MAMM
Medellin, Colombia (2009-2016)
Museum Extension, In Collaboration with CTRL-G

When we were invited to design the extension for the Museum of Modern Art in Medellin (MAMM), we were fascinated with the recent urban regeneration process of the informal barriadas of the city, where the formal city had “exported” their infrastructure (metrocable, stairs, parks, libraries) into these hillside districts of Medellin. With this in mind, we decided it was time that the vitality and flexibility of those barriadas was “imported” into the rigidity of the newborn Ciudad Del Rio, where our project is located.

As in the informal city of stacked houses in the hills, where one’s roof is the upstairs neighbour’s terrace, the new MAMM is laid out as a cascade of connected terraces open to the public. Inside, the blocks are a sequence of spaces displaying artwork; outside, they create a public realm that is continuous up to the fifth floor. With the combination of both, multiple new ways to display the art emerge.

Open to the public since September 2015, the museum has been quickly adopted as a favorite place by an audience of different ages and interests, improving urban equity. The MAMM Expansion is now an alternative meeting point to the ubiquitous shopping malls of Medellin, thus a step further towards a culturally vibrant city. Six thousand people come to the independent outdoor cinema per night and more than one hundred thousand visited the museum in its first year. Renowned Colombian writer Hector Abad Faciolince praised the new MAMM and considered it as the symbol of the new Medellin Cartel...now based on C(iencia) ARTE and L(iteratura).