Despite appearances to the contrary, Milan doesn’t have the funds to convert the city’s derelict industrial compounds into new venues for contemporary art – a situation that makes the completion of the Prada Foundation on the sprawling 19,000 qm site of a former distillery (erected in 1910) south of the city centre all the more significant.
Since the purchase of the property 15 years ago, the fashion label had used the rundown compound for its catwalks, to store props, and for temporary exhibitions of its expanding art collection. Over the course of the seven-year planning and construction phase the architects transformed the nondescript grounds into a distinctive choreography whose players are building massing and open space. The ensemble is now fit for uses that go far beyond exhibiting the foundation’s collection: it can host film festivals, conferences, and various temporary exhibitions.
The result appears clear and simple: the existing buildings, with their tiled, pitched roofs and 10 m structural grids, were, to as great an extent possible, kept in their original states.
Since the purchase of the property 15 years ago, the fashion label had used the rundown compound for its catwalks, to store props, and for temporary exhibitions of its expanding art collection. Over the course of the seven-year planning and construction phase the architects transformed the nondescript grounds into a distinctive choreography whose players are building massing and open space. The ensemble is now fit for uses that go far beyond exhibiting the foundation’s collection: it can host film festivals, conferences, and various temporary exhibitions.
The result appears clear and simple: the existing buildings, with their tiled, pitched roofs and 10 m structural grids, were, to as great an extent possible, kept in their original states.