Rome’s Maxxi Museum had a troubled gestation, taking its time and courting controversy before ultimately emerging triumphant as a Stirling Prize winner in 2010, one of Zaha Hadid’s best works of the past five years. Now a new show hopes to build on the Maxxi’s archi-credentials by presenting a cavalcade of well-known Italian architects who have built internationally to great acclaim. The show, designed the New York/Naples firm of Lot-Ek, set up in 1993 by Ada Tolla and Giuseppe Lignano, snakes through the galleries of the National Museum of the 21st Century Arts, encompassing a broad range of styles, periods and locations.
That breadth of content is unsurprising when you consider the exhibitors. The curators have cast the net wide, taking in the work of such well-known expatriates as the late Pietro Belluschi, Lina Bo Bardi and Paolo Soleri, all responsible, in their own singular ways, for diversifying, fragmenting and exploring different aspects of inter-war modernism in their new-found milieus of big business Manhattan, high culture South America and west coast desert subcultures respectively.
Others include current contemporary favourites Renzo Piano and Studio Fuksas (and the exhibit nods to Richard Rogers’ Italian ancestry as well), while studios as diverse as Delugan Meissl, Djuric-Tardio Architectes, Benedetta Tagliabue and Correia/Ragazzi Arquitectos highlight the global impact and diversity of Italian design talent. The accompanying catalogue includes contributions from journalists, educators and practitioners around the world, including Peter Eisenman, Shumi Bose and Hans Ibelings.
The curators have cast the net wide, taking in the work of such well-known expatriates as the late Pietro Belluschi, Lina Bo Bardi and Paolo Soleri as well as current contemporary favourites like Renzo Piano and Studio Fuksas.
Designed by the New York/Naples firm of Lot-Ek, the exhibition presents videos of key works by a slew of architects in modified industrial shipping containers, with architectural models also on show and a timeline graphic along one wall
Others include studios as diverse as Delugan Meissl, Djuric-Tardio Architectes, Benedetta Tagliabue and Correia/Ragazzi Arquitectos, highlighting the global impact and diversity of Italian design talent
Highlights from the exhibition include the Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), São Paulo, Brazil, by Lina Bo Bardi, 1957-1968.
Pompidou Centre, Paris, France, by Renzo Piano, Richard Rogers and Gianfranco Franchini, 1971-1977
Karri Loop House, Margaret River, Australia, by Morq Architecture, 2007-2013
AWP office for territorial reconfiguration, Norway, by The Lantern, 2006-2008.
Maison des Arts, Université Michel De Montaigne, Bordeaux, France, by Studio Fuksas, 1992-1995.
Vocational Training Centre SSIC, by Durisch + Nolli, Gordola, Switzerland, 2004-2010.
Centre d’archives EDF, France, by LAN Architecture, 2008.
Drive-In Automobile Museum, Nanjing, China, by 3Gatti, 2009
Multi-purpose Hall, Lisieux, France, by B+C Architectes, 2011.
MoMA (Museum of Modern Art), Chengdu, China, by Studio Ramoprimo, 2008
Black & White, Brescia, Italy, by PiSaA, 2010
ADDRESS
MAXXI Museum
Via Guido Reni, 4A
Rome
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