{"id":25324,"date":"2014-07-19T12:01:41","date_gmt":"2014-07-19T10:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.area-arch.it\/university-museum-for-contemporary-art-muac-2\/"},"modified":"2016-03-23T19:25:13","modified_gmt":"2016-03-23T18:25:13","slug":"university-museum-for-contemporary-art-muac","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.area-arch.it\/en\/university-museum-for-contemporary-art-muac\/","title":{"rendered":"University Museum for Contemporary Art – MUAC"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Museum is located to one side of a new plaza which serves as an entrance to the Cultural Center of the University. Slanted at an angle of 45\u00ba, the fa\u00e7ade forms a portico leading to the Concert Hall and theaters of the Cultural Center. The double-height lobby cuts across the building, connecting the plaza with the National Library, on the northern side of the complex. Thus, the plaza and the Museum structure the relationships between the different Cultural Center buildings. The Museum encompasses two levels. On the same plane as the plaza, the exhibition rooms occupy the upper level, which also accommodates the reception desk, the store and bookshop, as well as educational areas. There are fourteen exhibition rooms of various sizes and heights, distributed among 4 sections, each one of which functions as a small museum. Three indoor paths, illuminated by natural light coming from three patios and terraces interconnect them.
\nThey all share the same 12 metres width module, but are different in length, while their height is either 6, 9 or 12m. These dimensions were carefully chosen after visiting 35 contemporary art museums and galleries around the world. The play of curtains allows for the integration of the four rooms on the main fa\u00e7ade with the space of the plaza \u2013 which is also an exhibition space.
\nThe lower level, partly excavated into the site\u2019s volcanic rock, houses a mediatheque, a conference room, a 300 seat auditorium-theater, a cafeteria and a restaurant, administration offices and storerooms for permanent and temporary collections, as well as museology, restoration and general service offices.
\nLighting design
\nAll rooms feature natural light flowing in from the ceiling, where it is filtered by way of a double reflection which makes for an enveloping, uniform and shadowless illumination highly acclaimed by curators and museologists. The ceiling space holds the lighting and temperature systems as well as a series of operable curtains meant to allow for the complete darkening of the exhibition area. A full scale (12x6x6m) model was built in order to test and evaluate the system. While they provide all the flexibility needed by museologists, and curators, the rooms are also designed so as to stimulate the creativity of the artists. Such is the double objective a museum for contemporary art is meant to achieve.
\nThe architectural volumes interact with the surroundings: towards the plaza, the slanted great glass portico; towards the east, a curved frontage dialogs with the Concert Hall\u2019s jagged angularity, and towards the west, overlooking the entrance avenue, a cluster of square and rectangular prisms reaching to different heights herald the all white concrete Museum.<\/p>\n