Museum of the City of Bologna

Bologna
Photo © Francesco Radino
Photo © Paolo Righi
Photo © Paolo Righi
Photo © Paolo Righi
Photo © Marco Masocco
Photo © Francesco Radino
Photo © Marco Masocco
Photo © Marco Masocco
Photo © Luca Fregoso
Photo © Francesco Radino
Photo © Francesco Radino
Photo © Francesco Radino
Photo © Francesco Radino
Photo © Francesco Radino
Photo © Luca Fregoso
Photo © Francesco Radino
Photo © Luca Fregoso
Photo © Luca Fregoso
© Marco Masocco
Photo © Luca Fregoso
Photo © Francesco Radino
Photo © Francesco Radino
Photo © Marco Masocco
© Francesco Radino
Photo © Francesco Radino
Photo © Francesco Radino
Photo © Paolo Righi
Photo © Paolo Righi
Photo © Marco Masocco
Photo © Marco Masocco
Photo © Paolo Righi
Architects
Mario Bellini Architects
Year
2012
Client
Fondazione “Cassa di Risparmio” di Bologna
Team
Mario Bellini with Giorgio Origlia and Giovanni Cappelletti, Collaborators: Egle De Luca, Maurizio Di Lauro, Loretto Buti, Dario Varetto, Alessandro Zufferli, Alessia Nori, Francesca Calda, Luca Bosetti, Federico Spadini
Structure
Ing. Massimo Majowiecki, Bologna
Mechanical and electrical services
S.S.S. s.a.s., Bologna
Glass facade design
MEW – Manfroni Engineering Workshop, Rimini
Display cabinets
Mayveaert Italia s.r.l, Treviso
General Contractor
CESI s.r.l, Bologna
Exhibition Design
TECTON s.c.r.l, Reggio Emilia

Awards:
Competition by invitation. Winning project.

The work done concerns both the architectural project of transforming and renovating the palazzo as well as the exhibition design for the works on display.
The architect carries out his work inside the building. “Inside, in the heart of the Palazzo, an umbrella tower of glass and steel reinvents the courtyard which thus reacquires dignity and function – Bellini explains –.
It looks like a magic lantern flooded from above with natural white light that descends and is dematerialised into pure transparency.
Almost an epiphany that makes one reflect on the passing of time”.
The new glass structure of the umbrella tower in the courtyard is juxtaposed with the massively thick layout of the existing building and makes the entire visiting itinerary fluid, taking the tower and the courtyard as its epicentre.
The architectonic gesture of the tower is decisive, but it also strategically resolves the need for a fluid and interesting exhibition itinerary.
The exhibit design confirms Bellini’s ability to enhance existing structures according to principles now consolidated in his work.
“A museum of the city and for the city, designed – as in all my works for exhibitions – Bellini remembers – by respecting (and separating) the container and the content in order to enhance, in mutual autonomy, the meaning and beauty of both”.
“The main elements of the exhibition design are larger containers – it seems reductive to define them as display cases, they have, rather, the flavour of out of scale metaphysical objects that recall de Chirico – placed in the rooms according to their own rhythms and with a different geometry compared to those of the rooms themselves and of their sequence”.
Inside these large transparent structures, the works on display are framed by three-dimensional cages that define for each work a space of its own, moreover allowing for excellent lighting, with miniature LED technology.

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Magazine

Other Projects by Mario Bellini Architects

Fiumicino Airport "Terminal T3"
Rome
New Museum, of the Forum "Antiquarium"
Rome
Taipei Pop Music Center
"Casa Altra"
Düsseldorf, Germany
Exhibition design "Mario Bellini. Italian Beauty"
Milan