MAXXI - NATIONAL MUSEUM OF XXI CENTURY ARTS
DESIGN BY ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS
MAXXI - NATIONAL MUSEUM OF XXI CENTURY ARTS
DESIGN BY ZAHA HADID ARCHITECTS
ARCHITECTURAL
CONCEPT AND URBAN STRATEGY : STAGING THE FIELD OF POSSIBILITIES
The MAXXI
addresses the question of its urban context by maintaining a reference to the
former army barracks. This is in no way an attempt at topological pastiche, but
instead continues the low-level urban texture set against the higher level
blocks on the surrounding sides of the site. In this way, the MAXXI is more
like an ‘urban graft’, a second skin to the site. At times, it affiliates with
the ground to become new ground, yet also ascends and coalesces to become
massive where needed. The entire building has an urban character: prefiguring
upon a directional route connecting the River to Via Guido Reni, the Centre
encompasses both movement patterns existing and desired, contained within and
outside. This vector defines the primary entry route into the building. By intertwining the circulation with the
urban context, the building shares a public dimension with the city,
overlapping tendril-like paths and open space. In addition to the circulatory
relationship, the architectural elements are also geometrically aligned with
the urban grids that join at the site. In thus partly deriving its orientation and
physiognomy from the context, it further assimilates itself to the specific
conditions of the site.
SPACE VS
OBJECT
Our proposal
offers a quasi-urban field, a “world” to dive into rather than a building as
signature object. The campus is organised and navigated on the basis of
directional drifts and the distribution of densities rather than key points.
This is indicative of the character of the MAXXI as a whole: porous, immersive,
a field space. An inferred mass is subverted by vectors of circulation. The
external as well as internal circulation follows the overall drift of the
geometry. Vertical and oblique circulation elements are located at areas of
confluence, interference and turbulence.
The move from
object to field is critical in understanding the relationship the architecture
will have to the content of the artwork it will house. Whilst this is further
expounded by the contributions of our Gallery and Exhibitions experts, it is
important here to state that the premise of the architectural design promotes a
disinheriting of the ‘object’ orientated gallery space. Instead, the notion of
a ‘drift’ takes on an embodied form. The drifting emerges, therefore, as both
architectural motif, and also as a way to navigate experientially through the
museum. It is an argument that, for art practice is well understood, but in
architectural hegemony has remained alien. We take this opportunity, in the
adventure of designing such a forward looking institution, to confront the
material and conceptual dissonance evoked by art practice since the late
1960’s. The path led away from the ‘object’ and its correlative sanctifying,
towards fields of multiple associations that are anticipative of the necessity
to change.
INSTITUTIONAL
CATALYST
As such, it
is deemed significant that in configuring the possible identity of this newly
established institution (housing both Art and Architecture), with its
aspiration towards the polyvalent density of the 21st century, conceptions of
space and indeed temporality are reworked. Modernist Utopian space fuelled the
white ‘neutrality’ of most 20th century museums. Now, this disposition must be
challenged, not simply out of wilful negation, but by the necessity for
architecture to continue its critical relationship with contemporary social and
aesthetic categories. Since absolutism has been indefinitely suspended from
current thought on the issue of art presentation, it is towards the idea of the
‘maximising exhibition’ that we gravitate. In this scenario, the MAXXI makes
primary the manifold possibilities for the divergence in showing art and
architecture as well as catalysing the discourse on its future. Again, the
‘signature’ aspect of an institution of this calibre is sublimated into a more
pliable and porous organism that promotes several forms of identification at
once.
WALLS/NOT-WALLS:
TOWARDS A CONTEMPORARY SPATIALITY
In
architectural terms, this is most virulently executed by the figure of the
‘wall’. Against the traditional coding of the ‘wall’ in the museum as the
privileged and immutable vertical armature for the display of paintings, or
delineating discrete spaces to construct ‘order’ and linear ‘narrative’, we
have created a critique of it through its emancipation. The ‘wall’ becomes the
versatile engine for the staging of exhibition effects. In its various guises -
solid wall, projection screen, canvas, window to the city - the exhibition wall
is the primary space-making device. By running extensively across the site,
cursively and gestural, the lines traverse inside and out. Urban space is
coincidental with gallery space, exchanging pavilion and court in a continuous
oscillation under the same operation. And further deviations from the classical
composition of the wall emerge as incidents where the walls become floor, or
twist to become ceiling, or are voided to become a large window looking out. By
constantly changing dimension and geometry, they adapt themselves to whatever
curatorial role is needed. By setting within the gallery spaces a series of
potential partitions that hang from the ceiling ribs, a versatile exhibition
system is created. Organisational and spatial invention are thus dealt with
simultaneously amidst a rhythm found in the echo of the walls to the structural
ribs in the ceiling that also filter the light in varying intensities.
