{"id":793800,"date":"2026-10-06T14:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T14:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/793800\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T14:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T14:28:10","slug":"bilbao-fine-arts-museum-gains-new-e45m-norman-foster-designed-wing-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/793800\/","title":{"rendered":"Bilbao Fine Arts Museum gains new \u20ac45m Norman Foster-designed wing – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

The industrial port city of Bilbao in northern Spain\u2019s Basque Country may be most famous for Frank Gehry\u2019s Guggenheim Museum<\/a> but a major new Norman Foster-designed expansion to the nearby Museo de Bellas Artes (Fine Arts Museum) opens to the public today (6 October).<\/p>\n

The striking, \u20ac45m project in which Foster + Partners has worked with the eminent Basque architect Luis Mar\u00eda Uriarte, has been described as a \u201cfloating pavilion\u201d and will double the current exhibition space in the museum, to around 6,000 sq. m, and will also remodel 8,000 sq. m of existing galleries.<\/p>\n

Reuniting two buildings<\/p>\n

Until now, the museum\u2019s collections, which include works by Lucas Cranach the Elder, El Greco, Zurbar\u00e1n, Goya, Mary Cassatt, Gauguin, Bacon and Richard Serra, as well as oriental art, archaeological treasures and decorative and applied arts, have been split across two spaces. The two buildings: one Neo-Classical built in 1945, the other a Modernist, Mies van der Rohe-influenced 1970 expansion, were both renovated and remodelled in 2001 by Uriarte.<\/p>\n

The new Foster and Uriarte extension, which The Art Newspaper viewed, links the existing buildings while adding two new, curved, light-flooded upper storeys. In keeping with the \u201cfloating pavilion\u201d moniker, these sit above the existing buildings, overhanging the front fa\u00e7ade, and are cleverly held up by a series of giant, V-shaped supports.<\/p>\n

The uppermost floor will hold temporary exhibitions as well as a viewing terrace and restaurant with views of the city and surrounding hills, while there will also be a space dedicated to architecture and design, a new documentation and research centre, offices, services and facilities.<\/p>\n

The museum\u2019s original entrance in the red brick 1945 building\u2014a classical-style rectangular archway flanked by twin statue-filled arched alcoves, will also be restored and reinstated.<\/p>\n

But the experience of entering the museum will be transformed by a new 1,000 sq. m light-drenched atrium, which will operate as a visitor\u2019s centre while also providing access to both the existing and new galleries.<\/p>\n

The expansion will provide new gallery spaces for the permanent collection, which comprises around 2,000 paintings, 500 sculptures and an 800-strong collection of decorative arts. The collection will be presented both chronologically and thematically.<\/p>\n

There will also be new spaces for the museum\u2019s ongoing programme of temporary exhibitions, as well as a new educational centre, a space for family activities and workshops and, on the upper level, a restaurant overlooking the park.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

A new \u201cfloating pavilion\u201d, on top of the original building, is part of the Bilbao museum\u2019s expansion Courtesy of Museo de Bellas Artes de Bilbao<\/p>\n

The new extension is funded by the Basque government (one of Spain\u2019s semi-autonomous regional governments), the regional government, the provincial council and Bilbao city council in conjunction with the privately-owned BBK Banking Foundation.<\/p>\n

Foster and Uriarte\u2019s design was the winner of an open competition and was chosen partly for its respect for the existing buildings.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat appealed to us about the Foster and Uriarte proposal was that it didn\u2019t interfere with the existing architecture,\u201d says Miguel Zugaza, the museum\u2019s director. \u201cIt enhanced it and offered a new dimension to the museum, integrating the two earlier styles of architecture\u2014the 1945 building and the 1970 building\u2014and uniting them in a very ingenious manner. It also fulfilled several different requirements: not only the physical expansion of the museum but also reorienting the museum towards a different side of the city\u2014not towards the river but towards the Guggenheim [museum].\u201d<\/p>\n

The Fine Arts Museum sits less than ten minutes\u2019 walk from the Guggenheim and the banks of Bilbao\u2019s Nervi\u00f3n River. Only one large building between the museum and the Guggenheim prevents a direct view between the two.<\/p>\n

To reposition the Fine Arts Museum as a key part of Bilbao\u2019s cultural offering, Foster + Partners have pedestrianised the centre of the roundabout in front of the museum and reduced traffic lanes.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe great good fortune of a city like Bilbao is that we have two museums so close to each other,\u201d Zugaza says. \u201cWe\u2019re only 500 metres from the Guggenheim but we\u2019re not in competition with each other. We have very different offers and different histories. The Fine Arts Museum can be seen as effectively the Basque Country\u2019s national gallery and I think this new stage in our history will extend what we can offer visitors, not only to Bilbao but to the whole of the Basque Country.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The industrial port city of Bilbao in northern Spain\u2019s Basque Country may be most famous for Frank Gehry\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":793801,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,24875,22013,1120,96,261328,10748,10345,29323,12880,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-793800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-bilbao","tag-building-projects","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-museo-de-bellas-artes-de-bilbao","tag-museums","tag-museums-heritage","tag-openings","tag-renovation","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793800","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=793800"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793800\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/793801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=793800"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=793800"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=793800"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}