Almost seventy years after its opening, one of Italy’s great modern art museums is set to undergo a new transformation. On 30 June, Fondazione Torino Musei and Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, in collaboration with the City of Turin and with the support of Fondazione per l’architettura/Torino, unveiled the details of the project for the redevelopment of the Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino (GAM): an ambitious and delicate undertaking, resulting from an international design competition and designed by the winning team of MVRDV, BALANCE Architettura, EP&S Group, Dr Michelangelo Di Gioia and Prof. Filippo Busato, alongside Stratosferica and Giorgina Bertolino, which now takes on one of the undisputed icons of post-war Italian museum architecture.
Of the three round-table discussions chaired by officials, experts and professionals, Domus Director Walter Mariotti moderated the technical panel, exploring in depth the potential and future expectations associated with a venue that stands more then ever as a symbol of innovation and of a culture open to the city.
More than just a simple refurbishment, the new project aims to revive the institution’s original radical impulse, bequeathing to the future a museum capable of responding to the needs of contemporary visitors and opening itself up to new forms of cultural experience and engagement with the city.
As Massimo Broccio, President of the Fondazione Torino Musei, states: “The GAM, Italy’s oldest civic gallery of modern and contemporary art, which was admirably rebuilt after the war through a project that was, at the time, unique and visionary, now aims to do the same once again, with an eye to the future. The GAM regeneration project represents the most significant investment at national level and one of the most significant internationally in terms of ambition and impact (…) Innovation and the avant-garde are the guiding principles behind the comprehensive regeneration project for the GAM, reviving and developing that innovative spirit which characterised – a rare example internationally at the time – the museum’s founding and the design of the building”.
The project strategy is, as is often the case in MVRDV’s work, exemplary in its clarity. A new glazed diagonal walkway crosses the park and passes beneath the museum’s main building, creating a direct link between the GAM, the Politecnico and the OGR, and redefining the museum as a permeable, everyday component of the urban infrastructure. Inside, the selective removal of incongruous partitions, the reopening of skylights and the restoration of the original fittings allow for the re-establishment of the original spatial layout, onto which a completely flexible exhibition system is superimposed, comprising suspended elements, movable walls and textile installations capable of continuously reconfiguring the space.
The main body of the building will house the exhibition spaces and complementary activities. On the ground floor, the reception areas are flanked by spaces designed to be accessible regardless of the museum’s activities, thereby reinforcing the institution’s community role: the educational area, a multi-purpose space, the restaurant and the auditorium, preceded by an open and adaptable foyer dedicated to the various performative expressions of contemporary art. The permanent collections and areas for temporary exhibitions will be distributed between the first and second floors, designed with flexibility in mind to meet diverse curatorial and exhibition requirements.
However, the most radical transformation will take place on the basement level, where the museum will adopt the open storage model. Following in the footsteps of the latest international experiments, from the Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam – also designed by MVRDV – to the V&A East Storehouse in London by Diller Scofidio & Renfro, the project envisages the transformation of warehouses, storage areas and technical spaces into visitor-accessible environments: these areas will make a substantial part of the collection and the museum’s normally hidden activities accessible to the public, extending the visitor experience "behind the scenes". "In many ways, our design revisits the ideas and the optimism that were central to the creation of this building 70 years ago”, says MVRDV founding partner Winy Maas. “We aim to clean up and to open this now-enclosed building as much as possible. It creates a dialogue between the past and the future. I’d hope that if Carlo Bassi and Goffredo Boschetti could see our proposal today, they would be impressed at how new technology, materials, and ideals could take their ideas even further than was possible in the 1950s”.
From 1 July, the GAM is presenting an exhibition dedicated to the winners and the four finalists of the International Design Competition, to share the ongoing transformation process with the city and its visitors, exploring the winning project in detail and unveiling the finalist proposals by Kengo Kuma & Associates Europe, Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra Arquitecto SLP, Mario Cucinella Architects and ACPV Architects – Antonio Citterio Patricia Viel, selected from 49 design teams from around the world. An opportunity to shine a spotlight on the contemporary role of the museum as a constantly evolving cultural and urban space.
Construction is expected to begin in 2027.