New exit for the Uffizi Gallery

New Exit for the Uffizi Gallery
Nuova Uscita Galleria Degli Uffizi
Photomontage of project
General information
Status	Unbuilt
Type	Museum
Architectural style	Modernism
Town or city	Florence
Country	Italy
Completed	Expected after 2012
Client	Ministry of Culture. Commission for the Architectural and Landscape Heritage for the Provinces of Florence, Pistoia and Prato. Italy.
Technical details
Structural system	Steel frame and stone supports and cladding
Design and construction
Architect	Arata Isozaki, Andrea Maffei
Structural engineer	Cecil Balmond, Gabriele Del Mese, Maurizio Teora, Daniel Bosia, Luca Buzzoni / Arup Italia Srl, Ove Arup & Partners International Ltd
Awards and prizes	1st Place

The New Exit for the Uffizi Gallery (Italian: Nuova Uscita per la Galleria Degli Uffizi), designed by architects Arata Isozaki and Andrea Maffei, was the project that won the closed international design competition launched in 1998 with the purpose of expanding the museum's exhibition space and creating a grand exit. Many world-renowned architects participated, among whom were: Mario Botta, Norman Foster, Gae Aulenti, Hans Hollein and Vittorio Gregotti. As part of the Grandi Uffizi initiative, a 60 million euro renovation and development project for the overall museum, the loggia's construction became a controversial subject for Florentines and thus has been at a standstill since its original scheduled completion date of 2003. The project was envisioned as a large steel and stone loggia that would echo its counterpart, the Loggia dei Lanzi on Piazza della Signoria. While at the same time, it would comment on the precarious balance that exists between tradition and modernity in a context that seldom sees large architectural change.

Loggia are common and prominent public structures in Florence; to cite two examples, Loggia dei Lanzi, or the Loggia del Grano. For the final proposal at the competition, the architect Arata Isozaki and Andrea Maffei replicate this traditional form for both its historic but also functional aspects: providing cover and protection from the elements when necessary yet also establishing a new public reference point for Florentine people. The light trapezoidal cover of the loggia, narrows where it connects to the museum, and references, according to the architects, brunelleschian themes from Renaissance. The structure intended to allow the public to interact with the city by providing not only necessary programme and space for the museum's expansion, but to allow for a constant flow of people through a neglected space within the current fabric of the city. In 1990, a design for the exit had already been proposed before the competition. The project by Giovanni Michelucci consisted primarily of a glass prism that would lead people out; it would become a landmark to decorate the back of Giorgio Vasari's famous structure. Though never realized, this endeavor became a forerunner to the competition of 1998.