Mart lies behind the two fine 18th-century buildings, Palazzo Alberti and Palazzo dell'Annona. Both lie along Corso Bettini, “concealing” the breadth of the access plaza to the museum.

From this privileged position, one can noted how the new structure lies back from the road, leaving the impact of the historic buildings unaltered. Only from here, suspended in midair, do we notice the grandiosity of the circular building appearing before us.

The impact is great, as the sensation we have is of finding ourselves above a theatre set, in the heart of a museum that lies all around us.

If you are lucky enough to visit Mart on a sunny day, on this level you will particularly enjoy the plays of light set up by the large cupola covering a surface of 1300 m2 and standing 25m high, with a diameter of 40m.

The yellow Vicenza stone cladding the museum seems to fit harmoniously in with the historic buildings next door, and the piazza designed specially for the splendid sculptures by Mimmo Paladino.

Mario Botta wrote, commenting his own project during the opening ceremony of Mart in december 2002:

"The new square, covered by a glass dome, becomes the “heart” and barycentre of the whole complex and provides at the same time an image for the museum structure organized around it.
The “empty” space, the covered square, is thus the true pivot of the architectural composition which focuses on that centrality to convey the project’s primary idea.

As it cannot spread along corso Bettini, the new museum resorts to the artifice of an inner court, with an unusual outline, where the incoming visitor becomes the protagonist, finding himself at the centre, with the museum all around him."