Panama Contemporary Art Museum

MAC Panamá is conceived as a place of encounter — between art and the city, between the public and contemporary production, between permanence and transformation. More than a building, the project proposes an open cultural infrastructure capable of expanding the museum beyond its physical and institutional boundaries.

The architecture emerges from a simple yet powerful idea: transforming the museum into a continuous public space. The complex is organized around three complementary plazas — a green plaza at ground level, a semi-covered plaza connected to the event hall, and an open-air exhibition plaza — which structure the project and affirm its civic vocation.

This strategy constructs an inseparable relationship between concept, form, and use. The museum is not presented as an isolated object, but rather as an active field of relationships, where the cultural experience is produced through the overlap between interior and exterior, building and city, everyday life and event.

Year: 2026
Location: Panama City, Panama
Built Area: 6500 m²
Status: Competition Proposal

Project Team: Bernardes Arquitetura, AGENCIA TPBA, MATTERIA
Collaborators: Escritório Burle Marx