Museum of Etruscan Art

The project stems from the Luigi Rovati Foundation's desire to create a museum space within the historic 19th-century Bocconi-Rizzoli-Carraro building, a center for experimentation and research also intended to house various functions and an important collection of Etruscan artifacts.
The space dedicated to the Etruscan collection is located in the first basement level and is inspired by the Tombs of Cerveteri, some of the few pieces of Etruscan architecture still intact. It is also inspired by the Museum of the Treasure of San Lorenzo in Genoa, designed by Franco Albini and Franca Helg, which is located in the underground rooms behind the apse of Genoa Cathedral, also a contemporary insertion in a historical context.

A staircase made of Florentine pietra forte quarried from Tuscan-Emilian quarries leads to the hypogeal exhibition spaces: three circular halls and a large elliptical hall topped with domes, completely enveloped by 24,000 stone ashlars, designed and expertly laid one by one, with a formal continuity that gives the whole environment a sense of unity and fluidity.

The simplicity of the museum's wraparound forms contrasts with the triangular-based display cases, creating a scene of different materials and times that adds further dimension and depth to the museum experience.

The most distinctive element of the delicate restoration of the historic building at 52 Corso Venezia is undoubtedly the domes covered with pietra serena in the underground museum space. The roofing of these rooms recalls the shape of Etruscan necropolises and is created by the intersection of three lowered spherical domes with a large radius of curvature.
The complex geometry of the vaults of the hypogean domes imposed innovative technical choices for both the design of a concealing structure and the building and plant works and finishes. The domes are supported by calendered profiles made of semi-rigid metal carpentry. These ribs are mounted around the entire perimeter of the excavation and have a double adjustment system: vertical for the base and horizontal at the head, where they connect with the ground floor slab. A second order of fastening with a second independent adjustment on the ribs allows in turn the connection of the structures to the water-cut stone ashlars each different from the other.