From the underground to the stars. The project for a new planetary and mineralogical museum in Prato

The Museum of Planetary Sciences in Prato (MSP), founded in 2005 and managed since 2017 by Fondazione PARSEC (FP), houses more than 500 meteorites and about 7000 mineralogical samples – some of which are rare and of great value, because they come from Tuscan mines or mining localities that are now abandoned or no longer accessible. Today, MSP is animated by an effective synthesis of science and museology, in which the desire for renewal meets the importance of tradition, in a framework where the history of the universe and the planet we inhabit combine. MSP collections are actively studied, preserved, and enhanced to pass on to the future generations of scientists and amateurs its extraordinary heritage of scientific and historical knowledge, which represents the core value of a museum institution (Pratesi & Franza, 2021). MSP collections offer study materials to scholars whereas the general public has the opportunity to ‘see for themselves’ and ‘touch’ the development of these very important branches of science from a classification and laboratory perspective. This is especially true for the meteorite collection since meteorites are the only source of extraterrestrial material available on the Earth. Recently, the Municipal Administration of Prato promoted a project for joining MSP activities to the other two FP sectors (the Natural Science Centre and the Tuscan Geophysical Institute). A new FP headquarters has therefore been identified at Villa Fiorelli, on the edge of a park containing occurrences of considerable naturalistic interest. This project required extensive reflection on the MSP’s future development - in terms of exhibition, education, and research activities. The project took into consideration various aspects, which were analyzed, discussed, and furthered through a fruitful interaction between different professionals. The analysis of the historical, socio-economic, and cultural context of the MSP, together with the cataloging of its collections (Franza et al., 2022), was considered a priority. Subsequently, the architectural planning began, producing two different designs: the first entirely “superficial”, and the second totally “underground”. Both designs considered both the current layout of the Museum of Planetary Sciences – whose main exhibition has to be maintained – and the features of the new location site. Since the structure is in a natural context near an eighteenth-century villa, the underground solution results particularly effective for creating an ambient of over 2000 square meters without causing any environmental or architectural impact.