It is designed by the eminent Czech architect Jan Kaplicky the innovative project of the Ferrari Museum in Modena, destined to become an icon of contemporary architecture
From the innovative genius of the Czech architect Jan Kaplicky and of his indefatigable collaborators – in particular the young Andrea Morgante – the future Museum devoted to the prophet of motor racing Enzo Ferrari will be built in the town of Modena.
It all started in 2004 when, the wish to remember and celebrate the founder of one of the most popular car firms worldwide, encouraged Enzo Ferrari’s Fondazione Casa Natale to call for tenders for the construction of a Museum dedicated to him.
The winner was Future System studio, founded in 1979 by the famous Czech architect Jan Kaplicky, well-known and appreciated all around the world today due to his innovative, charming, functional and environmentally friendly design.
Kaplicky, who has worked with famous architects such as Foster, Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano, has designed a number of buildings including NatWest Media Centre in Londra (Stirling Prize 1999), the floating bridge on the Thames in the Docklands of London as well as the trade building for Selfridges in Birmingham which has been celebrated by Queen Victoria on a set of stamps.
The Ferrari Museum project was introduced last April in Prague on occasion of a series of events organised by the city to celebrate the late Kaplicky who died in January 2009. This presentation, attended by the staff of Progetto Repubblica Ceca left the public stand open-mouthed because of its futuristic design showing a radiator-like yellow bonnet wrapping up and protecting Enzo Ferrari’s hometown like an open hand as if to protect it by respecting its “sacrality”, “…a sort of marriage between the old and the new” – as the Czech architect affirmed. With a budget of 16 million euro the project contains highly innovative design elements, like the three-dimensional aluminium covering and a doubled-curved structural front for the new Gallery. A few meters away there is Drake’s hometown, where he was born in 1898; his house will undergo a scientific restoration and a special show will be set up to illustrate Enzo Ferrari’s life stages.
Besides, the project will have a highly sustainable side, not only thanks to the use of photovoltaic technology and natural ventilation, but it will also be one of the first public buildings in Italy to use geothermal energy for the climatic treatment of the interiors.
After his death the continuation of the work has been officially assigned to the young Andrea Morgante, one of Kaplicky’s closest collaborators, former-Director of Future Systems and in charge of this work since the early examination phases.
The Italian architect, who besides ensuring the completion of the work will be in charge of supervising the interior design, has described the project like a real technological and human challenge. The same project will be dedicated not only to one of the most famous figures of the car world, but also to the memory of one of the most creative and visionary architects ever existed.
The foundation stone, which was laid 20th April 2009, did underline the highly symbolic side of the project: an “organic” block of bright aluminium, the same aluminium used by Ferrari to build his own first cars and the same material used for the covering of the new complex.
The appointment is for next year when this prestigious work is supposed to be inaugurated to embellish the town of Modena which, as the director of the Fondazione Casa Natale Adriana Zini says, “it will attract not only car racing fans, but surely also architecture lovers from all over the world”.
By Federico Gambacorta