MASP - Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand has been developing the MASP em expansão project Since 2019, MASP - Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand has been developing the expanding MASP project, which consists of the construction of a new building, named Pietro Maria Bardi. The building increases the museums exhibition and multi-use spaces, with an appropriate structure for exhibitions, educational programs and works restoration services, allowing the public greater access to culture.

This is the most significant achievement in the history of the museum after its transfer from Rua 7 de Abril, at the headquarters of Diários Associados, to Avenida Paulista, in 1968. At that time, the change took place so that the museum would have a headquarters to match from your collection. The building designed by Lina Bo Bardi (1914-1992), modernist architect recognized with the Special Golden Lion at the 2021 Venice Biennale, for her work as a whole, has become a postcard for the city and a symbol of modern architecture world of the 20th century.

As a way of preserving and valuing the history of the institution with the recognition of its founders, the original building was named after its architect, Lina Bo Bardi, and the new building bears the name of the museums first artistic director, Pietro Maria Bardi (1900 - 1999). These names, combined with that of the institution itself, Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand, named in reference to its founder (1892-1968), complete the tribute to the founding trio of MASP.

On November 26, 2024, MASP announced the completion of works on its second building - Pietro Maria Bardi - consisting of 14 floors and 7,821 m², added to the recent concession of the belvedere known as open space, represents significant growth for the institution, which doubles its operating area from 10,485 m² to 21,863 m² from March 2025. “MASP it grew and became bigger than its building. Expanding borders was necessary”, says Heitor Martins, CEO, MASP.

“O MASP passa, assim, pelo maior processo de expansão física da sua história, feito com recursos próprios. Vamos aumentar em 66% a capacidade expositiva do museu, integrando os dois prédios e esse é um investimento muito relevante para a cultura de São Paulo. Acredito que essa expansão irá consolidar o museu e a própria Avenida Paulista como um eixo cultural: quem sabe o mais importante eixo cultural do Brasil, do qual o MASP, sem dúvida, é a âncora”, comenta Alfredo Setubal, presidente do Conselho, MASP.

The gains will be multiple: the expansion of access to the public; a new and better structure to offer courses and public programs (workshops, lectures, seminars, teacher training, etc.); a larger environment equipped with the latest technologies for the restoration of iconic works, which, added to the acquisitions made year after year, tell art stories that are increasingly diverse, inclusive and plural.

Due to physical limitations, just over 1% of the museums collection is currently on display. In total, MASP has more than 11 thousand works including paintings, sculptures, objects, photographs, videos and clothing from different periods, covering European, African, Asian and American production. This is another aspect that will be positively impacted by the inauguration.

“MASP’s collection has been growing. Our plan is for the 2nd floor and 2nd basement of the Lina building to be dedicated to long-term exhibitions, with works that belong to the museums collection. The new galleries in the Pietro building, all with high ceilings and equipped with state-of-the-art air conditioning and lighting systems, should be occupied with temporary exhibitions”, says Adriano Pedrosa, artistic director, MASP. “Currently, the museum’s programming has a restricted schedule. These new spaces will provide greater breathing space in the calendar and better organization of the narrative of the exhibitions, in addition, we will increase the number of exhibitions per year.”

The Pietro building complements and qualifies the museums technical installations, with the expansion of areas such as warehouses and docks, which today impose concrete limits on operational management.

Uma parte essencial do projeto é a interligação subterrânea entre os dois edifícios, que será feita sob a rua Prof. Otavio Mendes. Outra transformação importante será a transferência da bilheteria para o prédio Pietro, liberando o vão livre e devolvendo a este espaço a sua utilidade como praça pública, uso defendido por Lina Bo Bardi desde que idealizou a atual sede do MASP.

O edifício Pietro possui os pavimentos junto ao chão totalmente transparentes, em consonância com o vão livre, e os andares superiores revestidos com chapas metálicas perfuradas e corrugadas, que irão compor uma imagem monolítica sem inviabilizar a apreciação da paisagem e a entrada de luz natural, através de aberturas estrategicamente posicionadas, de acordo com as necessidades dos espaços internos.

Em diálogo com Heitor Martins, diretor-presidente do museu, e demais lideranças do museu, o arquiteto Paulo Mendes da Rocha (1928-2021), Pritzker de arquitetura, enfatizou que o MASP deveria projetar um novo edifício que trouxesse todas as funcionalidades necessárias para o que se faz no museu, mas seguindo uma arquitetura que ressaltasse aquela desenvolvida por Lina sem competir com ela.

