Maxxi - National Museum of Twenty First Century Arts, in Rome by Zaha Hadid.

Last weekend saw the long-awaited opening of Maxxi, Zaha Hadid’s National Museum of Twenty First Century Arts, in the Roman suburb of Flaminio. See the video below.

The MAXXI_National Museum of the XXI Century Arts is a new institution of the Ministry for Cultural Heritage and Activities of Italy. In 1998 the ministry advertised the international call for tenders and among the 273 candidacies the winning project of Zaha Hadid convinced the jury because of its possibilities to integrate with the urban texture and the innovative and highly creative architectonical solution. The complexity of shapes, their sinuous outline, the variation and interlacing of dimensions, determine a spatial and functional plot of great complexity. The two museums - MAXXI art and MAXXI architecture – revolve around the full-height grand hall, from where the reception services, the cafeteria, the bookshop, the didactic laboratories, the auditorium, the live event halls, the galleries dedicated to temporary exhibitions and the collections of graphics and photography are accessed.





























The Maxxi is the largest museum in Italy with over 27 000 square meters. The complex has been integrated within the urban fabric of the city, to which it offers a new, articulated and 'permeable' plaza, wrapped by the spectacular forms. An external pedestrian path follows the shape of the building, slipping below its cantilevered volumes, which opens onto a large plaza.

More info here. Photo by Helen Binet.