Reina Sofía Museum:
You are here now.
A project by Mediomundo Arquitectos in collaboration with Lugadero for the Reina Sofía National Museum and Art Center’s signage system.
Museums are already a space that transcends their buildings. As part of the offering of a city or a country, museums, including the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS), attract visitors from different parts of the national and international territories. The museum does not begin or end in its location(s). It is also part of a multi-layered territory of relationships involving institutions, artists, researchers, individuals closely linked to cultural production, and above all a fluctuating public with diverse and not always informed interests.
Let’s imagine then a dialogue on a global scale, initiating communication from and to the user (visitor) located anywhere in the world. A dialogue constructed based on a temporal distance from the institution but above all from its works. Through this dialogue, the MNCARS presents itself and at the same time constructs an expanded context. The “world” campaign is not just a form of advertisement, it is a means to incorporate into the communication strategy for guidance the consideration of the different origins and backgrounds of our visitors.
The Expanded Reina Sofía Museum: one museum, three venues.
The dialogue proposed on a global scale also applies on a neighborhood and city scale. Our visitor or user remains the reference and is now within minutes, never more than an hour and a half away from a work or artistic proposal housed in one of the MNCARS venues.
The Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía has a set of venues housed in unique buildings located in a very unique area of the city of Madrid. Meanwhile, the main venue – occupying the former San Carlos hospital designed by José Hermosilla and Francesco Sabatini, refurbished between 1986 and 1998 by architect Ian Ritchie, and expanded between 2001 and 2005 by architect Jean Nouvel – is located near the Ronda de Atocha, close to the station of the same name at the southern end of the Paseo del Prado. Fifteen minutes away, in the Retiro Park, there are two other venues housed in unique buildings: The Palacio de Velázquez (1881-1883) and the Palacio de Cristal (1887), both designed by architect Ricardo Velázquez Bosco to house the Mining and Philippines exhibitions respectively.
This particular circumstance both promotes the character of an expanded entity and interaction with the city. It also presents a potential for openness and connection, whether towards its immediate surroundings, a sector of the city, or a wider network of spaces it interacts with. The idea of a networked museum, of an expanded museum that this condition generates, is not perceived by the public and therefore can and should be reinforced, made more evident. In this regard, it is recommended to reaffirm the identity and identification of the three venues as part of a whole, of an MNCARS system (1+1+1=1), and to propose a communication strategy with urban presence.
In the exterior-interior transit of the MNCARS venues, it is recommended to facilitate the most suitable circumstances for any visitor to reach their destination as efficiently as possible, and above all, with the greatest possible independence. However, the wayfinding system, specific to the MNCARS, is a system generated from experience, which, not having a previously established code, is developed based on types of signals depending on the information and their location.
These signals must contain codes that are easily understandable in any context, both for information and orientation, and can be displayed on analog (static) or digital (dynamic) devices.
Starting from a recognizable identity firmly established in the public’s imagination such as the graphic construction of the MNCARS logo, a uniform design system is proposed based on “boxes” that allow for composing the visual and dynamic signage universe of the museum in all its venues. It is therefore a graphic and audiovisual system of modular design that addresses different scales in terms of information and orientation. These elements, as well as modules specially designed for specific locations, can be combined in each case and according to their locations to effectively meet the visitors’ orientation needs.
Coordination and Direction
MEDIOMUNDO Arquitectos
(Marta Pelegrín + Fernando Pérez)
Graphic Design
LUGADERO
Professionals in charge
Arch. Fernando Pérez Blanco
Arch. Marta Pelegrín Rodríguez
Arch. Javier Martinez Navarro
Beatriz Pavón González
Miguel Amarilla Cardozo
Elliot Ritchie
