Museum

THE MITORAJ MUSEUM WILL BE AN INTERNATIONAL MAGNET, WHERE ENERGIES AND PASSIONS CONVERGE.

THE HISTORY OF THE BUILDING

The genesis of the covered market of Pietrasanta dates back to the 1960s, when the Municipality implemented the decision to build a dedicated space, to be used as a city market. The building, completed in 1968 on a design of architect Tito Salvatori, former designer of the Ossario di Sant’Anna di Stazzema monument, stands out for the modular element of the roofing.

After being for years the hub of the main retail trade activities, the decline of the market began to be felt with the arrival of supermarkets and the depopulation of the city centre. A symbolic place, loved by all the inhabitants of Pietrasanta, the market has now found a new use, one that preserves a close link between city and its inhabitants: a cultural hub, aiming to become the meeting place for visitors heading from all over the world.

THE REDEVELOPMENT

The design intent conceived and developed by Studio OBR Open Building Research of Milan underlining the recovery and enhancement is to ennoble the role played by the market in the collective imagination of the inhabitants of Pietrasanta, transforming it into a contemporary exhibition structure.

A choice that ensures to the future a building that would have inevitably fallen into disuse and will instead acquire a new meaning, becoming an exhibition space as well as a place “filled with the world”. The Mitoraj Museum will be an international centre of attraction, where energies and interests will converge in the art sector, hosting both the permanent collection of Mitoraj works and events linked to contemporary art and the artistic “savoire faire” of Versilia: a system that knows how to be pivotal axis and engine of the Region, integrating into the territory.

The design aims to enhance the existing building and the surrounding context, acting in deference of the image and memory of the urban landscape of the municipality through the creation of a large square, a foyer that connects via Oberdan with the city centre, thereby reiterating the cultural and social role of the museum.

THE EXTERNAL SPACE

The building redevelopment operation will be followed by the rearrangement of the external space in front of the former market into a new square for the city and of its entire appurtenant area, which will be transformed into a dynamic space intended to strengthen its role as a cultural magnet, At the same time, it will become a place of urban sociality, even outside the museum opening hours, one capable of combining art and culture with the city’s need for participation.

In particular, the creation of a pedestrian space in front of the museum entrance, with its urban green, will acquire a significant impact in its capacity as a filter space between the city and its historical and tourist centre, becoming for the public an element of transit towards the new museum.

THE MUSEOGRAPHY

The environment was designed with the aim of creating a vibrant visual synthesis between architecture and work, in accordance with a staging methodology that cancels out space and time.

Maintaining the original skeleton and divided into three naves, the space is conceived as a whole, to allow maximum visual opening.
Configuring itself as a continuous surface divided solely by a series of mobile modular panels and screened by a system of curtains, an easily reconfigurable internal space will be originated that will be freely used as an exhibition space or serve if need be as a conference room. This spatial configuration allows full use of the building with a greater fluidity in circulation and a diversified sequence of exhibition spaces, while nevertheless diversifying the environments to search for greater lighting effects required by specific works.

The ground floor is fully devoted to the exhibition of Mitoraj’s works, whereas an area is introduced in the basement to discharge the complementary functions of the museum, in addition to both internal and external spaces dedicated to temporary exhibitions.