The conversion of the building

The conversion of the building, from project to completion, lasted four years: from 2003 to 2007. The commission was entrusted to the English architect Andrew Hapgood, and his project complied with the proprietor’s desire to preserve as much as possible of the building’s original structure and the projectural thinking on which it was based, with its emphasis on innovation and versatility, while at the same time making it over it into a viable repository for works of art. The most important modifications concern the building’s access system, the functional restructuring of the ground floor, the partitioning of the first and second floors so as to create a series of exhibition halls with ample wall space, and the introduction of technological measures for the creation and maintenance of the levels of humidity and lighting control required by the building’s new functions, in terms of both conservation and exhibition.