STAGE FOR
THOUGHT/ART AS DRAMA
It is in this
way that the architecture performs the ‘staging’ of art, with moveable elements
that allow for the drama to change. ‘Sets’ can be constructed from the notional
elements of the gallery spaces. These are attuned to the particularities of the
exhibition in question, materialising or dematerialising accordingly.
The drift
through the MAXXI is a trajectory through varied ambiences, filtered spectacles
and differentiated luminosity. Whilst offering a new freedom in the curators’
palette, this in turn digests and recomposes the experience of art
spectatorship as liberated dialogue with artefact and environment.
http://www.zaha-hadid.com/architecture/maxxi/
MAXXI: A
CAMPUS FOR CULTURE
The MAXXI - Museum
of 21st Century Arts is a foundation created by the Ministry of Cultural
Heritage and Activities (Minister Sandro Bondi). The president is Pio Baldi.
Designed by
architect Zaha Hadid (winner of the international competition in 1999), the
MAXXI is located in the Flaminio quarter of Rome, in the area of the former
Montello military barracks.
The complex
houses two institutions: MAXXI Arte (Director Anna Mattirolo) and MAXXI
Architecture (Director Margherita Guccione), aiming to promote art and
architecture through collection, conservation, study and exhibition of
contemporary works. As of today, over 300 works are part of the MAXXI Art
collection, including those of Boetti, Clemente, Kapoor, Kentridge, Merz,
Penone, Pintaldi, Richter, Warhol and many others. MAXXI Architecture includes
the files of the designs of Carlo Scarpa, Aldo Rossi, Pierluigi Nervi and
others, as well as the projects of contemporary authors such as Toyo Ito, Italo
Rota and Giancarlo De Carlo, and photography collections of the projects
Italian Atlas and Author’s Site.
Designed as a
true multi-disciplinary and multi-purpose campus of the arts and culture, the
MAXXI creates an urban complex for the city that can be enjoyed by all. The
MAXXI includes – in addition to the two museums – an auditorium, library and
media library, bookshop and cafeteria, spaces for temporary exhibitions,
outdoor spaces, live events and commercial activities, laboratories, and places
for study and leisure.
The MAXXI,
open to the city and to the world, is offered as a point of reference for
public and private institutions in Italy and abroad, as well as for artists,
architects and the wider public.
The design by
Zaha Hadid is woven into the city’s fabric with an architectural arrangement
based on the idea of an urban campus. In the MAXXI, the idea of a “closed”
building gives way to a broader dimension, creating both indoor and outdoor
spaces that become part of the surrounding city.
The two
museums - MAXXI Art and MAXXI Architecture – are located around a large full
height space which gives access to the galleries dedicated to permanent
collections and temporary exhibitions, the auditorium, reception services, cafeteria
and bookshop. Outside, a pedestrian walkway follows the outline of the
building, restoring an urban link that has been blocked for almost a century by
the former military barracks.
Materials
such as glass (roof), steel (stairs) and cement (walls) give the exhibition
spaces a neutral appearance, whilst mobile panels enable curatorial flexibility
and variety.
The fluid and
sinuous shapes, the variety and interweaving of spaces and the modulated use of
natural light lead to a spatial and functional framework of great complexity,
offering constantly changing and unexpected views from within the building and
outdoor spaces.
Two principle
architectural elements characterize the project: the concrete walls that define
the exhibition galleries and determine the interweaving of volumes; and the
transparent roof that modulates natural light. The roofing system complies with
the highest standards required for museums and is composed of integrated frames
and louvers with devices for filtering sunlight, artificial light and
environmental control.
http://www.zaha-hadid.com/architecture/maxxi/
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“I see the MAXXI as an immersive urban environment for the exchange of
ideas, feeding the cultural vitality of the city.
The MAXXI should not be considered just one building - but several. The
idea was to move away from the idea of “the museum as an object” and towards
the idea of a “field of buildings”. After many studies, our research evolved
into the concept of the confluence of lines, where the primary force of the
site is the walls that constantly intersect and separate to create both indoor
and outdoor spaces. It’s no longer just a museum, but an urban cultural centre
where a dense texture of interior and exterior spaces have been intertwined and
superimposed over one another. It’s an intriguing mixture of galleries,
irrigating a large urban field with linear display surfaces.
