Studio Italo Rota collaborates with Zumtobel
The Palazzo dell ́Arengario in Milan houses the Museo del Novecento, home to the city’s important collection of 20th century Italian art. The building, which was started in the 1930s and was completed in the 1950s, is a monumental and imposing structure.The competition to convert the building into a coherent museum space was won by a group of designers under the direction of the Milanese architect and designer, Italo Rota. While the façade was barely touched, the building was extensively gutted to create an articulate and stimulating space that has a new feel of openness and accessibility. At the heart of the new interior is a dynamic spiral ramp which leads from the subway to the exhibitions and which is illuminated by two sets of lights – downlights in the ceiling illuminate the ramp while LED spots in the balustrade luminously emanate a blue-green light. As for the exhibition spaces themselves, “Our aim was to create a peaceful atmosphere with soft, neutral colours and homogeneous lighting – the works of art are the stars here, after all,” explains Alessandro Pedretti, the architect at Studio Italo Rota responsible for the interior and lighting design of the project. Light modules cover the doors of the entrances to the galleries and Zumtobel’s Cielos lumi- nous ceiling, a modular lighting system, creates an even, diffuse basic illumination. The importance of illumination in the new museum is carried to the very top of the building, where Lucio Fontana’s lighting installation ‘Struttura al neon’ can be seen shining out.
