Have you already visited the Museum's exhibitions and collections and still have time to spare? Or are you just passing through, it's a beautiful day and you don't feel like being cooped up inside? The Mart's grounds may hold some nice surprises!

The courtyard alone is worth the visit. The glass and steel dome, which has become the symbol of the museum, covers this large circular space with its precise design of radiating lines branching off from the central hole. If you look carefully you will find many parallels between the shapes and proportions of the architecture: the eye of the dome is as large as the fountain in the centre of the courtyard, its rays are echoed by the radial structure of the pavement, and the access paths are symmetrical and marked by two perpendicular axes. Mario Botta's architecture is characterised by balance and classical proportions: it's no coincidence that the diameter of the courtyard is the same as that of the Pantheon in Rome.

There are always new art installations around the fountain as part of the museum's outdoor projects, but there are also works on permanent display in the Sculpture Garden and on the terraces. The stairs on either side of the courtyard lead you to the Museum's grounds and enable you to walk around it to admire its architecture. 

The lawn above the roof of the carpark is the perfect vantage point! From here, the building looks very different, with massive, squared forms instead of the curved ones of the courtyard. All around, the panorama is dominated by the profile of the mountains. Fausto Melotti's sculpture "La grande clavicola” [The great collarbone] seems to caress the skyline with its gentle steel curve. And if you look up to the sky, you will see Eliseo Mattiacci's "Sonda spaziale" [Space Probe], a tall Corten-steel structure reminiscent of an antenna pointing to the heavens. At Mart, art dialogues with the landscape and the museum becomes a 'contemporary landscape'.