© Iwan Baan
Architect:
Zaha Hadid Architects Location:
Rome, Flaminio, Italy Client:
Ministero Beni e Attività Culturali – Fondazione MAXXI Structural engineers:
Anthony Hunts Associates OK Design Group Lights and illumination:
Equation Lighting Year of enchargement:
1999 Year of completion:
2009 Constructed area:
27,000 sqm Photographs:
Iwan Baan
Opening the website of
Zaha Hadid Architects,
the home page shows the various links of the practice on a schematic
plan; it is the plan of MAXXI, Museum of Arts of the XXI century, in
Rome. This side-fact indicates the importance of MAXXI among the
projects made by Zaha Hadid. The museum was recently completed, after
ten years, and opened on preview to the public.
© Iwan Baan
Archdaily
was invited to the preview, so it was possible to experience the spaces
while empty – the art collection will be installed during winter, the
official opening will take place on April 2010 – and have a direct
impression of the building. As declared by the architect, the museum is
‘not a object-container, but rather a campus for art’, where flows and
pathways overlap and connect in order to create a dynamic and
interactive space. Although the program is clear and organized in plan,
flexibility of use is the main goal of the project. Continuity of spaces
makes it a suitable place for any kind of moving and temporary
exhibition, without redundant wall divisions or interruptions. Entering
the atrium, the main elements of the project are evident:
concrete
curved walls, suspended black staircases, open ceiling catching natural
light. By these elements Zaha Hadid intended ‘a new fluid kind of
spatiality of multiple perspective points and fragmented geometry,
designed to embody the chaotic fluidity of modern life’.
© Iwan Baan
This
statement of the architect, as usual of hers, brought out the question
if the concept of de-constructed fluidity matched with the identity of a
“static” city as Rome, and with its classical heritage. The response of
critics and public has been positive. Especially in this context, in
the relation with the existing fabrics, the curved smooth walls dialogue
with the neo-classical symmetrical facades. The new organism includes
in its developing the front- side building, by clean and blind surfaces
at the side, thus declaring the feasibility and the need of coexistence.
The museum is well inserted in the urban block situation, taking from
it its guidelines, and opening its cut-end wings as panoramic
viewpoints.
section
Particular
attention has been given to the natural lighting, by the thin concrete
beams on the ceiling, together with glass covering and filtering
systems. The same beams have a bottom rail from which art pieces are
going to be suspended. The beams, the staircases and the linear lighting
system guide the visitors through the interior walkway, which ends in
the large space on third level. From here, a large window offers a view
back to the city, though obstructed by a massive core.
© Iwan Baan
The
museum participates actively to the location – Rome, and its first
outskirt, not a part of the old centre, but still central. The Flaminio
neighbourhood has been interested in the last years by a renovation
program of public attraction, the latest being the Auditorium by Renzo
Piano. The long MAXXI construction process completes the idea of a
renewed city. Moreover, MAXXI is the first national museum of
contemporary art in Italy. It will bring a lot of attentions, by public
and media, together with economical activities, rendering this museum a
central point for Rome, which is in constant look for its contemporary
identity.
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