After 20 years, the Uffizi may see the Isozaki Loggia brought to completion

The Uffizi could see the museum’s new exit built according to the design of Japanese architect Arata Isozaki, who in 1999 emerged as the winner, along with Andrea Maffei, of the special competition in which internationally renowned architects participated. Work on the Isozaki Loggia never began.

Today MiBACT Minister Dario Franceschini said it would be right to complete work on the Nuovi Uffizi by building the Loggia by Andrea Maffei and Arata Isozaki.

The director of the Uffizi Galleries, Eike Schmidt, said he was “delighted with the positive words of the Minister of Cultural Heritage and Tourism Dario Franceschini. I am absolutely of the same opinion: and I would add that the Loggia can be completed in a short time, without any hindrance to the extension works of the Nuovi Uffizi, with respect to which the construction work would be carried out in parallel.”

He adds, “That of the Loggia is good news. I hope it will be possible to get to work on the Loggia soon. I have already met with Master Arata Isozaki in Tokyo, and I will gladly return soon. With a quick start of work, in a very few years, by 2024 all the architectural work being done in the museum can finally be completed.”

Schmidt is currently in Hong Kong, where tomorrow he will deliver the opening lecture of the secondInternational Museum Summit with the directors of major museums from around the world.

Mayor Dario Nardella also spoke on the subject, saying, “I share and appreciate the statement of Minister Dario Franceschini. Florence is undergoing a great transformation, as never before in the last fifty years. This has also affected the city’s art and architecture. Enough of the city’s ’unfinished’ works, starting with those designed by world-renowned architects such as Foster and Isozaki.” He continued, “I have talked about it with Minister Franceschini and with the director of the Uffizi Galleries Eike Schmidt, and at this point the time is ripe to realize the new loggia of the Uffizi and close a soap opera that has been going on for more than 20 years and that in any major cultural capital of the world would never have opened. Between the city that is afraid of the new and the city that is open to the contemporary, I always prefer the latter.”

After 20 years, the Uffizi may see the Isozaki Loggia brought to completion

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