Extension of Queen Sofia National Museum

'Enlarging the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (Queen Sofia National Museum Centre of Art) was conceived with the future in mind', said Ana Martínez de Aguilar, Director of the Museum.

As the various collections grew, the number of visitors also increased thus demanding substantial changes in the types of services provided in an effort for the National Museum to comply to its commitments with society.

On November 24 of 1999, the jury for the International Contest of Ideas to Enlarge the Museum selected the project by architect Jean Nouvel as it best solved the objectives presented. His proposal, with its potent and daring language, in addition to meeting the most modern and practical needs of a museum, politely and respectfully exchanged with the solid classic style of the Sabatini building.

At the same time, he implanted an architectural environment with great technical elegance and staging effectiveness in an effort to transform the urban complexity of the area. 


Background 
The history of the building that houses the Museum goes back a long way. After several misfortunes
in the second half of the 18th Century, a building project for a hospital was entrusted to the architect Francisco Sabatini, on the death of José de Hermosilla, the first architect in charge of the work.  

In 1788, when the work came to a final standstill on the death of Carlos the 3rd, the building was occupied, taking on the function for which it had been built - a Hospital, although finally, only a third of the initially projected building was concluded.

From this point on, it underwent several modifications and additions until the hospital was closed in 1965, its functions being taken over by the ?Ciudad Sanitaria Provincial´ (Provincial Hospital). It managed to survive the demands for its demolition and it was declared a Historical Artistic Monument by Royal Decree in 1977.
 
In 1980 Antonio Fernández Alba started restoration work on the building; in April 1986 the `Centro de Arte Reina Sofía´ was opened, installed on the ground and first floors of the old hospital. At the end of 1988, José Luis Iñiguez de Onzoño and Antonio Vázquez de Castro carried out the last modifications, amongst which a special mention should be given to the three elevator towers made from glass and steel, designed in conjunction with the British architect Ian Ritchie.

Development of the extension
Over the years, the 'Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía', in addition to the Permanent collection that took up the 2nd and 4th floors completely, has housed temporary exhibitions, audiovisual and educational activities, an important library... but as often happens in large art museums, as time goes by, their requirements continually grow. 

The activities it performs have increased tenfold: exhibitions, conferences, concerts, theatre performances, courses, children´s workshops, educational programmes, etc. In the same way its funds have also grown, loans, exchanges and collaborations with other centres. 

The number of visitors has doubled over the past ten years: from 715,268 visitors in 1994 to 1,445,253 in 2004. Furthermore, these visitors are the ones that demand more services and higher quality in these and as a result, the internal workspaces - which support these activities (storage, studio, conservation, restoration and circulation of the collections), also needed to grow.

All the foregoing prompted the institution to carry out studies on the possibility of increasing its surface area, culminating in the international architecture competitions held in 1999. This initiated the development process of these new spaces, using the creation of complementary buildings in the adjacent site, occupied by different departments of the Ministry of Education.

Having convened the Ideas Competition to select the drafting team and technical management of the extension project, 12 teams of architects were chosen from amongst 100 inscriptions. After the projects had been submitted, the first prize was awarded to the team of 'AJN Architectures Jean Nouvel'.

The winning project, in addition to responding to the requirements set forth by the Centre, offered the city spaces that were lacking in this area: a public square between the new buildings and the south-eastern façade of the present Museum.
 

The new spaces 
The proposal took on the challenge of increasing the value of the Museum, the collections, the exhibits and the urban surroundings, balancing the commitment with the past and the obligation to the present and the future of contemporary art.

The project basically responds to a strategy that differentiates between functions and spaces, but which are perceptively unified under a large roof that embraces - protectively, the buildings placed around the public square. The space materialises and dissolves in a byplay of surprising interstices.

The new spaces account for an increase of more than 60% of the surface of the old building (51,297 m²), which is now 84,048 m2.  Specifically, the area devoted to the Permanent Collection has increased more than 50%. Today, the 'Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía' is one of the largest museums of Contemporary  Art in the world.

The extension is formed by three buildings that basically house temporary exhibitions, Auditoriums and the Library. Within these, other requirements will be covered: art work storage, bookshop, offices, meeting rooms, a protocol room and the cafeteria-restaurant.

The three new volumes are connected to the Sabatini building in a coherent way, with the reorganisation of the accesses and the public and private museum visitor routes. In addition to a harmony of functions, a dialogue is established, fruit of the contrast between the two buildings; the massive, opaque appearance of the Sabatini building (the rotundity of a simple, octagonal volume) as opposed to the levity and dematerialisation of the new buildings, where glass and reflective materials are the principal elements in this dissolution of the architectonic barriers and the recesses of the façades in upper levels will blur the contours. All this counterbalanced by the corbelled roof that defines the limits of the museum in its relationship with the city. 

These three new buildings designed by Jean Nouvel considerably enhance the quality and quantity of the services the museum can offer.

Three volumes: exhibitions, library, auditorium

Exhibition Rooms: The two new temporary exhibition rooms cover a total of 2,251m2 and they have the capacity to exhibit large format works. They are connected to the Sabatini building on the ground and first floors. The interior of these spaces allows the flexibility necessary for the different types of exhibitions as they incorporate systems that can completely hide the glass façades. The light wells, hidden by blinds, achieve natural, artificial or combined lighting. Different mechanisms allow works of art to be hung. Additionally, the pre-installation of computing and electronic systems allow images to be projected at different points of the interconnected rooms.  

The Auditorium: The building that houses a large auditorium with a seating capacity for 500 people and another with 200 seats is located in between the streets of Ronda de Atocha and Argumosa. The protocol room is located on the highest level, between enormous terraces. The cafeteria-restaurant, with direct access from the street, is at ground level. These auditoriums will provide an unsurpassable setting for the activities related to the new conceptions of art, where the frontiers have been breached. Music, performances, installations or projections, often simultaneous or connected to each other, need these suitable spaces allowing significantly complex projects to be produced.

