Prado Museum Hall of Realms, Madrid Building Restoration Project, Architecture Images

Prado Museum in Madrid

Major Building Project in Spain – design by Foster + Partners Architects / Rubio Arquitectura

25 Nov 2016

Museo del Prado – Salón de Reinos

Design: Foster + Partners with Rubio Arquitectura

Location: Salón de Reinos, Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain

Foster + Partners and Rubio Arquitectura win international Prado Museum competition

Foster + Partners and Rubio Arquitectura have won the international competition to revitalise and refurbish the historic Hall of Realms (Salón de Reinos) as a new addition to the Museo del Prado campus in Madrid.

The vision is to create a new public focus for the city by bringing together the various buildings that comprise the Prado with public spaces and underground links.

The Hall of Realms is a noble structure and one of the very few that have survived from the former Palacio del Buen Retiro of the seventeenth century. It has been the subject of changes and expansion, gathering many layers of history over the centuries.

The interventions will bring fresh life to the magnificent interiors from the past as well as adding new state-of-the-art galleries and public spaces. The proposal goes back four centuries to re-discover the original three storey southern façade. 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 transformed Hall of Realms will be permeable, offering a new public route through the building with terrace cafes on the north side.

Working within the outline of the original building envelope a new roof will harvest energy from integrated solar cells, give natural light to the galleries below and cantilever as a shade to protect the southern façade. It also heralds the rebirth of this historic monument.

Lord Foster said:

“On behalf of the team that I led at Foster + Partners in collaboration with Rubio Arquitectura, I would like to say how honoured we are to contribute to this next phase of the expansion of the Prado – one of the truly great museums of the world. The Hall of Realms, built by Crescenzi and Carbonel in the 1630’s, is one of the very few remains of the former palace and predates the Museum which was conceived in 1819. 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.”

Foster + Partners were one of eight architects from four countries shortlisted for the international competition.

The other architecture practices were:
• Cruz y Ortiz Arquitectos
• Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos
• B720 Arquitectos – David Chipperfield Architects
• Office for Metropolitan Architecture (O.M.A.) 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

The competition brief was to restore the Hall of Realms of the Palacio del Buen Retiro and create additional display space for permanent and temporary exhibitions at the Prado in Madrid. The addition of this building to the Museo del Prado’s Campus, will form part of the Museum’s 200th anniversary celebrations in 2019.

The competition was open to both Spanish and non-Spanish architectural practices, from which eight were selected to produce preliminary proposals.

Prado Museum in Madrid information / images received 251116

Foster + Partners on e-architect

Museo del Prado Design by Gluckman Tang Architects

Address: Paseo del Prado, s/n, 28014 Madrid, Spain