Museo Prada

The Fondazione Prada in Milan's Corvetto district is an impressive museum and exhibition complex built on the grounds of a former liquor distillery dating from 1910. The cultural foundation was established in 1993 by Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli, the owners of the famous fashion house. After acquiring the site in 2000, the couple commissioned the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas to transform the industrial wasteland into a cultural center. Planning and construction took ten years, and the exhibition spaces opened in April 2018. The complex combines seven historic factory buildings with three modern new structures, including a cinema and a striking museum tower; their careful placement creates streets, squares, and courtyards between the buildings.

The architectural centerpiece is the 60-meter-high museum tower, which rises above the historic buildings with nine floors of varying heights. Its facade is made of gray and white travertine, concrete tiles, and wood, while a glass elevator on the south side provides access to the floors. In stark contrast stands the so-called Haunted House, an old warehouse completely covered in gold leaf. This building houses a permanent exhibition of works by Louise Bourgeois and Robert Gober. In addition to the exhibition spaces, the complex also offers a library, an auditorium, a cinema, and a rooftop terrace. Visitors can also stop by Bar Luce on the ground floor, designed by film director Wes Anderson in the style of Italian films of the 1950s and 1960s, which is open even outside regular museum hours.