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The team led by the architect Sonia Calzoni first place in the competition to expand the spaces of the Museo del Novecento. The patron Giuseppina Antognini donates 5 million euros to the Museum for the Secondo arengario and a group of works from the early twentieth century - Photo gallery - Second arengario, presentation of the project

Milan, July 12 2021 – "The project is appreciable for the maturity and awareness with which it takes broad account of the museum needs and related services, enhancing the pre-existing architectural structure, the urban context and guaranteeing the public character and permeability of the ground floor of the Second Arengario. The proposal presents characteristics of concrete feasibility with respect to the objectives of the tender linked to the integration of the museum use of the Arenga complex".

With these reasons, the Judging Commission chose the project of the team led by the architect Sonia Calzoni together with Pierluigi Nicolin, Ferdinando Aprile, Giuseppe Di Bari and Bruno Finzi as the winner of the "Novecentopiùcento" international design competition, published in December 2020 by the Municipality of Milan, with the aim of expanding the Museo del Novecento within the Secondo arengario, with an increase of over 1000 m² of exhibition spaces.

The Museum will also expand thanks to the generosity of the Milanese patron Giuseppina Antognini who will donate 5 million euros and a nucleus of precious XNUMXth century works to the Museum.

"The Museum of the Twentieth Century doubles and becomes unique. Ten and a half years after its opening – said the Mayor of Milan, Giuseppe Sala – the museum conquers the second Arengario, occupied until today by some municipal offices. An architecturally exemplary expansion which 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 new beautiful creation made possible and unique thanks to the Pasquinelli Foundation and the Milanese patron Giuseppina Antognini who donated 5 million euro for the redevelopment works and numerous works by the most important twentieth century artists taken from his private collection. Milan is experiencing a phase of great transformation – continued the Mayor – in every neighborhood and in every area, not least the cultural one. From the National Museum of the Resistance, to the Lyric Theatre, from the new tower of the Teatro alla Scala to the Secondo arengario, everything contributes to telling the story of a city that is growing, regenerating itself and becoming ever more beautiful to live in".

The winning project
The aim of the project is to achieve an architectural synthesis between the two twin buildings in order to form a single organism. As per the competition indications, two possible solutions are envisaged for the connection between the two buildings.

The first solution involves an aerial walkway located at +19,65 metres, at the height of the third level of the two arenas, consisting of a truss beam fixed 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 made up of the monumental archiportals of the same Gallery designed by Giuseppe Mengoni.

Seen from the Octagon of the Gallery, the walkway rests on the roof of the low building without breaking the view of the Martini Tower. Conceived as a sort of proscenium, the walkway project presents a front facing Piazza Duomo characterized by light transparent walls and a convex mirror structure in the underlying part, capable of reflecting the views and movements of the square.

The aerial connection guarantees a continuous route which, after passing the apical room of the Primo arengario, crosses the walkway to go down to the ground floor of the new rooms, thus resolving the museum unity and giving continuity to the visitors' path.

The second solution, alternative but still achievable even in the presence of the aerial 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 collect all the functions of passage and exchange between the two buildings, so as to implement in any case the recomposition of the two arengari into a single organism. In this case the museum use of the rooms of the Secondo Arengario would take place from the bottom up. The project therefore proposes the reduction of physical barriers and the enhancement of the flowerbeds and green areas of Piazza Diaz.

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

As regards the Secondo arengario, the ground floor is configured as a space in dialogue with via Marconi; in the porticoed space, where transit will remain guaranteed for passengers heading from the via Dogana tram terminus to Piazza del Duomo, there will be a bookshop open to the public and a cafeteria with tables, while an auditorium will be built on the mezzanine. The museum floors, which are located on 4 levels created above the porticoed space, will thus be able to host over a hundred works, with a museological itinerary that will propose new readings and comparisons starting from the 400s up to the most current experiences. On the first two levels there are two equivalent rooms of approximately XNUMX mXNUMX, which also allow you to exhibit large-scale works, set up installations and create performances. The two upper levels will instead host the work of a protagonist of the international art scene who will dialogue with the Sala Fontana del Primo arengario, also with regards to the nocturnal scenario.

From a plant engineering point of view, the intervention, which involves the complete renovation of the above-ground floors with the exception of the loggia floor, will satisfy the NZEB (Nearly 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 guarantee the best internal air quality, the project will include the introduction of adequate flows of external air which will be previously filtered and sanitized.

As foreseen in the tender, the project also introduces transformations in the Primo Arengario Museum regarding service structures such as cloakrooms, toilets, changing rooms for surveillance staff in the basement, while a conservation laboratory of the works is added to replace conference rooms and storage. On the ground floor, the entrance to the rooms dedicated to temporary exhibitions has been modified through a more direct connection which facilitates access after purchasing the ticket.

The value of the works is approximately 18,5 million euros.

The winning project was selected among the 130 proposals received as part of the competition procedure, in two stages in anonymous form, launched with the Concorrimi.it online platform, developed by the Order of architects, planners, landscape architects and conservators of the Province of Milan together with the Municipality 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 classified will be awarded a prize of 12.000 euros, the third a prize of 8.000 euros and the next seven classified will each be paid 4.000 euros as a contribution for the design activity.