Fondazione Prada opens Rem Koolhaas-designed Torre in Milan

Fondazione Prada will open its new Torre building to the public on April 20, 2018, completing the Milan headquarters designed by architect Rem Koolhaas with Chris van Duijn and Federico Pompignoli of OMA. The 60-meter-tall white concrete tower includes nine floors: six exhibition spaces totaling over 2,000 square meters, a restaurant, visitor services, and a 160-square-meter panoramic terrace with a rooftop bar. The tower's design features alternating trapezoidal and rectangular floor plans, with ceiling heights increasing from 2.7 meters on the first floor to 8 meters on the top level. The building's exterior combines glass and concrete surfaces, with a diagonal steel-and-concrete element connecting it to the Deposito building. The tower will house works from the Prada Collection, focusing on 20th- and 21st-century Italian and international artists. Koolhaas described the project as neither pure conservation nor new architecture, but a coexistence of both dimensions. The Fondazione Prada, active since 1995, originally transformed a 1910s distillery in Milan's Largo Isarco area. The upcoming urban redevelopment of the Porta Romana railway yard is expected to make the foundation more central to the city.