M9 New Museum for a New City

The project aims to create a new Arts Precinct and thereby reconfigure the city of Mestre, from north to south, through a series of clear, simple interventions. The courtyard of the existing building will be covered with a new independent roof, to create a sheltered piazza; a new autonomous building will include an interior atrium-passageway; finally, a new garden-piazza will be set opposite the former military stable-blocks. Within the site, a system of pedestrian thoroughfares will be articulated by two axes, a vertical axis running through the covered courtyard of the former military barracks, and a horizontal axis which will pass through the atrium-passageway of the new building; these will converge in a central space which will be endowed with a strong sense of civic identity.
The project design proposes a new independent structure of monumental quality.
Since the museum will not require natural illumination, the design comprises a half-closed construction in brick, set alongside a new garden-piazza which will be laid out with stone paving and native trees.
The intention of the museum design is to create a building with a strong architectural presence. The interior will incorporate a monumental public hall for the use of the city and the museum, while the façades will be composed of colonnades of square-based columns, spaced more or less widely apart, to communicate the idea of the building’s penetrability.
The design incorporates an atrium-passageway which will help make the museum more open and accessible. The atrium will extend up to four floors high, while the passageway will be set at ground-floor level only and will cross the building. The atrium, with its monumental stairway, will enable horizontal and vertical movement through the building. It will function as both the main gallery of the museum and as a public hall, for use by all, even when the museum itself is closed.
The imposing stairway will have very wide flights of steps leading to all floors of the museum, which will serve to emphasise the monumentality of the public hall. On the upper levels, the flights of steps will develop into balconies built of brick, which, together with the atrium, will create a pure, markedly tectonic space with a strong physical presence, opening out under the roof.
The façades of the new building will comprise colonnades in brick, surmounting a wall which will be supported on the floors which will be made of concrete and finished with cocciopesto (a traditional material made of lime mortar and crushed brick).
The façades will vary in density according to their orientation, and a cantilevered canopy, of varying depth, will wrap around the top of the building. The west façade will seem more transparent through wider spacing of its colonnade, which will make it connect visibly with the piazza.
The museum layout will be organised around a central space which will function as a circulation and orientation hub, but also as a meeting place. The museum will be accessible on both sides, with facilities on the ground floor being directly connected to the main hall. A ‘spine’ running the length of the upper floors will give independent access to the museum’s exhibition galleries. A second stairway will enable themed spaces to be connected and visited in a given sequence or, instead, visited independently of each other.
Another aim of the design is to convert the spaces of the former military barracks for use as an urban shopping centre. The design would retain the open colonnade on the ground floor and would protect the courtyard from the elements by covering it with a very light roof, supported on an independent structure – like a sort of umbrella.
The courtyard will be paved in stone to maintain continuity with the proposed piazza beside the museum; it will represent a new public space for the city, a venue for many different sorts of events.
The museum design aims to respond fully to the new museological model, where the central role of the object has been substituted by representation and narration.
The design proposal therefore involves the construction of flexible permanent and temporary exhibition spaces, which will be distinguished by the absence or presence of natural light. All the circulation and service areas, as well as the temporary exhibition galleries will benefit from natural light, whereas artificial lighting will be used in the permanent exhibition spaces.