OMA wins competition for a public expansion of Turin's Museo Egizio

A design from OMA has just been named the winner of an international competition to deliver a new vision for the Museo Egizio in Turin, Italy.

OMA Managing Partner David Gianotten and Project Architect Andreas Karavanas will lead the creation of the Piazza Egizia covered courtyard and six ancillary urban rooms that connected to the original 1824 space, which is considered the oldest exhibitor of Ancient Egyptian artifacts in the world.

“Museo Egizio, with an open courtyard, is historically a main civic space in Turin,” Gianotten said. “Our team believes that it is vital to restore the public nature of the museum and integrate it back with Turin’s network of public spaces. By reorganizing the current museum’s public areas, we have created the Piazza Egizia, which is a place for all kinds of activities shared between Museo Egizio and the city.”

The overall project is aimed at reconnecting public space to the museum after more than a decade of renovations at the ground level. The facade of the original Collegio dei Nobili building will be uncovered, and a rainwater collection system will be added to the canopy above the courtyard feature in order to help the institution enact its sustainability goals.

“We have conceptualized the Piazza Egizia as a palimpsest that reveals the different layers of the museum’s history. This approach restores coherence to the architecture and lends the museum a lucid identity, while ensuring that the institution’s new needs are fulfilled,” Karavanas added finally.

The firm beat out entries from Kengo Kuma, Pininfarina, Carlo Ratti Associati, and Snøhetta to win the competition. Construction for the project is expected to get underway later in the year, with completion anticipated in 2024, the museum's 200th anniversary.