Redevelopment, relaunch, and enhancement plan of the GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino , Turin/ Italien

PRESS RELEASE

The MVRDV studio from Rotterdam, with Balance Architettura and EP&S Group from Turin, Dr. Michelangelo Di Gioia, and Prof. Filippo Busato, has been awarded first place in the International Design Competition for the redevelopment, relaunch, and enhancement plan of the GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino

Among the five finalists were Kengo Kuma & Associates Europe, Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra Arquitecto SLP, Mario Cucinella Architects, and ACPV Architects - Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel. The winning project will be presented in early 2026.

www.gamtorino.it/it/

The Fondazione Torino Musei and the Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, in collaboration with the City of Turin and with the support of the Fondazione per l’architettura / Torino, announce the winner of the International Design Competition for the major plan for the redevelopment, relaunch, and enhancement of the GAM – Galleria Civica d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea di Torino.

The announcement took place this morning in Turin, at the Collegio Carlo Alberto, in the presence of the President of the Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo and Jury President Marco Gilli, the Mayor of Turin Stefano Lo Russo, and the President of the Fondazione Torino Musei, Massimo Broccio.

The design team composed of MVRDV, BALANCE Architettura, EP&S Group, Dr. Michelangelo Di Gioia, and Prof. Filippo Busato has been awarded first place. The Commission recognized a proposal capable of interpreting the future of the GAM with vision, design quality, and functional coherence.
The Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo is providing its expertise and professionalism to oversee all phases of the project's implementation alongside the Fondazione Torino Musei, in addition to covering, within the resources allocated to impact projects, the cost of the intervention, which amounts to 27.5 million euros.

Statements

Stefano Lo Russo, Mayor of Turin, stated: "The GAM was Italy's first modern art gallery and has always played a strategic role in our city's cultural landscape. Relaunching its role and prestige at both national and international levels, by reclaiming and developing the avant-garde spirit that characterized its birth, is one of the objectives that our administration set from the beginning of our mandate. This is why we are truly satisfied with the outcome of this international design competition. It will kick off the major plan for the redevelopment, relaunch, and enhancement that the GAM has been waiting for, aiming to make it a model of culture and innovation and opening a new phase in its history."

"For the Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo, this project represents a concrete example of Evolved Philanthropy, an approach based on a plurality of tools that leverage the best experiences in international philanthropy. Thanks to this method, we were able to accompany the Fondazione Torino Musei throughout the entire international design competition process, activating qualified collaborations with the Real Estate Operations and Social Housing Area of PR.I.S.MA S.c.r.l. and the Culture Back Office of the 'La Venaria Reale' Conservation and Restoration Center. The competition fully achieved the goal of attracting interest from groups of international professionals and capturing high-quality proposals capable of tackling the complexity of the GAM's future. At the same time, it offered the opportunity to restore the museum to its international positioning, strengthening its role through a new interpretation of urban space. The winning project proposes an open and renewed GAM, capable of combining the protection of the building's historical values with a courageous and necessary transformation. We view this result as a strategic step: the GAM can increasingly establish itself as a contemporary and innovative cultural infrastructure, inviting visitors and the entire city to participate actively in its museum program. For these reasons, the Compagnia di San Paolo is committed to closely following and continuously supporting the subsequent design phases and the entire execution of the works," stated Marco Gilli, President of the Fondazione Compagnia di San Paolo.

"Today we report on a historic day for the GAM, for the Fondazione Torino Musei, and for our city. Thanks to the fundamental support of the Compagnia di San Paolo, the most important project of the Foundation's Strategic Plan is concretely underway," stated Massimo Broccio, President of the Fondazione Torino Musei. "The GAM, the oldest civic gallery of modern and contemporary art in Italy - which was admirably rebuilt after the war with a unique and innovative project for its time - is now preparing to gather and relaunch that vision, projecting it into the future. The GAM redevelopment plan represents the most significant investment in Italy and one of the most important operations on the international scene in terms of ambition and expected impact among interventions on museum buildings. Innovation and the avant-garde are the guiding threads of this extraordinary regeneration project, which embraces and makes its own the spirit that characterized the building's design and the museum's birth. The project addresses the main contemporary challenges related to the evolution of museums and cultural sites: environmental sustainability, energy saving, architectural and technological innovation, and the implementation of new museum-use models oriented toward the audience of tomorrow, with a strong commitment to inclusion and the museum's social role as a cultural protagonist on the local and national stage. My best compliments go to the winning group, one of the most qualified internationally, which was able to capture and enhance the spirit of this transformation through its project. Special thanks go to the two competition commissions, who carried out an extraordinarily qualified selection process with exemplary competence and dedication."

Via Zoom, the winners declared: "When we started working on the project, we felt the need to reconsider some past interventions. However, the visit on-site made us realize that several elements had to be preserved and, in some cases, restored, because this place has a long and precious history that deserves to be valued over time. The project, however, goes beyond the building: it is primarily a project of openness. We recognized the GAM as a living place, deeply connected to the city of Turin. Opening the garden and the square means opening culture to the city, inviting people to traverse all spaces, down to the basement and the storage areas. We therefore imagined a truly open building, capable of combining respect for the interiors with great flexibility for future exhibition configurations. Finally, we sincerely thank you for your trust and for entrusting us with the future of the GAM."

