A HISTORICAL MUSEUM FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

A Renaissance masterpiece and iconic building in Italy, the Palazzo dei Diamanti reopened to the public after a careful restoration of the 16th century complex

Project: Renovation and refurbishment of Palazzo dei Diamanti, Italy; Architects: Labics

The monumental complex of Palazzo dei Diamanti in Italy has found a new lease of life, with careful restoration work and an exhibition project by architecture firm Labics, thus returning to the city of Ferrara and the country an invaluable cultural heritage. Labics' intervention is one of the rare contemporary projects carried out in recent times in Italy on a building of such high historical value. The architectural interventions by Maria Claudia Clemente and Francesco Isidori are conceived as a museographic rewriting that enhances the configuration of the Renaissance palace itself, establishing a consequentiality and circularity between its rooms. The exhibition project links the two wings of the palace and is completed with a wooden walkway that extends circulation into the garden, while structuring the landscaping project by Stefano Olivari.

The project consists of an organic series of interventions aimed at restoring and enhancing the 16th-century complex and adapting both the interior and exterior spaces for exhibition purposes. It is driven by the belief that architecture, unlike painting, sculpture, or other art forms, is a living art that cannot only be contemplated for its beauty, but an art that to continue to exist must be experienced and, if necessary, reinterpreted. This has always been the case throughout the history of architecture, except for the tendency that in recent times, has often seen the logic of pure conservation prevail over the possibility of rewriting and enriching the monuments that have been passed down to us from the past.