The municipality of Bologna launched a competition for the new children’s museum in the Pilastro neighbourhood.
The functional program required three thematic areas (Space, Memory, City and citizenship), each divided into a section to learn concepts and one to put them into practice through collective activities. From here came the choice to develop the design on the modularity of the hexagon: the space on the first floor is a chain of six open spaces (three for exhibitions and three for workshops) orbiting around a central core with services and vertical connections.
The aim is a seamless sequence of experiences without given starting and ending points and no strict boundaries, designed to contain today’s interpretation of the concept of a children’s museum as well as any of its future reconfigurations.
The ground floor, also gathering around the central core, hosts the other half of the program, made of miscellaneous but less flexible functions, and is therefore more clearly partitioned. Regardless of the presence of an official main entrance on the north side, the ground floor of the building is designed to allow separate access from any direction for the reception, the welcoming spaces and canteen. The whole perimeter can access the garden through a portico that girdles the building. A citation of the urban space of Bologna and its historically negotiable relationship between the concepts of “outside” and “inside”.
The rooftop terrace, accessible to visitors, surrounds a central pavilion hosting the staff offices.
