frida escobedo studio to take MALBA underground with newly unveiled expansion

malba grows beneath buenos aires

On its 25th anniversary, Malba is preparing to expand beneath Plaza Perú in Buenos Aires, with Frida Escobedo Studio leading a project that will double the museum’s exhibition space. The new architecture moves underground, allowing a substantial extension of the institution while the public square continues across the surface above. Currently in design, the project is expected to open in late 2029 or early 2030.

The expansion introduces new temporary exhibition galleries alongside an auditorium and flexible spaces for public programming. Workshops and storage areas move into the enlarged footprint, while an outdoor courtyard brings open air down into the museum. From the plaza, the intervention is conceived around continuity as Malba gains room beneath the city without giving up the public ground above it.

visualizations © Taller Frida Escobedo

a museum that can work in parallel

Frida Escobedo Studio is approaching the project as a reorganization of Malba as much as an addition to it. The existing museum and new underground spaces will be linked through a broader mix of programs, with dedicated areas for exhibitions alongside film, literature, education and other public uses. The architects‘ idea is to loosen the dependence between these activities and the conventional museum route.

An auditorium, for instance, can join the visitor circuit during museum hours or operate independently for a screening later in the evening. The same flexibility extends to educational events and conversations. This gives the expansion a second scale beyond its added square footage, stretching Malba’s activity across more hours and allowing several parts of the institution to function at once.

Frida Escobedo Studio will expand Malba beneath Plaza Perú in Buenos Aires

an expansion fifteen years in the making

Plans to grow Malba beneath Plaza Perú date back to 2011, when the museum first pursued an extension of roughly 3,840 square meters alongside its existing 7,455-square-meter building. Buenos Aires approved the proposal the following year, based on an early scheme by Uruguayan architect Carlos Ott, leaving a thirty-year window for construction to move ahead.

The current commission brings Frida Escobedo Studio into that longer story. Escobedo founded her practice in Mexico City in 2006 and opened its New York office in 2022. Her recent museum work includes the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s new Oscar L. Tang and H.M. Agnes Hsu-Tang Wing in New York, while the studio is also working with Moreau Kusunoki on the renovation of the Centre Pompidou in Paris.

Plaza Perú will continue as an open public space above the expanded museum

a new courtyard will bring open air into the museum below the plaza

the underground extension will double the museum’s exhibition space

the project will introduce new spaces for exhibitions alongside film and education

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Remedios Varo, Simpatía (La rabia del gato), 1955

Remedios Varo, Armonía (Autorretrato sugerente), 1956

Les Distractions de Dagobert, Leonora Carrington, 1945

Vicente do Rego Monteiro, O urso (The Bear), 1925

Juan O'Gorman, Consumatum Est, 1942

Maria Martins, Cobra grande, 1942 | image © Edouard Fraipont

 

 

project info:

name: Malba expansion

architect: Frida Escobedo Studio

location: Buenos Aires, Argentina
institution: Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (Malba) | @museomalba
status: design phase
opening: expected late 2029 or early 2030