A strategic project for the future of GAM and Turin

The GAM regeneration project is part of the process outlined by the Strategic Plan of the Fondazione Torino Musei, with the goal of returning to the city of Turin and the public a museum capable of combining technological innovation, environmental sustainability, and the enhancement of the building's architectural and historical identity.

The redevelopment of GAM is envisioned as an advanced model of intervention on modern cultural heritage, conceived to renew its functions, expand accessibility, optimize the visitor experience, and redefine the museum's role as an open, accessible cultural square fully integrated into the urban fabric, capable of offering new spaces for relationships and active community participation.

A rediscovered look at GAM's origins guides this process: the story of its birth and the genesis of a building designed from the beginning with a marked avant-garde vocation. Today, just as in the past, the intention is to propose a museum conceived as a laboratory for experimentation - a space capable of welcoming new languages and building unprecedented ways of relating to the community.

The same innovative drive of its origins returns as a strategic reference, guiding the museum's transformation toward a new phase of its history. The proposed redevelopment therefore intends to gather and evolve that experimental spirit, transforming it into a lever for GAM's international repositioning and for the construction of an institution capable of interpreting, with design clarity and a long-term vision, the cultural challenges of the next generation.

The international competition

The international design competition for the redevelopment of GAM was organized in two distinct phases, designed to guarantee transparency, design quality, and equal conditions for participation. To ensure uniform access for candidates, the entire relationship between the entity and the competitors took place exclusively electronically through the concorsiarchibo.eu platform of the Order of Architects of Bologna.

The first phase

The first phase, conducted in an open format, was intended to evaluate the curricula, qualifications, and professional experience of the candidates, with the goal of identifying groups to be admitted to the final phase. Participation was extensive and highly international: forty-nine architecture and engineering groups from France, Germany, Japan, Italy, Lebanon, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States submitted applications, confirming the design community's interest in a strategic intervention such as that of the GAM. The selection of finalists was entrusted to a technical commission called to evaluate the solidity of the applications and the quality of the profiles presented.

The first phase led to the identification of five groups of designers, selected for their quality, experience, and consistency with the objectives of the call, who were admitted to the second phase of the competition procedure dedicated to the development of design proposals.

The judging commission was composed of Emanuela Carpani, Francesco Novelli, and Cristina Becchio.

The second phase

The second phase, carried out in a completely anonymous form, represented the heart of the competition. The five finalist groups were requested to draft design documents in accordance with the instructions of the call and the objectives for the regeneration and development of the Gallery.

The proposals were examined considering architectural quality, innovation, and environmental sustainability, technical-economic feasibility, and consistency with the functional and identity needs of the GAM, with particular attention to the ability to interpret its contemporary vocation and the role of the Museum in the city's system.

The Judging Commission, composed of five experts with recognized experience in the fields of architecture, urban planning, and museum design, guaranteed a rigorous and independent evaluation process based on multidisciplinary skills and a careful reading of the museum's future needs.

The Commission for the second phase was composed of Marco Gilli - President of the Jury - Chris Dercon, Marco Filippi, Francesca Torzo, and Esmeralda Valente.

Final Competition Ranking

Following the outcome of the second phase, dedicated to design development, the Judging Commission examined and evaluated the proposals presented by the finalist groups, defining the merit ranking that identifies the winning project.

(in ranking order)

1. MVRDV (Rotterdam), Balance Architettura, EP&S Group, Dr. Michelangelo Di Gioia, Prof. Eng. Filippo Busato
2. Kengo Kuma & Associates Europe, Ralph Appelbaum Associates, Arch. Sonia Beatrice Calzoni, Deerns Italia SpA, CEAS srl, VDLA Vladimir Djurovic Landscape Architecture, Arch. Vincenzo Incardona, Arch. Anass Faid, Arch. Tommaso Mazzega, Arch. Francesco Patetta
3. Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra Arquitecto SLP, PROAP - Estudos e Projectos de Arquitectura Paisagista, GTRF - Tortelli Frassoni Architetti Associati, SEINGIM Global Service srl, 3ti Progetti Italia Ingegneria Integrata S.p.A., Diapason Ingegneria S.r.l., Geologist Dr. Marco Giovannozzi, Eng. Alessandro Zichi
4. Mario Cucinella Architects, Manens, Gae Engineering S.r.l., Milan Ingegneria SpA, WAU architetti, DOTDOTDOT, Dr. Alessandro Biglia
5. ACPV Architects (architects Antonio Citterio and Patricia Viel), DBA SpA, LAND Italia srl, Metis Lighting, Artcloud Network International, FIONDA srl, Arch. Alberto Artioli, Dr. Beatrice Zanelli

Presentation of the winning project

The winning project will be presented to the public, following the ordinary checks required by current legislation, during a major dedicated event scheduled for early 2026. This occasion will represent a first moment of public feedback on the selected design vision and the strategic framework that will guide the subsequent development phases. The targeted goal will be to involve stakeholders and share the journey with the local area, the national and international scene, and artistic and cultural communities, contributing to the strengthening of the Museum's positioning and the construction of a participatory vision of its transformation.