The walls of the MAXXI create major streams and minor streams. The major
streams are the galleries, and the minor streams are the connections and the
bridges. The site has a unique L-shaped footprint that meanders between two
existing buildings. Rather than seeing this as a limitation, we used it to our
advantage, taking it as an opportunity to explore the possibilities of linear
structure by bundling, twisting, and building mass in some areas and reducing
it in others - threading linearity throughout both interior and exterior or the
MAXXI.”
Zaha Hadid
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ZAHA HADID
Zaha Hadid,
founder of Zaha Hadid Architects, was awarded the Pritzker Architecture Prize (
considered to be the Nobel Prize of architecture) in 2004 and is
internationally known for both her theoretical and academic work. Each of her
dynamic and innovative projects builds on over thirty years of revolutionary
exploration and research in the interrelated fields of urbanism, architecture
and design. Hadid’ s interest lies in the rigorous interface between
architecture, landscape and geology as her practice integrates natural
topography and human – made systems , leading to experimentation with cutting –
edge Technologies. Such a process often results in unexpected and dynamic
architectural forms.
EDUCATION
Hadid studied
architecture at he Architectural Association from 1972 and was awarded the
Diploma Prize in 1977.
TEACHING
She became a
partner of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, taught at the AA with OMA
collaborators Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis, and later led her own studio at
the AA until 1987. Since then she has held the Kenzo Tange Chair at the
Graduate School of Design, Harward University; The Sullivan Chair at the
University Illinois, School of Architecture, Chicago; guest professorsships at
the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Hamburg; The Knolton School of
Architecture, Ohio and the Masters Studio at Columbia University, Newyork. In
addition, she was made Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and
Letters, Fellow of the American Institute of Architecture and Commander of the
British Empire, 2002. She is currently Professor at the University of Applied
Arts in Vienna, Austria and was the Eero saarinen Visiting Professor of
Architectural Design at Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut.
AWARDS
Zaha Hadid’ s
work of the past 30 years was the subject of critically – acclaimed
retrospective exhibitions at New York’ s Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2006,
London Design museum in 2007 and the Palazzo della Ragione, Padua, Italy in
2009. Her recently completed projects include the MAXXI Museum in Rome; which
won the Stirling award in 2010. Hadid’ s outstanding contribution to the
Stirling award in 2010. Hadid’ s outstanding contribution to the architectural
profession continues to be acknowledged by the most world’ s most respected
institutions. She received the prestigious ‘ Praemium Imperiale ’ from the
Japan Art Association in 2009, and in 2010, the Stirling Prize from the Royal
Institute of British Architects. Other recent awards include UNESCO naming
Hadid as an ‘ Artist for Peace ‘ at a ceremony in their Paris
headquarters last year. Also in 2010, the Republic of France named Hadid as ‘
Commandeur de l’ Ordre des Arts et des Lettres’ in recognition of her services
to architecture, and TIME magazine included her in their 2010 list of the ‘ 100
most Influential People in the World ‘. This years ‘ Time 100 ‘ is divided into
four categories: Leaders, Thinkers, Artist and Hereos – with Hadid ranking top
of the Thinkers category.
ZHA PROJECTS:
Zaha has
played a pivotal role in a great many Zaha Hadid Architects projects over the
past 30 years. The Maxxi National Museum of 21 st Century Arts in Rome, Italy;
the BMW Central Building in Leipzig, Germany and the Phaeno Science Center in
Wolfsburg, Germany are excellent demonstrations of Hadid’ s quest for complex,
fluid space. Previous seminal buildings such as the Rosenthal Center for
Contemporary Art in Cincinati, USA, have also been hailed as architecture that
transforms our vision of the future with new spatial concepts and bold,
visionary forms.
Currently
Hadid is working on a multitude of projects worldwide including: The London
Aquatics Centre fort he 2012 Olympic Games; High – Speed Train Stations in
Naples and Durango; The CMA CGM Headquarters tower in Marseille; The Fiera di
Milano masterplan and tower as well as major master planning projects in
Beijing, Bilboa, Istanbul and Singapore. In the Middle East, Hadid’ s portfolio
includes national cultural and research centres in Jordan, Morocco, Algeria,
Azerbaijan, Abu Dhabi and Saudi Arabia, as well as the new Central Bank of Iraq.
You may visit
Zaha Hadid Architects’ projects, design and exhibitions news; Crest
at Victoria & Albert Museum, Dongdaemun Design Plaza, , Unique Circle,
Serpentine Sackler Gallery, Parametric Space, Heydar Aliyev Center, Serac
Bench, The Collins Park Garage, Burnham Pavilion to click below links from my
blog archive.
http://mymagicalattic.blogspot.com.tr/2014/09/crest-design-by-zaha-hadid-architect-at.html
