The MNAC is calling the architectural competition for the expansion of the Museum

The Board of Trustees of the National Art Museum of Catalonia, made up of the Generalitat de Catalunya, Barcelona City Council, the Ministry of Culture and representatives of civil society of recognized prestige in the field of culture and patronage, decided unanimously last June 21 to give the green light to the competition that will be published on Monday and that will allow the preliminary architectural project to be awarded for the extension of the Museum to the Victòria Eugènia Pavilion.

The expansion of the MNAC entails the rehabilitation and heritage rescue of the Pavilion Victòria Eugènia, the work of the architect Josep Puig i Cadafalch, as well as the reorganization of certain spaces of the current headquarters of the Museum in the National Palace and the connection between the two buildings . The result will be a single museum with two perfectly connected buildings that will allow it to face and deploy the set of heritage, artistic and public service missions that are its own in a permanent, comprehensive way and with the ambition and impact of a international reference equipment.

Of the 9,000 m2 of useful exhibition space it currently has, the museum will have 19,500 m2 between the two buildings. This will make it possible for the new MNAC, without chronological limits, to accommodate for the first time, comprehensively, the artists of the second half of the century. XX, or display in all its breadth the collection of photography and popular arts such as comics and illustration. It will also make it possible to have the exhibition spaces with the dimensions, versatility and characteristics necessary to carry out a complex, diverse and far-reaching exhibition program, as well as having the ability to fully develop the educational and social dimension of the Museum.

On the other hand, the expansion will also make it possible to deal permanently and visibly with the new challenges and missions of the s. XXI that the MNAC has already been developing in recent years, the result of the accelerated processes of transformation that museums are experiencing everywhere and in which the Museum can become a point of reference: representativeness, diversity, inclusion or the revision and reformulation of hegemonic and dominant narratives among many others. It will therefore allow responding to the needs of the communities with which it relates, addressing the relevant problems of the society that surrounds them.

The architectural competition

The budget for the preliminary architectural project of the new museum is €1,077,156.19 + VAT. The competition, which will make it possible to award the preliminary project, will take place in two rounds and the presentation of proposals will be made anonymously. The first round has a presentation deadline until the end of October, and the second round is expected to take place from the end of December to the beginning of February 2025.

The jury, formed by representatives of the three administrations, the Museum and the COAC, will choose five technical proposals based on the established assessment criteria, which will be developed in a paid manner in the second round. The award of the contract to the winning proposal is scheduled for the end of March 2025.

The expansion and reorganization of the spaces, as well as the improvement of access and the greater proximity to the urban fabric, will ultimately make it possible for the reference art museum in the country and in the city to respond to the large number of demands that the different communities and agents of society and the cultural sector raise, strengthening and increasing its essential condition of public service and achieving the tools and spaces necessary to consolidate and strengthen its dimension as a great museum typical of a European capital and at the service of the country.