The Enzo Ferrari Museum (opens in new tab) is a bold building that marks the end of two eras. On the one hand it effectively fossilises a structure that is as dear to any auto aficionado as the Vatican is to a devout Catholic; the original office and workshop of one Enzo Ferrari (opens in new tab). This architectural reliquary is achieved with the construction of another milestone, the final building by Future Systems (opens in new tab).
Jan Kaplicky's (opens in new tab) pioneering practice never really achieved the technological revolution it promised. When Kaplicky died in 2009, the monographs full of ambitious space age concepts remained on the page, with only a few signature buildings - Birmingham's Selfridges (opens in new tab), the Lords (opens in new tab) Media Centre - to show for it. It was left to Kaplicky's former partner, Amanda Levete, to deftly take the sleekly futuristic and commercially viable elements of Kaplicky's obsessions and absorb them into her own highly accomplished designs and practice.
This final Kaplicky work, won in competition way back in 2004, is the Enzo Ferrari Museum (opens in new tab) in Modena, €18 million of highly polished auto nostalgia. Described as a 'bonnet', finished in yellow aluminium in homage to Modena's city colours, the same yellow chosen by Ferrari as the background colour to the Prancing Horse badge, the curved roof has vents inspired by the air intakes of his famous sports cars.
Born in 1898, Ferrari made his name as a racing team manager in the inter-war years - principally for Alfa Romeo (opens in new tab) - before eventually emerging as a full-fledged manufacturer in his own right in 1947. The new museum structure reaches around the original house like an 'open hand', its glass façade reflecting the traditional architecture of the restored offices, now serving as a gallery space.
In the display space beneath the soaring bonnet roof is a collection of significant cars - not just limited to Ferraris - tracing Enzo Ferrari's career from the early twentieth century onwards. After Kaplicky's death, the construction and detailing was skillfully managed by Andrea Morgante, formerly at Future Systems but now at Shiro Studio.
Opened in March 2012, the new museum will become an instant place of pilgrimage for Ferrari's faithful global congregation. But rather than take a one-dimensional view of the company's own output, the exhibits are a welcome overview of the great interwar motor-racing era and its evolution into the road and race cars of the post-war period - the era that Ferrari himself has come to define.
The museum's glass façade reflects the original buildings
Inside the new building, from left to right: Stanguellini Junior racing car, dating from the late 1960s; Maserati A6G/54 2000 Spider, 1955, with an engine derived from Maserati's racing cars and bodywork by Zagato (this particular car was commissioned by Argentina's Juan Peron); and a Stanguellini 1100 Barchetta Ala d'Oro
Alfa Romeo 158 Alfetta, an iconic post-war racing car
Alfa Romeo Bimotore. Often dubbed 'the first Ferrari', this twin-engined racer was developed by Enzo Ferrari whilst at Alfa Romeo in 1935 and became the first car to wear the Prancing Horse logo
De Tomaso Vallelunga, 1965. Ultra rare mid-engined road car from Ferrari's rival De Tomaso
Maserati A6GCS Berlinetta Pininfarina. Another Ferrari rival, bodied by Pininfarina and developed for racing in the Mille Miglia in 1954
Ferrari 166 MM Coupé, 1948. A coupé version of Ferrari's second model, the 166
Maserati A6 1500 Pininfarina. Introduced in 1946, this was the first road-going Maserati
The 612 Scaglietti was introduced in 2004 and has now been replaced by the Ferrari FF
The interior of the renovated original office
A series of undulating display cabinets house an exhibition of archive material
ADDRESS
Via Paolo Ferrari 85
41123 Modena
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