbing up through a stone staircase. The context so rich in art and history dictated the choice of linear forms and materials such as strong stone from the Florentine tradition, in harmony with the adjacent factories. The project is also a decisive contemporary insertion alongside the work of the great masters of the past, and the intervention, through a precise and minimal language, clearly establishes its formal autonomy. The names of the next four projects were then given, to which an additional prize money of € 16,000.00 will be awarded in proportion to the scores obtained: RTP group leader Arch. Marco Castelletti - Erba; Studio Zero85 Architetti Associati - Montesilvano; Arch. Mario Bellini - Milan; Arch. Matteo Casari - Verdellino. In addition to the 5 winning projects, space has also been reserved for 10 other deserving design solutions that will receive a Certificate of Good Performance of Service, which can be used at the curricular level, as a requirement for participation and technical merit, for participation in subsequent procedures for the award of architectural and engineering services. They too will be invited to the award ceremony in September.

The evaluation of the projects was carried out totally anonymously by members of the committee by identifying a set of criteria and assigning each of them a relative numerical score. The committee evaluated each entry by analyzing: the design solution of the exit, with particular attention to the relationship with the urban and architectural context (up to 50 points); the solution offered for the construction of the exit staircase (up to 20 points); the design of the restrooms (up to 5 points); and the design of the book-shop furniture (up to 5 points). The participants had to submit a technical and economic feasibility design that took into account the logistical and functional needs expressed by the Administration and within the economic framework provided in € 540,000.00. In addition, they had to send the designs with an illustrative report and three graphic tables according to a unique model useful to ensure the uniformity and anonymity of the proposals.

The overall arrangement of the new exit of the Medici Chapels (which has become a state museum since 1869), which will be located on the Canto dei Nelli, includes the design of the roofing of the same new exit, the staircase connecting it with the underground spaces (where services and the bookshop will be located) and the new definition of the museum route. Placed in the area bounded between the buildings of the Chapel of the Princes, the New Sacristy and the right end of the transept of the Basilica of San Lorenzo, the new exit will complete a singular place in the city of Florence. The Medici Chapels Museum is made up of the New Sacristy, a masterful work by Michelangelo in terms of architectural design and sculptural decoration; the Chapel of the Princes, a monumental mausoleum of the Medici dynasty made of precious and rare polychrome marble; the Crypt, where the Medici Grand Dukes and their family members are buried; and the Lorraine Crypt, which houses, in addition to the remains of the Lorraine family, the funeral monument to Cosimo the Elder “Pater Patriae.” The museum also preserves part of the precious Treasure of the Basilica of San Lorenzo, consisting of sacred hangings and magnificent reliquaries. Today the Medici Chapels Museum is among the most visited monuments in Florence and Italy.

During the presentation, Paola D’Agostino expressed her gratitude to the members of the Commission “for the meticulous selection work and the deep technical expertise shown in the evaluation of the individual projects.” “I would also like to thank,” she added, “the Florence Architects’ Foundation for the fruitful and careful collaboration at all stages of the competition. The selected projects present, in some cases, solutions that are particularly appropriate to such an important monumental context and such an urbanistically significant place. With Dr. Andrea Pessina and the technical officials and architects in service, both at the Bargello Museums and in the Superintendence, we will hold a series of operational meetings between now and September, in view of the award ceremony.” Andrea Pessina said he was “satisfied not only with the number of projects submitted and the quality of the proposals received, but above all because the solutions identified were able to respond to what was a real challenge: to elaborate a modern design solution and, at the same time, compatible with the delicate architectural and urban context in which you say we are.” Finally Silvia Moretti said, “As the Order and Fondazione Architetti Firenze we are very pleased to have supported this Competition and its outcome, both for the high participation by the designers and for the quality of the projects presented. Large firms and young professionals participated, putting themselves to the test and proposing, with excellent results, solutions with respect to an architecture of historical importance in an unresolved area, and this once again reaffirms the great value of an instrument such as the competition, which rewards the project and not the designer and therefore puts ideas at the center, making them protagonists. Now our hope is that the winning project will be completed, thus demonstrating how the competition is and can be an added value for the Florentine and Italian reality as a whole.”

Pictured is a graphic elaboration of the winning project.

Florence, this is what the new Medici Chapels exit will look like. Competition winner unveiled

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