The project to expand the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP) – a work of the architect Lina Bo Bardi – is part of an overall renovation that began in 2014, in which the Brazilian firm Metro has participated from the start. Besides diverse actions carried out on the structure, that renovation included reinstalling the glass easels designed by Lina Bo Bardi (which had been removed in 1996) and reinstating the museum’s original exhibition system in order to display individual paintings well, with maximized spatial and visual continuity.

The expansion involves the Dumont-Adams residential block of ten floors, adjacent to MASP, which was completed in 1958 and donated to the institution in 2006. Its existing concrete structure is to be partly demolished, and both buildings will be connected underground.

This new tower rising 14 levels – which takes the name of MASP’s first director, Pietro Maria Bardi, Lina’s husband – increases the museum’s floor area by 6,945 square meters, with galleries whose ceilings rise to almost 5 meters, conservation and restoration workshops, and also a restaurant and spaces for events.