Enzo Ferrari Museum

Type: Museum
Area: 4,500m²
Completion: 2009
Contract Value: £7 million

Future Design

The Museum nestles in the grounds of the turn of the century Enzo Ferrari house in Modena, Italy - a submerged, soft blue form appearing to grow out of the surrounding landscape. The house being modest in scale has determined the height of the museum. A vast wall of curved, inclined glass draws you into the space, the curved plane bisected by fins inspired by the radiator of a Maserati. North facing roof lights flood the interior volume with diffused white light. Inside the walls and floor of the museum, rectangular in plan, forms a basin, finished in fine white terrazzo.

Being an Architecture student with a passion for performance cars, I have to say I am purely disappointed. The museum is supposed to represent one of the most important companies in automotive history, one that has defined the industry in so many ways. The company is the Epidemy of Performance, Styling, and passion. Three things that I fell, the current design of the museum lack.

What’s wrong with it you may ask? Well to start off its horrid, there is no other way to put it. It’s like someone had taken a brightly colored cheese grate, cut it in half, and then modeled the building off of that. There’s simply no creativity in the project and that is supposed to represent one of the most stylish and unique automotive companies in the world? Then there’s the Bright yellow color, I understand it’s supposed to represent the bright colors of Maserati Cars, but not only does it not fit in with the surrounding landscape it takes away from it. If nothing else the colors would be changed to Red which not only fits in better with the surrounding landscape it’s also a better representation of the company. Over all i say that the design is unique and interesting but definitely needs more refinement and and new paint color. Another thing that should be said is that i have nothing against the designer or firm as a matter of fact i beleive futrure desing the company has many great projects. This is just is not one of them.

Suffyan Tariq

July-04-2009