Winning ideas for the MADRID Digital Arts Museum competition

The MADRID Digital Arts Museum competition invited students and professionals to examine the multi-faceted relationship of digital technology with the contemporary museum and the use of vacant urban spaces. In forming their ideas, entrants also questioned technology's role in exhibition design, how it affects public accessibility to culture, and what the future of the contemporary museum could be.

In the single stage ideas competition, participants submitted their most creative ideas for a Digital Arts Museum located in the lively Lavapiés neighborhood in Madrid, Spain.

The panel of judges then selected three top-prize winners that they perceived as having the best responses. Nine Honorable Mentions were also announced.

Have a look at the winning entries below.

FIRST PRIZE - "Urban Interface" by Arch. Michelangelo Vallicelli / Lorenzo Sant'Andrea / Nicolò (Troianiello, Rome – Italy)

Project summary: "If we had to think completely in utopian terms and not responding to any specific building requirements, the solution we would better strive would have been a completely open space not being an architectural enclosure with the external environment. We would have hoped that its contents could be completely stored within a server connected to the Internet, open to anyone, anywhere. Rather being only an artworks container it could be an ‘interface’.

Our project instead aims to be a ‘meta-museum’, which allow individuals anywhere in the world to upload and submit their own installations, video documentation, discussions, and that through the museum’s envelope, be returned to the city and to the local reality of Lavapiés. Being as a large public display, it can also resubmit information in its virtual site and the world wide web."

SECOND PRIZE - "LACORRALA" by Arch. Vicente Hernandez Vaquero / Silvia Rodriguez (Iglesias, Coruña – Spain)

Project summary: "The new Digital Arts Museum of Lavapiés incorporates an existing and characteristic element of the neighborhood: “the corrala”. Through this, past and present are joined together in order to guarantee the historic memory.  The program is divided in two harmonious volumes with the surrounding, connected by the new interpretation of the corrala: LACORRALA. This element generates an interstitial void in between to allow the public access to culture and light. The courtyard captures natural light during the day and filters it towards interior spaces, which require a controlled light in order to take care of the exhibition room needs. At sunset the light box illuminates the outskirts of Lavapiés, turning in the hub of neighborhood life."

THIRD PRIZE - Arch. Robert Barelkowski / Leszek Chlasta / Adam Tuszynski / Mateusz Jarzabkiewicz (from Armageddon Biuro Projektowe, Poznan - Poland)

Project summary: "Where should digital art be presented? We believe it should become a place merging the analog with the virtual, a place allowing for constant redefinition of how digital can interact with the physical. We are strongly convinced DAMM cannot replicate the typology of a typical museum, providing a flexible open source experiencing of the art.  Outer skin makes it an institution active regarding of whether building is open or closed, interactive screens allow for exploration, contemplation, research or play. [...] Open floor as well as suspended grid gives infinite options to rearrange, at the same time provide human-responsive surfaces to reflect the visitors’ behavior."

To see the Honorable Mention entries, click here.

The jury featured:

• ALEX BULYGIN, Arch. – London, UK Office Competition Manager // Associate at AL_A
• ANA NEIVA, Arch. – Porto, Portugal Invited Assistant Professor in FAUP, Porto
• ANTOINE CARDON, Arch – Paris, France Founding Partner in AEROSTUDIO Architectes
• EMANUELE SVETTI, Arch. – Arezzo, Italy Founder of STUDIO SVETTI
• GUSTAVO ROMANILLOS, Arch. – Madrid, Spain Tutor at the AA School of Architecture, London