Turin has chosen the project that will guide the future of GAM - Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea. Rotterdam-based studio MVRDV, in collaboration with Balance Architettura, EP&S Group, Michelangelo Di Gioia and Filippo Busato, won first place in the International Design Competition held for the gallery’s redevelopment, revitalization and enhancement plan. The announcement took place this morning at the Collegio Carlo Alberto, in the presence of Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation President and jury chairman Marco Gilli, Turin Mayor Stefano Lo Russo and Torino Musei Foundation President Massimo Broccio.
The winning group convinced the commission thanks to a proposal capable of combining design vision, architectural quality and functional coherence. Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo is committed to following all phases of implementation alongside Fondazione Torino Musei and to cover the cost of the intervention, estimated at 27.5 million euros, as part of the resources allocated to cultural impact projects. The GAM regeneration project is part of Fondazione Torino Musei’s Strategic Plan and aims to return to the city a museum capable of combining technological innovation, environmental sustainability and enhancement of the building’s historical and architectural identity. The intervention aims to renew the museum’s functions, expand accessibility, optimize the visitor experience, and redefine GAM’s role as an open cultural plaza, integrated into the urban fabric, capable of offering new spaces for community relations and participation.
The project is inspired by the origins of GAM, conceived from its inception with a marked avant-garde vocation, and intends to repurpose the museum as a laboratory of experimentation capable of welcoming new languages and creating innovative ways of relating to the public. The stated goal is to transform the experimental spirit of the gallery into a strategic tool for international repositioning and to meet the cultural challenges of the next generation. The International Competition was held in two distinct phases. The first phase, which was openly conducted, evaluated the candidates’ curricula and experience, selecting five finalists from 49 groups from France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States. The second stage, which was completely anonymous, required the finalists to develop project proposals according to GAM’s regeneration and development goals.
The evaluation of the proposals was based on architectural quality, innovation, sustainability, technical-economic feasibility and consistency with the functional and identity needs of the museum. The second phase committee, composed of Marco Gilli, Chris Dercon, Marco Filippi, Francesca Torzo and Esmeralda Valente, ensured a rigorous and independent process based on multidisciplinary expertise. In addition to MVRDV, the five finalists included Kengo Kuma & Associates Europe, Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra Arquitecto SLP, Mario Cucinella Architects, and ACPV Architects - Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel. The final ranking confirmed the victory of the MVRDV group for its ability to interpret the needs of GAM with strategic vision and design quality. The winning project will be presented to the public in early 2026, after the ordinary verifications required by current regulations. The event will represent the first moment of public restitution of the selected design vision and the strategic framework that will guide the subsequent stages of development. The initiative aims to involve stakeholders, artistic and cultural communities and the territory, strengthening GAM’s positioning and building a participatory vision of the gallery’s transformation.
The intervention at GAM takes the form of an advanced model of modern cultural heritage regeneration, capable of redefining the museum’s role in the city and proposing spaces that are accessible, technologically updated and capable of hosting diversified cultural activities. The redevelopment, supported by significant investment and a shared design strategy, represents a central piece in the development path of Fondazione Torino Musei and the promotion of contemporary culture in Turin.
“GAM,” says Mayor of Turin Stefano Lo Russo, “was the first Modern Art Gallery in Italy and has always played a strategic role in the cultural landscape of our city: to relaunch its role and prestige on a national and international level, resuming and developing that avant-garde spirit that characterized its birth, is one of the objectives that, as an administration, we have set ourselves since the beginning of our mandate. This is why we are really very pleased with the outcome of the design competition of international scope that will be able to launch the great Plan of redevelopment, revitalization and enhancement that GAM awaits and that aims to make it a model of culture and innovation, opening a new phase in its history.”
“For the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation, this project represents a concrete example of Evolved Philanthropy, an approach based on a plurality of tools that enhance the best experiences of international philanthropy,” says Marco Gilli, President of the Compagnia di San Paolo Foundation. “It is thanks to this method that we were able to accompany the Turin Museums Foundation throughout the entire process of the international design competition, activating qualified collaborations with the Real Estate Operations and Social Housing Area of PR.I.S.MA S.c.r.l. and with the Culture Back Office of the ”La Venaria Reale“ Conservation and Restoration Center. The competition fully achieved its goal of attracting the interest of professional groups at the international level and intercepting high quality proposals capable of measuring up to the complexity of GAM’s future. At the same time, it offered the opportunity to bring the museum back to its international positioning, reinforcing its role in a new reading of urban space. The competition-winning project proposes an open and renewed GAM, capable of combining the protection of the building’s historical values with a bold and necessary transformation. We look at this result as a strategic step: the GAM will be able to establish itself more and more as a contemporary and innovative cultural infrastructure that invites visitors and the entire city to actively participate in its museum program. For these reasons, the Compagnia di San Paolo is committed to closely following and continuously supporting the successive phases of the design and the entire execution of the works.”
“Today we give an account of a historic day for GAM, for the Fondazione Torino Musei, and for our city. Thanks to the fundamental support of the Compagnia di San Paolo, the most important project of the Foundation’s Strategic Plan is concretely starting,” says Massimo Broccio, President of the Fondazione Torino Musei.“GAM, the oldest Civic Gallery of Modern and Contemporary Art in Italy, which in the postwar period was admirably rebuilt with a unique and innovative project for the time, is now preparing to take up and relaunch that vision, projecting it into the future. The GAM Redevelopment Plan represents the most important investment in Italy and one of the most significant operations on the international scene in terms of ambition and expected impact, among interventions on museum buildings.Innovation and avant-garde represent the common threads of this extraordinary regeneration project, which takes up and makes its own the spirit that marked the design of the building and the birth of the museum.The project addresses the main contemporary challenges related to the evolution of museums and cultural venues: environmental sustainability, energy conservation, architectural and technological innovation, implementation of new models of museum fruition oriented to the public of tomorrow, with a strong commitment to the inclusion and social role of the museum and its function as a cultural protagonist in the city and national landscape.Best compliments to the winning group, one of the most qualified at the international level, which with its project has been able to grasp and make the most of the spirit of this transformation. Special thanks go to the two competition commissions, which with exemplary competence and dedication carried out an extraordinarily qualified selection work.”
“When we started working on the project, we felt the need to reconsider some past interventions,” the winners told Live Zoom. “However, the inspection made us realize that several elements needed to be preserved and, in some cases, restored, because this place has a long and valuable history that deserves to be enhanced over time. The project, however, goes beyond the building: it is above all a project of openness. We have recognized GAM as a living place, deeply connected to the city of Turin. Opening the garden and the square means opening the culture to the city, inviting people to go through all the spaces, down to the basement and the warehouses. We therefore imagined a truly open building, capable of combining respect for the interior and great flexibility for future exhibition configurations. Finally, we sincerely thank you for your trust and for entrusting us with the future of GAM.”
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| Turin, GAM redevelopment entrusted to Dutch firm: 27.5 million project |
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