The ironwork rising to the different floors disappears on the highest levels and allows connection of the two other buildings: the one that houses the library and the bookshop, on the one hand and the exhibition rooms on the other. 
 

The Library: Finally, at the end closest to the Plaza del Emperador Carlos V, the public will enjoy a unique architectonic space: the great library of art and humanities, a reference point for researchers and one of the most important in Europe with regard to the number of volumes. It has 100 reading places and the latest systems for transmitting and consulting bibliographical, computing, audio, video, etc. Collections and reserve storage spaces that can store up to 250,000 volumes.

The bookshop, specialised in art from the 20th and 21st centuries and humanities, is also located in this building. The southeast façade reflects the Sabatini building through a reflective surface that returns the image to the Plaza de Carlos V. Above the area occupied by the library and offices there are large terraces flanked by immense windows and gaps of zenithal illumination.  

Functional organisation
The accesses from inside the complex differ depending on their use. Each building and within these, each function has its own access. Likewise, the Library, the Auditorium or the cafeteria-restaurant may be entered directly from outside the Museum.
 
Visitors may go directly from the Sabatini building to the new spaces. To make this possible, the south-eastern façade wall of the old hospital was perforated and this opening was connected to the vertical communication nucleus of the new temporary exhibition building.

Physical characteristics and materials
The latest techniques and materials in the construction field have been used to construct the new buildings. It is worth mentioning the composite: fibreglass + polyester, which coats the Auditorium building both on the outside and on the inside, giving the building its characteristic reddish colour.

Well known materials have also been used, but with innovative designs, such as the 'extruded' aluminium protection sheets for the façades, the creation of an immense lamp of 'ex profeso' moulded glass die for the ceiling of the library, at the 'Real Fábrica de Vidrio de la Granja' (Royal Glass Factory in la Granja, Segovia, Spain) or the alucore- and zinc-coated aerodynamic roof. 

Two of the buildings - the Library and the Temporary Exhibition Building are built using laminated steel. Beams and pillars have been made, as if for a piece of fabric, with 5 cm thick sheet iron cut with laser that were welded in the workshops of the company Horta and then moved to the site in 12, 16 and 22 metre lengths.

The building that houses the Auditorium was built using the post-tensioned concrete system. Two large symmetrically positioned ribs bear the loads of the auditoriums and the Protocol Room. These ribs are joined by reinforced concrete beams that form the stalls in both auditoriums.   

The great roof spans six metres of the terraces where the buildings conclude and is supported by slender metallic pillars, with almost 8,000 m², covering the entire plot and the pavements around it. The exceptional point of this element lies in the extraordinary projections that reach a span of up to 36 m. For this, a structure of metallic beams, with solid web, 3.4 m high in the central area was made. This thickness decreases to reach 5 cm at the outer perimeter.

The extension in figures:
Surface area of the land plot: 10,445 m²
Occupied surface area: 5,095 m² 
Total built surface area: 17,566 m²
Total Built surface area: 9.326 m²
Open spaces surface area (square and terraces): 3,780 m²

Maximum height of buildings above grade level: 24 m
Maximum height of buildings below grade level: 9 m
Maximum roof height: 30 m

Free height of reading room: 16m
Free height of auditorium: 14m
Free height of exhibition rooms: 6m
Free height of art works storage rooms: 8m

Maximum overload of the square surface area: 2,000 kg/m²
Maximum overload of the exhibition rooms: 10,000 kg
Maximum overload of elevators: 10,000 Kg              
Maximum length of lorries in loading platform lock: 18  m
Maximum width of lorries: 4.25 m
Maximum height of lorries: 4.80 m

Kg steel in buildings: 4,500,000 kg
Kg steel on roof: 1,800,000 kg

Description of new spaces by levels

Basement 2: Store rooms for works of art.

Basement 1: Store rooms for works of art. Machine rooms. Library reading room. Book storage rooms. Storage rooms for shops. Storage rooms for different materials. Changing rooms for restaurant personnel. Cloakroom/additional toilets for exhibition rooms.

Level 0: Public square. Shops. Library hall. Exhibition hall. Access to auditoriums. Cafeteria/restaurant. Kitchens. Hall exhibition rooms. Temporary exhibition room. Ticket sales/information/cloakroom for groups. Connection to the original Museum.

Entresol 0: Shops, library reading room. Mezzanine cafeteria. Access for personnel. General register of the Museum. Connection between Auditorium and Temporary Exhibitions buildings. Additional toilets for exhibition rooms.

Level 1: Shops. Administration offices. Auditorium distribution hall. Auditorium 200 and Auditorium 500. Dressing rooms. Musical instrument storage rooms. Connection between Auditorium and Temporary Exhibition buildings. Temporary Exhibition room. Connection to the original Museum.

Entresol 1: Public terraces. Administration offices. Auditorium distribution hall. Auditorium 500. Dressing rooms. Musical instrument storage rooms.

Level 2: Public terraces. Administration offices. Connection between Library and Auditorium buildings.  Control and translation booths. Dressing rooms. Musical instrument storage rooms. Connection between Auditorium and Temporary Exhibition buildings. Administration offices. Connection to the original Museum.

Entresol 2: Public terraces. Meeting room for the Museum Foundation. Offices of the Museum Foundation. Machine room. Storage rooms for materials. Administration offices.

Level 3: Public terraces. Connection between Library and Auditorium buildings. Protocol room.  Connection between Auditorium and Temporary Exhibitions buildings. Connection to the original Museum.

Level 4: Machine rooms.