On May 2, The Lima Art Museum (MALI) launched an open competition for the design of its new contemporary art wing. The project will include a library, gallery spaces, classrooms, workshops, a café, a public plaza, access to a future metro station, and a landscape proposal for the park where the museum is located. The competition's goal is to establish the MALI as a new civic and cultural platform in the city, as well as a referent for future competitions regarding the design of public spaces in Lima.

After receiving 387 entries from 56 countries, the jury selected the architects Burgos & Garrido Arquitectos together with LLAMA Urban Design as the winners of the competition. 

Patio and pavilion

The new building, with an area of 6.000m2, will include two access pavilions and will host exhibition galleries, classrooms, workshop spaces, a library, a café and storage spaces. Additionally, the proposal also includes a new public plaza and the restoration of the park, known as Parque de la Exposicion, which surrounds the original museum and the new extension.

Patio and pavilion

This extension will serve as a new gallery for the public to see one of the most important contemporary art collections in Latin America. The design consists of three main components:

The first is the gallery, a transparent and flexible space underground, illuminated through the skylight that appears on the surface of the new plaza and penetrates through the building down into the exhibition spaces. The Jacaranda´s plaza is the second element, which provides a new open public space and invites the visitor to enter into the pavilions of the new wing.

Areal view of pavilion

Finally, the restoration of the Parque de la Exposicion is also incorporated as the third element of the proposal with the intention of reestablishing the magnificent atmosphere that previously existed there.

The competition also awarded 13 honorable mentions in order to open a new discussion on the proposals, or in other words, to move forward other parameters of the competition. 

All images courtesy of Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI)

> via The Lima Art Museum (MALI)