The Modern Art Gallery’s Climate-control Project
 
 
Milan’s Modern Art Gallery safeguards and displays works of art. Conserving means reducing to minimum all risks of natural decay that awaits each artwork. Devoted care and caution also entails protection from variations in temperature.
 
The Villa necessitates an effective temperature-control system in its rooms: heating and generally humidifying in winter months and refreshing and dehumidifying in summer months, so as to keep the temperature as close as possible to 18-20 degrees, with 50¬–55% humidity.
 
The Villa’s historical structure already possessed at the time of its construction a thermonatural heating system that used the simplest physical principles: as air grows warmer it becomes lighter, thus rising through channels.
Perfect for its age, this initial system has been improved today with air-quality control that must respect the building’s features, with minimum impact.
 
The architect Fabio Fornasari was entrusted by the Board of Directors to examine the feasibility of a project that would integrate the original system with modern climate-control criteria, so as to allow the Museum to respect the standards established by the Lombardy Region.