The team led by the Italo-French studio LAN is the first classified of the International Ideas Competition organised by MAXXI National Museum of XXI Century Art as part of the GRANDE MAXXI project to design a new sustainable and multipurpose building (MAXXI HUB) and a system of landscaped areas (MAXXI GREEN).
LAN (group leader) was supported by SCAPE Architecture, SNA, Bollinger + Grohmann Ingegneria, Franck Boutté Consultants, Bureau Bas Smets and Folia Consulenze.
LAN (group leader) was supported by SCAPE Architecture, SNA, Bollinger + Grohmann Ingegneria, Franck Boutté Consultants, Bureau Bas Smets and Folia Consulenze.
The Jury selected the project by LAN for: “its relationship with the urban context and its beautifully designed, generous and accessible hanging garden. Additionally, the project builds a virtuous and efficient relationship with both Piazza Boetti and the front along Via Masaccio, as well as offers good flexibility in the organisation of functions and the spaces dedicated to them. Ample landscaped spaces, both in the area of the new building and the remainder of the competition site, together with the use of ‘dry’ building technologies, contribute to varying degrees to the sustainable tone of the proposal”.
Characterised by a direct comparison between architecture, nature and landscape, the project proposes a building with a simple volume and a pared-down palette of materials, in dialogue with the nearby office building and with Piazza Alighiero Boetti. The façades are defined by horizontal and vertical elements in honed concrete and large openings. The building structure rises up to conclude at the roof level, where a mirrored compluvium defines the space of the hanging garden.
The system of landscaping is imagined as a “container” for the existing buildings, and not a mere accessory, thanks to a design attentive toward the physiological characteristics of sustainability, simplified management and quality, coupled with actions that help regulate microclimate and reduce temperatures and atmospheric pollution.
The group of 5 classified is completed by: the group led by studio Vacuum Atelier (Italy), Resell + Nicca (Norway), Arquivio Architects (Spain) and Galar-Velaz-Gil (Spain). Two special mentions were awarded to the multidisciplinary groups led by Gustav Düsing & Max Hacke and by Nicola Ragazzini.
The first classified project was presented the June 14th by Giovanna Melandri, President of Fondazione MAXXI, Margherita Guccione, Scientific Director of the project GRANDE MAXXI.
The competition brief was published in the Official Journal of the European Union on 8 February 2022 and in the Gazzetta Ufficiale della Repubblica Italiana on 9 February. The deadline for submissions, all rigorously anonymous, was 13 May 2022. The Jury is composed of Giovanna Melandri (President), Petra Blaisse, Maria Claudia Clemente, Mario Cucinella and Lorenzo Mariotti and alternate members Pippo Ciorra and Simone Gobbo, unanimously selected the best projects based on criteria of integration, sustainability, innovation, accessibility, feasibility and cost.
The availability of €20 million of financing from the MIMS (Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Sustainable Mobility) allows Fondazione MAXXI to award the design of the building and system of landscaped areas and to confirm the timing of the project, scheduled to be completed by 2026.
The top 5 classified projects will receive the following prizes: 1st place €30,000.00, 2nd place €10,000.00, 3rd place €8,000.00, 4th place €6,000.00 and 5th place €4,000.00.
