MAXXI’s Collection of Art and Architecture represents the founding element of the museum and defines its identity. Since October 2015, it has been on display with different arrangements of works.
Italy
Simple wooden constructions, comprising shaded cabanastyle rooms, provide space for relaxation and a view of the activities in the surrounding open space. Canopied with different textiles, the structures offer a variety of microclimates, and in their minimalism they contrast with the great museum building and the open space of its piazza.
Spain
The main structure in this dynamic environment is a highly heat-and light-reflective canopy of silver mesh fabric resting on metallic structures grouped in concentric rings. Animated by wind, light, water, and the activities of visitors below it, the canopy creates a refreshing atmosphere in the open space, which is furnished with swings, hammocks, rocking chairs, and pierced overhead piping that provides a light sprinkling of artificial rain.
Great Britain
A beach for city dwellers who cannot escape to the coast in the heat of summer. A buoyant cloud canopy, a landscape of lounge chairs, a pool, and a set of drinking fountains. The clouds – made of water, soap, helium, and fine nylon netting – float above the seating area, shading visitors relaxing on the beach-style loungers.
Italy
A pavilion consisting of horizontally installed circular platforms connected by ladders and showered by jets of water. Mirrored surfaces reflecting the sky, and various waterworks create an area for play and relaxation. The platforms are constructed mainly from wood, and all water used – apart from that dispensed by the drinking fountains – is recycled back through the design.
MoMA – The Museum of Modern Art and MoMA PS1 of New York have joined forces with MAXXI to launch YAP MAXXI, the first Italian edition of the established Young Architects Program. Each year YAP, which in New York has reached its 12th edition, invites emerging achitects to design an installation capable of providing a space for the museum’s summer events program and an area with “shade, water and repose” for visitors.
As is the case with MoMA PS1, the selection of the five finalists and the choice of the winning project takes place thanks to the collaboration of a broad panel of experts and a combined MAXXI, MoMA/MoMA PS1 jury. As well as emphasising the public status of the MAXXI garden space, the objective is to promote innovative designers sensitive to the issues of environmental protection.
The exhibition, open simultaneously at MoMA and MAXXI, documents all five MoMA PS1 finalists and the five MAXXI finalists. The museum’s external areas, transformed into a garden of green islands thanks to the project WHATAMI by the stARTT, will instead host MAXXI’s summer evening events devoted to the various facets of contemporary arts.
Exhibition
The Rome and New York Young Architects Program exhibitions present the work of all finalists and are curated respectively by Pippo Ciorra, Senior Curator at the MAXXI Architettura and Barry Bergdoll, The Philip Johnson Chief Curator of Architecture
THE WINNING PROJECT – ROME
stARTT – WHATAMI
Italy
The winning proposal in Rome is an archipelago of green spaces including a great main ‘island’ and several smaller ones scattered across the museum’s outdoor space. Large ‘flowers’ provide visitors with shadow by day and light at night, creating an area for summer relaxation and a grandstand during the museum’s numerous outdoor events. At the end of the summer, all the natural materials will be returned to their places of origin. The high-tech flower objects will be relocated throughout the city, in parks and public school playgrounds.
THE WINNING PROJECT – NEW YORK
Interboro Partners – HOLDING PATTERN
Brooklyn, New York
A bold canopy of ropes and sails defines the space and provides shade without the visual distraction and spatial interference of a support system at ground level. The focus is on visitors’ interactions with one another and with moveable benches, stools, wading pools, and Ping-Pong tables rather than physical or tactile encounters with the structure itself. The adjacent side courtyards are treated differently, the smaller one lined with mirrors, the larger filled with a dense urban wood.
The FINALISTS – ROME
Raffaella De Simone e Valentina Mandalari | SOUTHERN COMFORT
Langarita-Navarro Arquitectos | AMPLIFIER ROCKER SWING
Asif Khan | MAXXI CLOUD
Ghigos Ideas | FATA MORGANA