Foster explained, in the presentation of the progress of the Museum Reform and Extension Project to the media on Monday, that with the inclusion of this second floor on the elevated platform with which the contest won, the services of the educational program of the Museum and administration offices, allowing 1,000 square meters to be released on the underground floor of the current building, where the administrative offices of the art gallery are currently located.
"The whole set will be more integrated, in and out," Foster described. The reforms will allow the Bilbao museum to gain almost 5,000 square meters for exhibitions.
Foster said that the materials with which the new structure will be built, nor its definitive color, have not yet been decided, although he has advanced that he has proposed to the Museum Board three possibilities: some type of white stone, a composite or clear resin or a white tinted glass that allows the passage of natural light into the two projected galleries.
The road map of this important architectural initiative was determined on 11 December 2018 in the Strategic Plan 2019–2022, approved by the Board with the aim of driving the organisational modernisation and the physical expansion of the institution. Within this new strategic vision, the action with the greatest impact is the expansion of some 8,000 m² of the museum’s operating space, with a budget of €18,658,200 and a completion time of 45 months.
The project increases sustainability criteria by incorporating solar panels and natural light collection systems. The well-known British architect, also won the extension of the Prado Museum, in a contest that also featured the English architect David Chipperfield, the Portuguese Souto de Moura Pritzker Prize 2011, the Dutch Rem Koolhaas Pritzker Prize 2000, or the Spanish architects Nieto and Sobejano.
