Unveiling the Prada Foundation

(Milan, April 18^th, 2008) AMO, the think-tank of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) was commissioned by Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli to design the intervention on and transformation of an early 20th -century industrial site south of Milan to create new experimental spaces for the Prada Art Foundation.

The total exhibition space of 17,500 m2 will comprise 7,500 m2 of an existing industrial complex and approximately 10,000 m2 of new buildings. The complex will house the Foundation’s different events, which will be dedicated to disciplines ranging from cinema to design, architecture to philosophy, and fashion to performance. It will further include a permanent exhibition space for displaying the result of more than 15 years of the Foundation’s activities in the form of large-scale installations.

The Prada Foundation’s new art centre and permanent exhibition space is situated in a location that includes buildings dating from 1910 belonging to one of Milan’s first manufacturing companies. Preserved in their original conditions, there are seven different existing structures of warehouses, laboratories and brewing silos surrounded by a large courtyard.

AMO’s project adds an exhibition building, an auditorium and a museum tower to the existing structure to house selections of works from the collection. The project’s unique approach includes the idea of the co-existence of contemporary architecture with the regeneration of an historic area, representing the evolution of the industrial development of Milan that continues to the present day.

“We plan to add three new structures that vastly extend the range of its facilities and accommodations” says Rem Koolhaas, partner in charge of the project: “The new Foundation is intended as a collection of artifacts that encounters several architectural typologies. Not only will the range of spatial conditions be extended, but also the range of contents itself: apart from spaces for assembly and performance, both Prada’s and Luna Rossa’s archives will be opened, establishing a continuity of creative and intellectual effort.”

The project is lead by Rem Koolhaas with Alexander Reichert and is the latest in a series of OMA-AMO Prada collaborations that have resulted in the epicenter stores, catwalks for fashion shows, exhibitions and T-Shirt designs.

Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli founded the Prada Foundation in 1993, with the artistic direction of Germano Celante beginning in 1995. The Foundation is a non-profit organization, generated by passion for contemporary art.

Since its inception, the Foundation has commissioned and produced special installations in close collaboration with artists such as among others Anish Kapoor, Marc Quinn, Carsten Hí¶ller, and Thomas Demand.