Mudet Museo del Tartufo, Alba

Architect: Antonello Stella
Text: András Tibor Kertész
Photos: Alessandra Bello

Alba is located half-way between Turin and Genoa, in the province of Piedmont, a region famous for its hills and mountains. The area has for a long time been famous for its excellent wines and its particularly succulent white truffles. A culinary delicacy and nowadays very expensive, truffles have brought Alba a huge boom. The famous truffle festival is also held here annually, with loads of programmes and tourist attractions. This seemed quite a good reason for the city to have a genuine truffle museum. The city council has designated the Maddalena Monastery building as the venue for the museum. An architectural competition was organized to find the best solution, which proved to be the concept of Prof. Dr. Antonello Stella, a professor with the University of Ferrara. The Dominican convent is perhaps one of the most significant Baroque-style buildings in the city, and its exciting interior structures made it an excellent location for the future museum. The new installation, set within the Baroque-style building’s stark white walls, which exude a sort of timeless tranquillity, has proven to be a perfect harmony. The minimalist-style exhibition boxes are made of sheet steel in black to function as a perfect match. The exhibition is narrative in nature, based on a strict system and logic of routes around which the whole is organized.

Architect: Antonello Stella
Associate architects: Simone Braschi, Chiara Finizza, Francesca Cosentino, Lorenzo Fantino – ASArchitects
Structure, HVAC: Narciso Piras
Monument history restoration: Caglioti Benedetta