MAMBO - MUSEUM OF MODERN ART -

BOLOGNA

The MAMbo (Museum of Modern Art) in Bologna is the result of the conversion of the premises of the former Forno del Pane (bakery), carried out as part of the redevelopment of an industrial complex with the disused Manifattura Tabacchi (tobacco factory) and the former Macello (slaughterhouse). The MAMbo is now an outstanding part of a series of institutions devoted to research and innovation, together with the DAMS (Drama, Arts and Music Studies). The functional reorganization of the interiors, covering some 9000 square meters, was achieved through the demolition of accretions over the years and the rational use of the spaces of the exhibition circuit. In particular, the great central salon on the ground floor was devoted to temporary exhibitions. The newly built walls, inserted as free and independent stone volumes within the building, have a twofold role, both architectural and semantic. They are conceived as autonomous architectures, which on the one hand bring out new typological relations and on the other serve to reveal the analogical reconstruction of the former Forno del Pane, which is also represented by the recovery of the old façades found in the foyer and the upper gallery. An irregularly shaped sculptural volume in Orosei marble, on which the new staircase develops, with an independent course, leads to the first floor. This level contains the spaces of the permanent exhibitions. The principal feature of the two exhibition floors is a large central hall rising to triple height, corresponding to the ancient hall of the ovens, in which the volumes of the two chimneys rise freely, almost as abstract elements that act as a counterpoint to the structural rationality of the steel ribs supporting the roof, which are useful for exhibition installations.