Milan, an aerial walkway will be created between the two bodies of the Museum of the Twentieth Century

Thewinning project of the Novecentopiùcento International Design Competition, published in December 2020 by the City of Milan with the aim of expanding the Museo del Novecento inside the Secondo Arengario, increasing exhibition space by more than 1,000 square meters, is that of the team headed by architect Sonia Calzoni.

“The project is appreciable for the maturity and awareness with which it takes ample account of museum needs and related services, enhancing the architectural pre-existence, the urban context and ensuring the public character and permeability of the ground floor of the Second Arengario. The proposal presents characters of concrete feasibility with respect to the objectives of the call related to the integration of the museum fruition of the Arengari complex”: this is the motivation with which the Selection Committee chose to let the project of the team headed by architect Sonia Calzoni together with Pierluigi Nicolin, Ferdinando Aprile, Giuseppe Di Bari and Bruno Finzi win.

The museum will also expand thanks to Milanese patron Giuseppina Antognini, who will donate 5 million euros and a nucleus of valuable twentieth-century works. “The Museo del Novecento doubles and becomes unique. Ten and a half years after its opening, commented Milan Mayor Giuseppe Sala, ”the museum conquers the second Arengario, occupied until now by some municipal offices. An architecturally exemplary expansion that will allow the birth of a modern and spectacular exhibition complex dedicated to contemporary art. Today we learned about the project that will give life to this beautiful new realization made possible and unique thanks to the Pasquinelli Foundation and Milanese patron Giuseppina Antognini, who donated 5 million euros for the redevelopment work and numerous works by the most important artists of the 20th century drawn from her private collection. Milan is undergoing a phase of great transformation,“ the mayor continues, ”in every one of its neighborhoods and in every one of its spheres, not least the cultural one. From the National Museum of the Resistance to the Teatro Lirico, from the new tower of the Teatro alla Scala to the second Arengario, everything contributes to telling the story of a city that is growing, regenerating itself and becoming more and more beautiful to live in."

The objective of the winning project is to achieve an architectural synthesis between the twin buildings so as to form a single organism. Two possible solutions are envisaged, as per the competition indications, for the connection between the two buildings. The first solution involves an overhead walkway placed at an elevation of +19.65 meters, at the height of the third level of the two Arengari, consisting of a truss beam attached directly to the existing side columns of the buildings. This intervention can be considered completely reversible. The connection between the two buildings would thus have the characteristics of a third slender bridge crossing the Piazza della Scala - Piazza Diaz axis, complementary to the first two constituted by the monumental archiportals of the same Galleria designed by Giuseppe Mengoni. Seen from the Octagon of the Galleria, the footbridge in fact rests on the roof of the low building without breaking the view of the Martini Tower. Conceived as a kind of proscenium, the design of the walkway features a front facing Piazza Duomo characterized by transparent light walls and a convex mirror structure in the lower part, capable of reflecting the views and movements of the square. The aerial connection ensures a continuous path that, having passed the apex room of the first Arengario, crosses the walkway to descend to the ground floor of the new rooms, thus resolving the museum unity and giving continuity to the visitors’ path.

The second solution, an alternative but still feasible even in the presence of the overhead walkway, involves the transformation of Via Marconi into an external atrium of the museum in direct contact with the city, a courtyard-square in relation to Piazza Duomo. This space would gather all the functions of passage and exchange between the two buildings, so as to implement in each case the recomposition of the two Arengari into a single organism. In this case, the museum fruition of the rooms of the second Arengario would take place from the bottom to the top. The project then proposes the reduction of physical barriers and the enhancement of the flower beds and green areas of Diaz Square.

Both proposed solutions confirm the principle of enhancing the distinction between the four floors designated for exhibition and museographic areas and the basement spaces.

As for the Second Arengario, the ground floor constitutes a space in dialogue with Via Marconi; in the porticoed space, where transit will remain guaranteed for passengers who from the tramway terminus on Via Dogana head to Piazza del Duomo, a bookshop open to the public and a cafeteria with tables will be located, while an auditorium will be built in the mezzanine. The museum floors, which are located on four levels created above the arcaded space, will thus be able to accommodate more than a hundred works, with a museological itinerary that will offer new readings and comparisons from the 1980s to the most current experiences. On the first two levels are two equivalent rooms of about 400 square meters, which will also allow for the exhibition of large-scale works, the staging of installations, and performances. The two upper levels, on the other hand, will host the work of a protagonist of the international art scene who will place himself in dialogue with the Fontana Hall of the First Arengario, including the night scenario.

From the plant engineering point of view, the intervention, which includes the complete renovation of the above-ground floors with the exception of the loggia floor, will meet NZEB (Near Zero Energy Buildings) requirements and will also obtain LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification through connection to the district heating network. In order to ensure the best indoor air quality, the project will provide for the intake of adequate flow rates of outside air that will be previously filtered and sanitized.

As stipulated in the call for bids, the project also introduces transformations in the First Arengario Museum regarding service facilities such as checkroom, toilets, changing rooms for security staff on the basement floor, while a Works Conservation Laboratory is added to replace conference and storage rooms. On the ground floor, the entrance to the rooms dedicated to temporary exhibitions is modified through a more direct connection that facilitates access after purchasing a ticket.

The amount of the works turns out to be about 18.5 million euros. The winning project was selected from the 130 proposals that arrived as part of the two-grade anonymous competition procedure launched with the Concorrimi.it telematics platform, developed by the Order of Architects, Planners, Landscape Architects and Conservators of the Province of Milan together with the City of Milan and the Order of Engineers of the Province of Milan. The winner of the competition will be awarded a prize of 60,000 euros. The second-place winner will be awarded a prize of 12,000 euros, the third-place winner will be awarded a prize of 8,000 euros, and the next seven runners-up will be paid 4,000 euros each as a contribution for design work.

The Museo del Novecento will also expand thanks to a donation from Giuseppina Antognini, president of the Fondazione Pasquinelli, a Milanese collector and patron: 5 million euros will go to the museum, aimed at the redevelopment of the Second Arengario, and an important nucleus of early 20th-century works from the Giuseppina Antognini and Francesco Pasquinelli Collection, whose total value exceeds 15 million euros. Among these works are Umberto Boccioni’s Crepuscolo, which depicts Milan in the period of its pulsating growth at the beginning of the last century; Severini’s Tuscan Landscape; Giacomo Balla ’s Automobile Speed + Lights; and a portrait by Mario Sironi; as well as a metaphysical work by De Chirico and a work by Savinio from the French period, an author hitherto absent within the museum’s collections, which will thus fill this gap in the permanent collection’s itinerary.

Pictured is a rendering of the aerial walkway between the two bodies of the Museo del Novecento.

Milan, an aerial walkway will be created between the two bodies of the Museum of the Twentieth Century

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