The project for the expansion of the Museo de Arte Latnoamericano de Buenos Aires, MALBA, founded by Eduardo Consantini, has been approved. It is slated for completion in two years.
With an investment of 8 million dollars, the new MALBA will expand under Peru Square, at the junction of Figueroa and Salguero avenues , without impacting the neighborhood landscape or the circulation of pedestrians. The project will add 3,842 square meters to the museum's current 7,455 square meters, a 50% expansion.
The expansion plan is articulated around a 500-square-meter sculpture yard, projected seven meters underground with a transparent ceiling.
The plan includes the creation of a new, 1,000-square-meter exhibition gallery that will feature temporary exhibitions and house part of the permanent collection, of which only 30% is on exhibit, due to lack of space.
In the future, two new auditoriums, equipped with the latest technology and capable of accommodating 80 and 100 people respectively, will make it possible for MALBA to fulfill a calendar that at the moment exceeds its available capacity.
The project's landscape design will e by Brazil's Burle Marx Studio, established by one of Oscar Niemeyer's closest collaborators in the planning of Brasilia. At one point, Peru Square featured a building by Burle Marx, but it was unfortunately—and inexplicably—torn down in 1995.
The MALBA expansion will employ more than 200 workers. Once finished, it will add $500,000 to the museum's operative costs, which stand today at $3 million (60% financed by the Constantini Foundation)