A bold reimagining of one of Spain’s most important cultural institutions, the new access project for the Reina Sofía Museum by COLL-BARREU ARQUITECTOS enhances public interaction, connectivity, and urban integration. Through a contemporary architectural lens, the intervention celebrates transparency, movement, and accessibility, reinforcing the museum’s role as an open and dynamic space for all.
Reina Sofía Museum Renovation Technical Information
- Architects1-3: COLL-BARREU ARQUITECTOS
- Original Architect (18th Century): José de Hermosilla
- Location: Madrid, Spain
- Area: 21,170 m2 | 227,935 Sq. Ft.
- Competition Year: 2022
- Visualizations: © COLL-BARREU ARQUITECTOS
From the beginning, the proposal was intended to be an intervention without intervention.
– COLL-BARREU Architects
Reina Sofía Museum Renovation Photographs
Context and Historical Continuity
The Reina Sofía Museum occupies a site deeply embedded in Madrid’s architectural and social fabric. Initially conceived in the 18th century by José de Hermosilla as the General Hospital of Madrid, the building’s formal logic was systematic clarity and hygienic rationalism. It later received input from Juan de Villanueva and, after periods of abandonment and adaptive reuse, was restored in the 20th century by Antonio Fernández Alba with academic precision.
The building reopened as the Reina Sofía Art Center in 1986 and later transitioned into a national museum in 1992. Notably, the addition of three external glass elevator towers by Íñiguez de Onzoño and Vázquez de Castro in 1988 provided a bold infrastructural gesture that complemented the sobriety of Hermosilla’s structure.
Yet the museum’s spatial identity remained unresolved in urban terms. Although architecturally significant, Jean Nouvel’s 2005 extension was located at the periphery of the site, effectively reinforcing the building’s disconnect from the Paseo del Prado—Madrid’s principal cultural artery. The main entrance, still anchored to the vestigial apothecary access on Santa Isabel Street, faced inward toward a cloistered square rather than outward to the city. For decades, the museum existed physically close but conceptually apart from the urban and civic dynamism of the Prado axis.
Architectural Strategy: Intervention Without Addition
Rather than repeating the common strategy of annexation or visual landmarking, COLL-BARREU ARQUITECTOS pursued what they described as an “intervention without intervention.” This paradoxical phrase encapsulates an approach rooted in the existing structure’s latent spatial and tectonic capacities. There are no new appendages, no formal spectacles, no signature geometries. Instead, the intervention operates through subtraction, reactivation, and realignment.
Central to this strategy is the relocation of the main entrance—from its residual, historically contingent location on Santa Isabel Street to the more civic façade that faces the Paseo del Prado. However, the architects proposed a network of distributed access points rather than establishing a single monumental threshold. This decision reflects the egalitarian nature of the building’s original fenestration and a conscious rejection of architectural hierarchy. The new access system recognizes the plurality of today’s museum users and resists the idea of the institution as a singular authority.
The architecture of access becomes the architecture of openness—literal and conceptual. The old hospital façade, once sealed off from the Prado, is now perforated with restored openings, transforming the building into a porous, civic landscape.
Spatial and Experiential Reconfiguration
The transformation extends beyond access to reimagine how visitors circulate and experience the museum. A pivotal move is the rearticulation of the internal courtyard, historically underutilized, as a central spatial hinge. This courtyard becomes both a point of orientation and a place of pause—simultaneously framing the experience of nature, light, and the museum’s architectural strata.
Equally critical is the extension of the vertical circulation system. The museum’s exo-cores, while emblematic, previously terminated above the first floor, leaving the entry level disconnected from the building’s primary movement networks. By extending these elevators down to the ground level, COLL-BARREU resolves a long-standing infrastructural gap and affirms the first floor as the foundational interface between city and institution.
Here, spatial clarity meets accessibility. The visitor is no longer funneled into a predetermined route but encouraged to navigate more intuitively. Circulation becomes non-linear, responsive, and embedded in a dialogue with the architecture’s historic logic. Light penetrates deep into the plan, orientations become legible, and the museum experience is recalibrated around comfort, agency, and legibility.
Toward a New Institutional Urbanism
This project is more than a museum retrofit. It reflects a broader shift in architectural thinking that positions public institutions not as monuments isolated from the city but as porous infrastructures deeply engaged with civic life.
In resisting the urge to add or dramatize, COLL-BARREU aligns itself with a lineage of critical architecture that values continuity over rupture and intelligence over image. The Reina Sofía no longer turns its back on the Paseo del Prado but aligns with it—spatially, symbolically, and functionally.
The design also makes a quiet but profound political statement. The dismantling of a singular, dominant entrance in favor of multiple access points speaks to a rethinking of institutional authority. A democratic museum must be spatially democratic—open, adaptable, and in tune with the flows of urban life. Architecture becomes a tool of inclusion rather than direction, enabling rather than prescribing.
By integrating the museum into the reimagined “Prado city garden,” the intervention not only completes an unfinished historical narrative but also models a new way forward: one where heritage, contemporary use, and urban vitality are no longer seen in opposition, but as parts of a continuous, evolving whole.
Reina Sofía Museum Renovation Plans
Reina Sofía Museum Renovation Image Gallery
About COLL-BARREU ARQUITECTOS
Founded in 2001, COLL-BARREU ARQUITECTOS is a Madrid and Bilbao-based architectural firm renowned for its innovative and sustainable designs. The firm engages in research, design, and construction of architectural projects while contributing to theory, culture, art, and communication. Notable projects include the Basque Health Department Headquarters in Bilbao and the E8 Building in Vitoria-Gasteiz.
Credits and Additional Notes
- Design Team: Juan Coll-Barreu, Daniel Gutiérrez Zarza
Architects Contributors to Reina Sofia: Juan de Villanueva, Antonio Fernández Alba (20th-century restoration), José Luis Íñiguez de Onzoño & Antonio Vázquez de Castro (1988 elevator towers), Jean Nouvel (2004–2005 extension)
- Client: Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía
