Museum of the Royal Collections

Patrimonio Nacional (Spanish National Heritage Agency), public administrator of significant historical and artistic assets, launched in 1999 the competition for the Museum of the Royal Collections. The lack of an adequate space to exhibit part of these assets prompted the construction of the Museum of the Royal Collections within the monumental complex formed by Madrid’s Royal Palace and the Cathedral of Nuestra Señora de la Almudena.

RBTA’s proposal encourages the Museum’s connection and communication with Madrid’s most significant historical-monumental environment, which receives a lot of visitors annually. The site, of great historical, cultural, architectural and urban significance, constitutes the origin of the Spanish capital. Embryonic urban nucleus of the city’s historical founding, the site has also an important archeological value.

Between the magnificent Royal Palace, designed by Filippo Juvara and Juan Bautista Sachetti, and built between 1738 and 1764, the royal gardens “Campo del Moro”, and the Cathedral of Nuestra Señora de la Almudena, the museum’s building is the connection and midpoint of the monumental complex.

The design demands a great deal of coherence with the museum program requirements for the exhibition of the different collections; it must guarantee the adequate conditions for the display and conservation of pieces of high artistic, historical and symbolic value.

The orientation towards the west of the city of the L-shaped site conditions the architectural concept. The building’s almost entire volume will be built below grade, except for a longitudinal transparent volume emerging from ground level to the level of the Plaza de la Armería, and descending towards the Campo del Moro gardens.

Resting on the existing retaining wall, the new building for the Museum of the Royal Collections is composed of two intersecting rectangular volumes: one opaque compact volume containing the exhibition rooms, and a second volume, transparent and open that contains the vestibule and the public areas. A skylight cutting lengthwise the roof permits natural light filter through over the carriages and tapestry collections at level -11.

The glazed façades harmonize with the vertical and horizontal lines of the Royal Palace. Inspired by the ideas of Juvara, Sachetti’s construction and the gardens by Sabatini, RBTA’s proposal composition combines stone with glazed volumes.

The double order composition “a la italiana” in the courtyard of the Royal Palace, and the palace’s façade with triple order pilasters “à la française”, produce a complex harmony between the façade of the Plaza de la Catedral and the Campo del Moro gardens, which was the basis applied for the compositional harmony of the Museum’s inner space.

The model and typology used by RBTA for the design of the wing containing the collections of painting and sculpture, porcelain and ceramics, glass, jewelry and music instruments, are based on a modernized version of Vasari’s theory for the Galeria degli Uffizi in Florence. The other wing, below the Plaza de la Catedral grade, has been designed according to the typology used for the restructuring of the basement levels of the Musée du Louvre.

Main access to the Museum is through the Plaza de la Almudena, while the vestibule is located at level -11. The new building connects with the existing collection galleries of the Royal Palace’s through various tunnels.

The new pavement for the Plaza de la Almudena preserves the existing materials while modifying the grid to mark the circulation flows from the city towards the Museum and to encourage the relationship with the Plaza de la Armería.

Natural stone and local granite is used for the exterior building envelope. The envelope of the parallelepiped is made of glass with different textures, and thermal and acoustical properties.

To emphasize the value of the pieces displayed, the interior design is minimalist, and reflects the soft pastel palette of the Royal Palace interiors, inspired in the Italian Renaissance. The pavement of the public areas is natural stone.