Escaping Cliché, Embracing Paradox. Fondazione Prada: A Special Lecture with Federico Pompignoli

Written by Thanatchaya Soowanrak 

From Cronocaos to Fondazione Prada, Federico Pompignoli, former Project Architect at OMA, revealed how the continuous exploration of contradictions can produce spaces that are neither preservation nor entirely new architecture, but something in between. 

At the Fondazione Prada, the lecture began with a simple yet provocative phrase: “challenge vs comfort.” What followed was a series of paradoxes, each unfolding like another layer of inquiry. For the young architects and designers gathered there, it became a challenging food for thought, inviting us to reconsider how we approach and perceive the architectural design process.

Cronoscaos 

“What is original? And what is not?” 

Drawing from OMA’s long engagement with heritage, the research project Cronocaos, presented at the Venice  Architecture Biennale 2010, investigates the paradox of our time: preservation and destruction happening simultaneously. Today, collective memory seems to diminish while nostalgia intensifies. Each year, more buildings are protected, yet the criteria that determine what should be preserved, reconstructed, or demolished remain unclear. 

This ambiguity can lead to irreversible decisions. The demolition of the Palast der Republik in Berlin, for instance,  raises the question of how cultural value is defined. If the same criteria had been applied throughout history, many of the monuments we value today might never have survived. 

“If we want to preserve only the original, there would be no monuments left. No Rome, no nothing.” 

In reality, it is almost impossible to encounter a monument that has remained exactly the same since the moment it was built. Federico Pompignoli illustrated this through one of OMA’s most debated projects, the transformation of the Fondaco dei Tedeschi in Venice. Over centuries, the structure has continuously changed, from its origins in the fourteenth century to later interventions during the Fascist era. If every non-original layer were removed, almost nothing would remain beyond its façade. 

A similar paradox appears in the Maison à Bordeaux, which was listed as a historic monument shortly after its completion. Once protected, the architects themselves were no longer allowed to modify the building. Preservation,  in this sense, can freeze architecture in time. 

Architectures are constantly reused, adapted, and reinterpreted. It is impossible to predict what will become valuable in the future. As Pompignoli suggested, “What we can do, at least, is to have a clear attitude toward it. Not to deny anything, not to pretend anything. Because we already know that nothing is ever truly original.” 

Expansion and Neglect 

In 2005, Rem Koolhaas questioned the transformation of museums. As museums increasingly evolved into large social institutions, almost cities in themselves. The constant demand for extensions and expansions meant that scale often overshadowed content and spatial quality. This led to the hypothesis that neglect, inaction, or the decision not to change could become a deliberate architectural strategy. Rather than constant expansion, restraint might preserve a certain authenticity embedded within existing structures.

Choosing a neglected former gin distillery located on the southern edge of Milan, instead of a location in the city center spotlight, the gesture could be an act of escape from the expected cliché. The decision also reflected Prada’s distinct attitude and identity.  

Fondazione Prada 

“Would it be possible to create a museum that combines all conditions?” 

The Fondazione Prada is a former industrial complex composed of a variety of spatial environments, such as indoor, outdoor, semi-indoor, huge, narrow, horizontal and vertical spaces. For Pompignoli, it became somehow both an inspiration and a challenge, requiring an architectural attitude very different from the conventional approach of demolishing and rebuilding everything anew. 

Rather than erasing all the existing buildings, the project embraced them as the foundation of the museum’s identity.  Three new structures were inserted into the complex, extending the spatial possibilities for exhibiting art. Circulation unfolds as an open network rather than a fixed loop, allowing visitors to construct their own curatorial path through a sequence of courtyards, galleries, and towers. 

Challenge vs comfort 

“…with OMA and Prada, we always gravitate toward challenge rather than a comfort.” 

At Fondazione Prada, choosing challenge produces a multiplicity of spatial encounters where art and architecture continuously provoke one another. Old structures stand beside new interventions, Open and enclosed coexist within the cinema, and old materials are adjacent to new materials, forming a unique dialogue of both architecture, arts and visitors who move through it. 

Reflecting on the ideas behind Fondazione Prada, it is interesting that beneath almost every architectural process lies a contradiction. The question is how to engage with it. Sometimes contradictions are reconciled; other times, they are allowed to confront one another, revealing possibilities that could not have been predicted. In that tension,  architecture moves beyond the expected. Perhaps this is why the golden surface of the “Haunted House” at the  Fondazione Prada continues to cast a glow against its surroundings, a warm reminder that paradox, when embraced,  can transform architecture into something unexpectedly extraordinary.