Museum of Royal Collections, The Royal Palace


The current factsheet belongs to the project that started in 2000 but later, in 2006 was halted for legal reasons.

The concept design, when the project was designed, consisted of some premises under the Armeria square and the Almudena cathedral, in an area that keeps important ruins of the Arab wall. Patrimonio Nacional guaranteed that the ruins would be protected and included within the museum. The Preliminary Concept Design contest, summoned in November 1999, was won by the Lasso Brothers architecture studio. The works started in 2000, and the preliminary budget was fixed in €60 M.

The project proposed the construction of a Museum of Royal Collections with a built surface area of 33,800 m² including 7,000 m² for car parking This new Museum built in an annex to the Spanish Royal Palace and the Cathedral of the Almudena, which are located in the historical nucleus of the city of Madrid.

The building, which is mainly built under ground will provide the public with 5 large collections of works of art: tapestries, horse-drawn carriages, paintings and sculptures, jewellery, crystal, ceramics and Fabrics. All of these collections are owned by the Patrimonio Nacional (equivalent to the National Heritage Society) and some hold worldwide historical importance.

Ancient ruins found by archaeologists under the Royal Palace will be integrated into the Museum’s exhibitions due to their invaluable historical importance. They will also provoke a major interest in the Museum as well as complicating the task of building the Museum.

The complex location and the architecture design features, made necessary to take special and singular constructive solutions. Most of the building surface (nearly 95%) was carried out under ground level and some elements reached depths over 32 meters.
It is worthy to mention, that Bovis Lend Lease provided a Feasibility Research and Design Management services, applying its systems of control of projects and Value Engineering, analysing the logistics and economical implications and proposing choices so that Patrimonio Nacional was permanently informed of the development of the Project and was able to take the required decisions.

Bovis Lend Lease started working as Document Controller during the Second Phase of the Concept Design Contest, consisting of analysing and selecting graphic documents (drawing, photographs, and other various documents) as well as written documents (plans, regulations and schedules), digital treatment, sort out, classification and filing.