Architecture collections

The Architecture collections (the 20th Century, 21^th Century and Photography Collections) comprise all those artefacts and documents that, in various ways, represent the material and conceptual complexity of architecture through its evolutionary processes: from the generation of ideas through to its physical realisation, use and insertion within a material and cultural context. The means of acquisition for expanding the museum’s collections range from purchases to donations through to commissions by way of competitions and awards. The collections are also associated with management system of a true “virtual patrimony” constituted by the network of museums and public and private archives in Italy.

Carlo Scarpa, Pier Luigi Nervi, Enrico Del Debbio, Paolo Soleri, Alessandro Anselmi, Giancarlo De Carlo, Carlo Aymonino, Superstudio are just a few of the Italian protagonists featured in the collections, with over 60,000 design drawings, 75,000 photographs and numerous models, letters and documents, sculptures, temperas, books and periodicals (currently being scanned).

Olivo Barbieri, Gabriele Basilico, Letizia Battaglia, John Davies, Mimmo Jodice, Armin Linke, Guido Guidi, Walter Niedermayr and Massimo Vitali, are instead just a few of the over 60 photographers featured in the collections. Around 1,000 prints by contemporary auteurs: photography is a keystone of the Museum of Architecture thanks to its potential as a communicative medium in the presentation of both the physical configuration of space and the analysis of the dynamics actuated within it.

MODELS, DRAWINGS AND PROJECTS ON GOOGLE ART PROJEC

MAXXI became a Google Cultural Institute partner joining Google Art Project, a digital platform making possible to explore models, drawings and site-specific projects from the Architecture collection.Visitors can navigate and explore 55 works and obtain comprehensive information about them: you start from the MAXXI lobby and proceed to discover some of the most important works in the permanent collection.

It is also possible to take true virtual tours of the architecture of Zaha Hadid.
Start a virtual tour in the museum