Nowadays, it’s become common for cavernous, industrial buildings to be used as exhibition spaces, much to the delight of the artists who no longer have to worry about their work being overshadowed by quirky decoration or even worse, cramped into a tiny room where it can’t be fully appreciated. So what’s different about the Fondazione Prada, Milan’s newest exhibition space, and a permanent location for the cultural organisation of one of the biggest names in fashion? To find out, read on and check out the photos we took when we visited recently…
Well first of all, it’s spread over a 19,000 square metre area, which is gigantic. Within this space, there are so many individual spaces, which are all different from one another, adding a sense of diversity that we’d certainly never seen before in an exhibition space.
Seven existing buildings have been renovated, and three new ones built – not that you’d be able to tell one from the other, so careful were the architects to seamlessly merge one with the other.
The location, too, is interesting. South of the popular city centre and a world away from Milan’s other galleries, it’s not where you’d expect to find such an impressive exhibition space. As we well know, though, Prada has never been too in favour of complying with the norm.
The “Podium”, the space used for temporary exhibitions was constructed around another building known as the “haunted house” and is clad in 24 carat gold leaf, adding not only a touch of glamour but a surface which changes depending on the light conditions.
The multimedia auditorium is clad in mirror, and the 10-storey permanent exhibition space, the Torre, which is yet to be finished, will be 1m higher every floor you go up, allowing a variation in the artistic content held within.
A lot of thought has been put into the space by the architects at OMA, who also designed two exhibitions for the Fondazione’s spaces in Milan and Venice.
If you’re in Milan any time soon, we highly recommend a visit! Find out more about the Fondazione Prada on their site. Below, you can see a few of our photos from the exhibitions inside the amazing architecture…
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