March 10

Foresta nascosta, virtuous example of temporary public museum in San Giuliano Milanese

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(Text by Milena Sacchi, all images © foresta nascosta)

If you’re looking for something outside of the mainstream galleries and traditional art locations, you can visit “foresta nascosta” (“Hidden Forest”), the gorgeous public temporary museum created by Matteo Balduzzi, Daniele Cologna and Stefano Laffi in order to make the suburban neighbourhood of San Giuliano Milanese narrate its stories. I can tell you with a certain mastery – part of my family lives in San Giuliano Milanese – that this location, developed as a residential neigbourhood between the countryside and industrial areas in the Second Postwar, is not among Milan’s most charming outskirts. That’s why I’m so glad about this initiative and I think it must have been welcomed and meaningful to its audience.
The concept of Hidden Forest derives from the dormitory town trend, involves citizens to be curators of their own heritage and displays a research for collective memory. Read more

October 8

Architecture of Necessity call by Virserum Art Museum

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Swedish Virserum Art Museum is releasing the international call Architecture of Necessity. The worldwide demand aims at collecting, focusing and spreading a new approach to architecture and construction based on sustainability, equality and responsibility.
Virserum Art Museum invites architects to submit examples of “Architecture of Necessity”. An international jury of architects will award three honourable mentions to the best contributions, to be announced in August 2010. Submissions do not have to involve the use of wood, that’s the sole condition.
This call is part of WOOD 2010, which will become Sweden’s biggest exhibition on the climate, sustainable cities and wood architecture, due to begin 9 May 2010. The Architecture of Necessity is also the theme for the seminar Wood Summit Småland which will be attended by internationally renowned architects and takes place on 29 and 30 June 2010. Read more

September 18

Tadao Ando tells about his museum projects. Excerpts from the volume “Tadao Ando. Museums” curated by Luca Molinari

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[Read the Italian version of this post]

(With the exception of the Punta della Dogana photos, all pictures were shot by Luca Molinari and are not included in the book.)

cover, Tadao Ando. Museums, Skira editore, Milano, 2009

Tadao Ando. Museums, Luca Molinari (edited by), Skira Editore, Milano, 2009.

“Whenever i start on a new project, i go back to the fundamental question: ‘why should this architectural work be built?’ In addition to providing the various functions required, i also try to look for the raison d’être of architecture. The most important thing for a museum that houses works by particular artists is to convey their underlying creative philosophy through the items exhibited. In order to achieve this objective, the courage to push the envelope is essential in creating a world that is unseen for the eye” Tadao Ando, Pushing the Envelope, p. 7 Read more

September 4

Between private universe and public space: artists’ houses as museums

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the renowned painting by Gustave Courbet, L'Atelier du peintre, 1855

The Associazione svizzera degli storici e delle storiche dell’arte (ASSSA),
in partnership with the Museo Vincenzo Vela di Ligornetto, is organising an important study convention on the theme of artists’ houses transformed into museums
Ten years after the study days dedicated to Restoration and research, which were held in Mendrisio in 1999, ASSSA is once again organising a convention in Canton Ticino. The meeting will be held in Ligornetto, in the house-museum of the sculptor Vincenzo Vela (1820–1891), a setting that in itself partly justifies the choice of theme and suggests several topics for exploration.
The notion of the artist’s house was first studied in detail in the reference book Case d’artista. Dal Rinascimento a oggi, edited by Eduard Hüttinger and published in 1985. Several days of international study successively investigated specific aspects of this type of building. They were linked in particular to the valorisation of the places in question, their museological rehabilitation, and the conservation of the buildings and their collections. Within this context that the Museo Vela convention – the first on this subject in Switzerland – falls. The subject matter will focus on the houses of artists active between 1800 and the present days in the fields of the figurative and plastic arts and new media, both in Europe and the rest of the world. Read more

August 14

Artists’ Studios by MJ Long

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Artists’ Studios showcases some of the personal work of architect and interior designer MJ Long. Long’s high profile projects include The National Maritime Museum in Cornwall, the award-winning extension to Pallant House Gallery in Chichester, and the celebrated Ivy and Quo Vadis restaurants in London. Read more

June 23

The third way of Novalesa Abbey by MARC

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[Read the Italian version of this post]

(Text by Angelica Di Virgilio, photos Beppe Giardino courtesy of Marc studio)

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Founded by benedict monks on a former roman settlement in 726, for over three centuries the Abbey represented not only an important center for prayer, but also for culture, thanks to an intense code-transcription activity. After alternate fortunes following the Rattazzi law, in 1855 the institution was suppressed and the monks were sent away. For more than a century the Abbey lived in a state of near abandonement and lost its manuscripts, which were transferred in Turin’s state archive. Later its facilities were converted in a hotel for thermal cures. In 1972 the monastic complex was bought by the Turin Province and again left to benedict monks. So the Abbey came back to life as a place of study and prayer, thanks in particular to Andrea Bruno’s renovation works, finished in 2004.
If the story ended here we could consider this as just a happy renovation episode, the result of the collaboration between the Turin Province and the religious order to spread awareness on an ancient spiritual, cultural and social tradition of the benedict Abbey.
Anyway, sometimes – even in Italy – stories don’t end. Sometimes the protection of architectural heritage manages to live with contemporary architecture.

In 2007 the Turin Province launched a contest for the realization of the new Archeology Musuem and the task was committed to the Turin-based Marc studio, which ranked first. On March 22, 2009 the new museum opened.

(To download the whole video, click here.) Read more

May 22

Interactive Museum of Feminine Arts by Id-lab, Ghigos and ARC Studio

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Night views

MAF (Museo delle Arti Femminili/Museum of Feminine Arts) opened in October 2008 in Vallo della Lucania, a small town in the province of Salerno.

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View of the historical context

MAF holds a private collection of laceworks and traceries, handmade textiles, publications and tools belonging to the universe of the traditional feminine activities such as weaving and texture.

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View from the ground floor of the light well where laceworks are displayed + exploded view of the display

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Interactive mobile display panels and descriptive panels

Not only does the museum exhibit finished objects, but it’s as well meant to be a knowledge hub of transformation processes, from thread to product. Practical laboratories and the interaction exhibition project pursue this goal. The exhibition design is conceived to inspire the exploration of interactivity with objects and spaces. Read more

April 22

Munch Area master plan by Herreros Arquitectos

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(Models by Jorge Queipo, photos by Federico Lòpez.  All material © 2009 JuanHerrerosArquitectos SLP. All rights reserved.)

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Infografic view of museum tower at night from across the waterfront

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View of waterfront site from across the harbor

After the unquestionable value of the recently accomplished and multi-awarded Opera House designed by Snohetta in Oslo, Herreros Arquitectos will direct the master plan and design of Munch Museum and Stenersen Museum Collection in the Bjørvika neighbourhood. Read more

March 27

MAXXI museum by Zaha Hadid in Rome
Symposium and project

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The new (and long-awaited) MAXXI museum building, designed by starchitect Zaha Hadid, is almost complete. The new complex will feature several venues, amongst which the first national architecture museum in Italy, an archive of video-documentaries and spaces dedicated to host contemporary art shows. As the works complete, you can already take a divine look from above here and, if you’re in Rome, you can also attend a very interesting symposium about the museum’s future functions on April 3 and 4, at Palazzo delle Esposizioni. Read more

 

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