“The Museum as an Urban Threshold and Civic Platform”

The proposal conceives the MAC as a porous urban device that articulates city–art–community. The building is not conceived as an isolated object, but rather as an open cultural infrastructure capable of absorbing urban flows, generating active public spaces, and establishing a continuous dialogue between contemporary art, the social context of San Francisco, and the Boca La Caja community.Formally, the project is inspired by the movement of the traditional Panamanian Pollera, creating a translucent envelope that contains the exhibition galleries and transforms the building into an urban cultural beacon. The building minimizes its footprint on the site and is set as far back as possible, allowing the largest possible area of public space to unfold in front of the building.