The museum attracts 300,000 visitors from all over the world every year with the potential for further development. However, space is so limited now that expansion is currently out of the question. There is no more room in the permanent exhibition for South Tyrolean history ranging from the Paleolithic and Mesolithic up to the Carolingian era. In addition, the building is quite old and regulations for its preservation barely allow technical equipment to be upgraded to international standards. As a result, the province of South Tyrol initiated an extensive search for the best possible museum location and commissioned a location analysis.
The company Sinloc, which temporarily merged with the architectural office “Weber + Winterle”, was commissioned by the local government to carry out the assessment. They concluded that the former Enel area near the Drusus Bridge is the best candidate for a new museum location.
The entire location analysis for the new headquarters of the South Tyrol Museum of Archaeology (PDF – 5 MB, italian language) has now been published. Ten locations were scrutinized with the aim of ranking them and determining which was the best possible solution. Of these, five were classified as potential locations. The former Enel headquarters on Dante Street near the Drusus Bridge was found to be the best suited location. The other possible locations are listed according to their suitability: the prison area on Dante Street, the former INA building on the corner of Museum and Rosmini Street, the Virgl outcrop, and the Sparkasse headquarters.
The local government will discuss the proposals in the coming weeks and choose the future museum location after a consultation with the municipality of Bolzano.
(Source: LPA)
