The Museo Reina Sofía revitalises its visitor experience via a collaboration with IKEA

• The Museo Reina Sofía and IKEA have signed a patronage agreement for an interior design project in harmony with the composition and creation of different spaces in the Cloister of the Sabatini Building’s Floor 2. The project is made possible through the supply and instalment of furniture, adornments and accessories by IKEA.      
• Its aim is to create comfortable spaces in which to foster the cultural, social and educational development of children and adults.   
• The project is aligned with the Museo’s commitment to becoming a welcoming place for visiting its Collections and temporary exhibitions and to providing rest areas with spaces for reflection adapted to all visitors. 

The Museo Reina Sofía’s main site, made up of the Sabatini Building and Nouvel Building and stretching across a surface area of around 84,000 m², receives numerous visitor flows which disperse in different directions given that both buildings have separate entrances and are connected at different points, giving rise to many possible visiting itineraries and distinctly marking exhibition spaces and other areas.   

One of the Sabatini Building’s most representative spaces is the Cloister, with its high ceiling domes and stone arches, and windows that look out onto the Garden, an outdoor space in which landscaped areas and fountains are congruous with sculptures by different artists.   

In its goal to update and create common spaces aimed at the participants of education activities and the general public alike, the Reina Sofía has redesigned the spaces inside the Cloister on Floor 2 allocated to the education programme Savia, as well as the meeting point for other activities. Therefore, new spaces have been established with rest in mind and to enhance the visitor experience within the obligations of providing a public service, endowing these areas with comfortable, efficient and multifunctional furniture. 

IKEA’s interior design project developed for the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía means that these common areas are conceived as spaces of encounter, learning and rest, and designed for participants in education activities and visitors in general.  

The project seeks to bring a homely feel to the museum environment by incorporating a Scandinavian sensibility — functional, accessible, welcoming — and adapting it to the needs of a space with a large flow of visitors through practical, versatile and comfortable solutions.     

The design of these spaces seeks to unify the Museo’s own language with Scandinavian design and the glow and feeling a home emits, giving prominence to social interaction and reflection.