Architecture Design of Benozzo Gozzoli Museum in Italy by Massimo Mariani

architeria — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 05:58:04 +0000

The Benozzo Gozzoli Museum located in south-west of Florence Italy and designed by Massimo Mariani Studio. This museum designed for Comune di Castelfiorentino with 400 square meters total area. The building, due to its small size, retains something domestic; it is conceived like a home-studio where Benozzo Gozzoli, surrounded by his students, seems to join us while we’re looking at these frescoes and he’s still working on them.

The building is rooted to the ground through a functional island-shaped base which solves the problem of urban furnishing meant in the classical sense. The curvilinear base takes over the space around the building and, at the same time, people take over a little of the museum’s space: the base becomes a bench, a play area for children and adults, a theatre for small outdoor events.

The building had to be entirely coated with cotto; in this way, it refers to materials and finishes of some of the local churches. Inside, the museum is spread over 4 floors, three above ground and one underground. The ground floor is partly characterized by a low ceiling: a shaded area which quickly runs to the full-height space where the “Tabernacolo della Visitazione” is placed. This is illuminated by a cascade of natural light coming from the skylight in the ceiling.

On the first floor, recessed into the corner-wall, we find the “Tabernacolo della Madonna della Tosse” which looks like a television screen. The staircase linking the floors, becomes a kind of visual path which frames the Tabernacles (now lacking their original context), according to new and constantly changing perspectives. It stops on the first floor, and then starts again on the opposite side thus reaching a room on the second floor, a naturally suitable space for small exhibitions and educational workshops.

Architecture Building | Interior | House Design Gallery » Benozzo Gozzoli Museum

Architecture Design of Benozzo Gozzoli Museum in Italy by Massimo Mariani