Institutional portal - Municipality of Milan

The announcement can be downloaded on site of the municipality and "Compete with me", the platform of the Order of architects, planners and landscape architects of the province of Milan

Milan, 22 December 2020 – On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the Museo del Novecento, the Municipality of Milan has announced that it will proceed with the expansion of the Museum, currently housed inside the Primo Arengario in Piazza del Duomo, converting the Secondo Arengario into a museum space and connecting it to the exhibition itinerary del Primo in order to create a single large complex dedicated to modern and contemporary arts, whose standard, in terms of collections, exhibition spaces and services, places it among the main Italian and foreign museums.

Given the particular relevance and complexity of the intervention, the Administration decided to promote an international design competition, entitled "Novecentopiùcento", with the aim of expanding the exhibition spaces of the Museo del Novecento and developing additional services such as an auditorium, a conservation laboratory, a café and a bookshop.

The notice, published yesterday on Official Gazette, is divided into two "levels", with the participation of competitors in anonymous form. In the first instance, ten projects will be selected based on criteria, including: the dialogue between the Museo del Novecento and the Secondo Arengario and the functionality of the organization of the spaces; the inclusion of the work in the urban context and the technical-managerial feasibility of the proposed solution, in relation to both maintenance aspects and environmental and energy sustainability. In the second stage, the winning project of the competition will be identified, among the ten already selected, on the basis of further criteria, including: the quality of the proposal from a compositional and architectural point of view, with reference to the cultural objectives of the Museum; the synergistic relationship with the surrounding historical fabric (Duomo, Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II and Piazza Diaz); the relationship between the new building and the historic container to be preserved; the use of sustainable and easy-to-maintain materials and techniques; the functional organization and flexibility of the internal spaces.

The design must naturally also take into account the economic costs expected for the intervention, estimated at 18,7 million euros and detailed in the preliminary design document attached to the tender. The winner of the competition will be awarded a prize of 60.000 euros and the technical-economic feasibility project will be acquired by the Administration. The second place winner will be awarded a prize of 12.000 euros, the third place will receive a prize of 8.000 euros and the next seven admitted to the second stage of the competition will be paid 4.000 euros as a contribution for the design activity.

The tender documents, which will serve as a guide to the design of the competing professionals, were drawn up by the working group made up of representatives of the different areas of the Municipality of Milan and by AMAT, with the technical-artistic contribution of the architect Italo Rota, designer of the Primo Arengario Museum, and the contribution of the Archaeological Superintendence, Fine Arts and Landscape for the Metropolitan City of Milan.

The announcement can be downloaded on website of the Municipality of Milan and, thanks to the collaboration with the Order of architects, planners and landscape architects of the province of Milan which will make the platform available free of charge "Compete with me”. The “Novecentopiùcento” competition will be managed online anonymously, in order to ensure the most rigorous impartiality.

It will be the fiftieth competition managed by the "Concorrimi" platform.

Image gallery

Presentation of the Arengario Competition