Description
The MAXXI is the national museum of 21st-century arts, in Rome's Flaminio district. It was designed by the architect Zaha Hadid, and the building itself, with its curves of pale concrete, is the first thing to see.
The museum has two souls: MAXXI Art and MAXXI Architecture. Inside come exhibitions of art, architecture, design, photography and fashion, along with a collection with names such as Boetti, Kentridge, Kapoor and Richter.
The design feels more like a campus than a building: paths that interweave on several levels, a large full-height hall, projecting volumes and natural light streaming down from above. The ribbed roof recalls the sheds of the barracks.
The museum also has an auditorium, a library open to students, a bookshop, a cafeteria and galleries for temporary exhibitions and performances. Of the old barracks only the facade on Via Guido Reni survives, built into the project, along with the wing beside the basilica of Santa Croce.
The museum stands where the Montello barracks were, abandoned for years. In 1998 an international competition was held, with 273 entries, and Hadid's project won in 1999.
The MAXXI also has a branch in L'Aquila, opened in 2021 in Palazzo Ardinghelli and devoted to works conceived for that place. The MAXXI Prize, founded in 2000, spotlights emerging and mid-career artists.
If you come to Rome thinking only of antiquity, here you find the contemporary side of the city, in a building that pairs complex forms with plainer galleries designed for the works.
MAXXI Architecture has an archive center devoted to designers, and MAXXI B.A.S.E. a free library for students. Anyone who loves architecture finds here a place for study as well as for visiting.
Light is another protagonist: in the galleries it comes from above, modulated, and changes the look of the works through the day. The museum was inaugurated on May 28, 2010.
The museum has two souls: MAXXI Art and MAXXI Architecture. Inside come exhibitions of art, architecture, design, photography and fashion, along with a collection with names such as Boetti, Kentridge, Kapoor and Richter.
The design feels more like a campus than a building: paths that interweave on several levels, a large full-height hall, projecting volumes and natural light streaming down from above. The ribbed roof recalls the sheds of the barracks.
The museum also has an auditorium, a library open to students, a bookshop, a cafeteria and galleries for temporary exhibitions and performances. Of the old barracks only the facade on Via Guido Reni survives, built into the project, along with the wing beside the basilica of Santa Croce.
The museum stands where the Montello barracks were, abandoned for years. In 1998 an international competition was held, with 273 entries, and Hadid's project won in 1999.
The MAXXI also has a branch in L'Aquila, opened in 2021 in Palazzo Ardinghelli and devoted to works conceived for that place. The MAXXI Prize, founded in 2000, spotlights emerging and mid-career artists.
If you come to Rome thinking only of antiquity, here you find the contemporary side of the city, in a building that pairs complex forms with plainer galleries designed for the works.
MAXXI Architecture has an archive center devoted to designers, and MAXXI B.A.S.E. a free library for students. Anyone who loves architecture finds here a place for study as well as for visiting.
Light is another protagonist: in the galleries it comes from above, modulated, and changes the look of the works through the day. The museum was inaugurated on May 28, 2010.