The São Paulo art museum (MASP) inaugurated its extension a few days ago. The extension entitled “Masp Em Expansão”, launched in 2019, was designed by the Brazilian architecture firm Metro Arquitetos Associassos. This extension includes a fourteen floors building, adding 7,821 m² to the museum exhibition surface, bringing the total area to 25,501 m². Its design respects the aesthetics of the original building designed in 1968 by the Brazilian architect of Italian origin Lina Bo Bardi. The building is distinguished by a perforated and wavy metal facade, which reduces thermal absorption and improves energy efficiency.
Called “Pietro Maria Bardi”, this extension pays tribute to one of the founders of the museum, also husband of Lina Bo Bardi. It includes the reception to free up space in the original building. The new building is dedicated to temporary exhibitions and offers the possibility of presenting more than 11,000 works in the collection. An underground passage is under construction in order to connect the two buildings. The financing of the extension, of the order of 250 million reals (40 million euros), was provided by private donations.
The MASP was founded in 1947 by sitting Chateaubriand and the Italian art critic Pietro Maria Bardi, who ensured the management until 1990. Their objective was to create a place to house their collection of major works, among which are parts of Van Gogh, Picasso, Degas, as well as works of emblematic artists of Brazilian modernism such as Anita Malfatti and Vicente Do Rego Monteiro.
