An irregular and highly disconnected area, in which the project becomes an opportunity to create a new and more complete identity for the whole of MAXXI.

The project foresees the creation and intersection of two systems: the implementation of a new multifunctional building dedicated to research and culture (Building A) and the creation of a linear urban park (System B), a green landscape system that will serve as a "container" for the new building and the other pre-existing architecture.

Building A

The urban context and its architectural typologies reveal patterns that can be reduced to orthogonal forms and simple volumes at different scales: they provide precise and incisive alignments, revealing to formulate the layout of the new building. It presents itself as a silent architecture, which 'sculpts' its own space alongside others, reinterpreting their existing formal patterns and values in a contemporary way. The volumetry is simple and essential, strongly linked to the nature of the functions it contains.

The restoration, technology and digital research laboratories, the art, architecture and photography storerooms and the teaching rooms are distributed between the ground floor and the two upper levels, while the roof plane houses a large hanging botanical garden. The garden is bordered by a reflective compluvium, covered in its inner layers with a mirror material which, like a metaphor for a new kaleidoscope, reproduces the magic and infinite multiplication of images of vegetation and seasons. The compactness of the form, rigorous in its Euclidean geometry constructed by planes, lines, points and segments, dialogues with the regular play of openings in the façade. The compactness of the form, rigorous in its Euclidean geometry constructed by planes, lines, points and segments, dialogues with the regular play of the openings in the façade, to be purified in the glazed crown of the building which delimits the terrace and places the interior space in constant relation with the landscape. The load-bearing structure is made up of modular systems of reinforced concrete pillars and beams, while the façade is punctuated by prefabricated panels of pink-tinted polished concrete.

System B

The reintroduction of green spaces in urban areas is nowadays essential to regulate the microclimate, reduce temperatures and air pollution. In line with this principle, the landscape approach adopted in designing System B is one of growth and transformation, rather than simple construction. Maxxi is characterised by the preponderance of cemented areas: large impermeable surfaces that prevent and slow down the natural process of infiltration of meteoric water and, consequently, the evaporation and transpiration of plants, thus minimising the thermal comfort of open spaces, especially during the summer period. In order to improve climatic comfort and lower perceived temperatures, the first intervention (both in the square in front of the new building and in the area behind the MAXXI building) is to reduce mineral surfaces in favour of permeable green surfaces, creating a new lush green landscape within the city. Once the structure of the park, which retains Zaha Hadid's intentions with its configuration in parallel strips, has been defined, an archipelago of activities can be inserted to activate the different figures of the landscape.

Client : Fondazione MAXXI / Budget : 14.2M€ HT (building + landscape) / Surface : 3 670m² building + 5 080 m² landscape / Schedule : 2022 / Team : LAN architecture SCAPE architecture (co-contracting architect), SNA (co-contracting architect), BOLLINGER & GROHMANN (structural design), FRANCK BOUTTE CONSULTANTS (HQE design), BAS SMETS (landscape architect), FOLIA CONSULTENZE (agronomist)