The MNCARS Extension, designed by the prestigious architect Jean Nouvel in collaboration with Alberto Medem (winners of the restricted competition), is an emblematic architectural work that will undoubtedly become a new link in the major operation of urban transformation that is being carried out in the museum area along the Paseo del Prado in Madrid. Apart from its outstanding architectural quality, the proposal has a complex and diaphanous structure. The aerodynamic roof with it’s enormous 36 m overhangs, that diminish progressively from a thickness of 3.40m until they practically disappear, appears to float over the Auditorium, the Temporary Exhibition Rooms and the Library. The slender metal columns, with a height of over 20m, emerge from the roofs to reach 6 m higher to support the general roof of the building which covers the almost 8,000m2 of the building’s floor plan. The most striking element is undoubtedly the isolated volume of the Auditorium, featuring organic forms and a cladding of bright red polyester panels. Structurally, it is supported by two partially pre-stressed concrete screen diaphragm walls. These walls have a thickness that varies between 1.15 and 0.85m and a length of 8m, placed eccentrically, which only come into contact with the exterior floor slabs at a few points and certain levels. Powerful beams of strongly reinforced and prestressed concrete with a variable thickness of 0.85 to 0.50m emerge from these screen walls, and like “outstretched arms” they curve horizontally to support the load of the Auditorium, is located in front of the main screen walls. The structure of the Temporary Exhibitions building, with a rectangular floor plan of 56 x 24 m, and the Library, with a rectangular floor plan of 62 x 90m, are defined by means of metal porticos and composite floor slabs.
• Axonometry of the covered structure. • Facade of the Library. • Images of the courtyard, the terraces which can be visited and the outer part of the Aditorium.
EXTENSION OF THE MUSEO NACIONAL CENTRO DE ARTE REINA SOFÍA CONSTRUCTION PROJECT AND STRUCTURAL CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT Madrid, 2000-2002