The Prada Foundation experience

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13 Sep

Largo Isarco

It’s the middle of August 2020, the outside temperature is 38°C and the streets of Milan are mostly empty and quiet. Closed signs can be seen hanging from shop windows and tourists are scarce on account of the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic.

But in Milan’s industrial Largo Isarco neighborhood ever since the arrival of the Fondation Prada in 2015, there’s trepidation in the air - real estate projects are soaring, showcasing the region’s current potential and attractivity.

The Prada Foundation

The Prada Fondation is the work of OMA, Rem Koolhaas’s international architecture practice along with its research branch AMO. The project consisted in converting an old distillery from 1910 which included the renovation of seven existing buildings and the construction of three news ones (Podium, Cinema and Torre) into a new arts centre over 19 000 square meters.

In comparison with other museums, the Prada Fondation’s specificity and originality lies in its capacity to offer an infinite number of spatial typologies available to present art.

The Torre is the complex’s final architectural element and most adaptable space. The 60m white rectangular tower allows for extensive freedom of display on every level, with a wide variety of ceiling heights from 2,7m to 8m and an infinity of modular configurations. The signature tower, also known for its trendy restaurant with an unprecedented view of Milan is the Prada Foundation’s latest building, it was inaugurated in 2018 and beautifully completes the art complex.

The Fondation’s Haunted House is another captivating space. Unlike the Torre, this space was not built from scratch but simply renovated and covered in gold-leaf. It creates an unbelievable impression on the imagination and superbly highlights the old distillery’s simple structure and design.

Facing the radiant Haunted House is the Fondation’s café Bar Luce, imagined by non other than filmmaker Wes Anderson. The café was inspired by Italian popular culture and aesthetics from the 1950s and 1960s and includes a range of colours and formica furniture echoing Anderson’s short film Castello Cavalcanti (2013).

Today, the Fondation Prada is one of the largest privately-funded contemporary art museum’s in Europe with approximately 13,000 square meters of exhibition space creating new opportunities for Milan’s industrial district where culture and production go hand in hand, bringing activity back to city centers.