O empreendimento inclui soluções sustentáveis, diminuindo a pegada de carbono e conquistando a certificação LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design),sendo moderno e tecnológico, com iluminação em LED e automatizada, resultando em uma redução expressiva no consumo de energia. Além disso, a fachada dupla que protege o edifício da radiação solar e sombreia as janelas, diminui a carga térmica interna. A malha metálica que reveste o edifício permite a formação de uma camada de ar entre o edifício e a fachada externa, criando um microclima. Isso alivia o sistema de ventilação e climatização, reduzindo o consumo de energia.

O projeto é totalmente financiado por doações de pessoas físicas – seguindo a característica que o MASP possui desde sua fundação de engajar a sociedade privada em seus mais diversos projetos. “Viabilizar a construção desse prédio por meio de doações é o coroamento do novo modelo administrativo do MASP, uma instituição que tem seus pilares calcados na sociedade civil”, afirma Heitor Martins.

Os doadores consideram a ação uma oportunidade para deixar um legado cultural, turístico, urbanístico e econômico inquestionável para o país. “Felizmente, as famílias doadoras entenderam o significado do que nós estávamos propondo de fazer uma doação, sem incentivos da Lei Rouanet, só com pessoas físicas. Com isso, mostramos que a sociedade civil organizada pode, sim, fazer projetos importantes, desde que tenham confiança na governança da instituição. Mais do que uma expansão, estamos construindo um museu para o futuro”, diz Alfredo Setubal.

“We are not simply building a building”, says Geyze Diniz, vice-president of the Council, MASP, “we are providing conditions for the museum to grow”. “The involvement of civil society is increasingly important in institutions. We see this not only in Brazil, but throughout the world. Inspired by this, we understood that it was possible to make expansion possible in partnership with civil society, which has already been engaging with the museum in recent years and enabled it to reach the level of prominence it is at today”, he adds.

“MASP em Expansão means the largest Brazilian philanthropy operation with family support, without tax incentives or any government stimulus. This movement will transform MASP into the maestro of cultural institutions on Avenida Paulista, consolidating this important Brazilian cultural corridor”, highlights Ronaldo Cezar Coelho, president of the expanding MASP committee.

The expansion of the museum was first designed by Júlio Neves, an architect who served as president of MASP for 14 years, from 1995 to 2009. In the 1990s, Neves was responsible for the renovation that included the installation of the museums technical reserve and the renovation of the air conditioning system. He participated in the purchase of the Dumont-Adams building in the 2000s and developed the initial design for the building. Over the years, the project underwent changes to obtain approval from historical heritage bodies and meet the new intended uses of the space.

“The project is on par with the technology applied to the best museums in the world and I don’t know of any other similar structure in Brazil. I believe that the expanding MASP will be a unique case of planning and modernity in our country”, says Júlio Neves.

The architectural project is co-authored by Júlio Neves with the office METRO Arquitetos Associados, by partners Martin Corullon and Gustavo Cedroni. The office, which has had a fruitful relationship with MASP since 2015, made technical adaptations to the iconic glass easels developed by Lina Bo Bardi, reinstalled in the museum in 2016. The floating displays, which can be seen on the second floor, are one of the symbols maximum of the museum and are part of the architects original project.

METRO was also responsible for adapting the reassembly of exhibitions created by Lina for MASP in exhibitions such as Art of France: from Delacroix to Cézanne (2015), Portinari popular (2016) and A Mão do Povo Brasileiro, 1969/2016 (2016- 2017), in addition to creating new expographies of exhibitions such as Histórias afro-atlânticas (2018), chosen by the North American newspaper The New York Times as one of the best of that year. METRO also worked on improvements to the building, such as replacing the elevators, renovating the large auditorium and the administrative area of ​​the museum.

Project implementation is led by Marcelo Ribeiro, financial and operations director, MASP and Miriam Elwing, project and architecture manager, MASP. Racional was the company hired to carry out the construction and works involving the expansion of the museum and Tallento to manage the work. The Levisky Architects office | Estrategia Urbana was responsible for strategic consultancy and licensing.

In March 2025, to celebrate the inauguration of the new galleries in the Pietro Building, exhibitions will be presented with clippings from the MASP collection and an exhibition about the museumgit s stories.

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