foster + partners to expand madrid's prado museum with salón de reinos renovation

foster + partners has won a competition to overhaul madrid’s historic salón de reinos — a new addition to the museo del prado campus. developed alongside spanish firm rubio arquitectura, the design will create a new public focus for the city by uniting the prado’s various buildings through public spaces and underground links. in winning the international contest, norman foster’s firm was chosen ahead of other big names, including OMA, david chipperfield, and eduardo souto de moura.

all images courtesy of foster + partners

the prado’s salón de reinos, or the ‘hall of realms’, is a 17th century structure that been the subject of changes and expansion, gathering many layers of history over the centuries. the scheme developed by foster + partners and rubio arquitectura, intends to reinvigorate the building’s interiors, while adding new galleries and public space. ‘the proposal goes back four centuries to re-discover the original three storey southern façade,’ explains foster + partners. ‘this becomes the backdrop for a spectacular new space within the building. the existing outer walls have been delicately opened up to bring light and views in from the new civic plaza.’

the design re-discovers the building’s original three-storey southern façade

the transformation offers a new public route through the building with terrace cafés to the north. working within the outline of the original building envelope, a new roof canopy harvests energy from integrated photovoltaic cells, giving natural light to the galleries below, while shading the southern façade. ‘the hall of realms, built by crescenzi and carbonel in the 1630s, is one of the very few remains of the former palace and predates the museum which was conceived in 1819,’ says lord norman foster. ‘two centuries later the transformation and expansion of this historic hall will add significant new galleries and related public spaces to the prado. it will also create, as a setting, a new urban focus for the city of madrid.’

the transformation offers a new public route through the building

the competition’s other shortlisted teams were as follows:

— cruz y ortiz arquitectos
— nieto sobejano arquitectos
— B720 arquitectos – david chipperfield architects
— office for metropolitan architecture (OMA) stedebouw B.V.
— souto moura arquitectos – juan miguel hernández león – carlos de riaño lozano
— garces de seta bonet arquitectes – pedro feduchi canosa
— gluckman tang architects – estudio álvarez sala – arquitectura enguita y lasso de la vega

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