Introduction
The MAXXI Museum in Rome by Zaha Hadid, has received the Stirling Prize for 2010, an award given to a building built or designed in Britain or a building constructed in but the rest of Europe by architects whose headquarters is in the UK.
In 1998 the architect won the international competition to build the new museum dedicated to contemporary art and architecture with an innovative project that fit the urban context, a project whose architectural resolution consists of a concrete structure with a glass roof.
The National Museum of XXI Century Arts, MAXXI, belonged to the Ministry for Cultural Heritage Italian, later became founding, and had to follow a long process to completion, constantly threatened with budget cuts, survived four different ministers of Culture parties and various political and economic crises. “It was tough, but worth it”, summed Hadid, the day of his inauguration.
Status
This new museum stands on land originally occupied by an automobile factory and later by the army barracks and only in 2003 was granted by the Ministry of Defense to build the museum. At Via Guido Reni # 4, Rome, Italy, close to the Olympic Village and the Music Palace in Rome architect Renzo Piano
Concept
The idea of an “urban campus” is made with a blend of traditional building whose concept is overwhelmed by the interior spaces are expanded to include the entire city…. “I conceived the MAXXI as an urban campus, organized according to directional drift, flow, force fields and density distribution, rather than by key points,” explained Hadid.
The complexity of the forms, and their sinuous contour variation of the dimensions and overlap joint determine a complex spatial and functional structure. Large walls are the most representative of this new building are curved walls that can be used to be exposed in the interior, but also abroad, with murals, projections or installations. All versa around an indoor-outdoor existence. The concept of this project is based on the idea of ”water” large urban areas with linear display surfaces, weaving a dense texture of interior and exterior spaces.
Description
Exterior
Despite the grandeur of its structure, distributed in 29,000 square meters of land of which 21,000 are for exhibition space, and its sinuous forms the building not only integrates harmoniously into the environment, but gives vitality to the whole neighborhood, after a century of military use. In their open gardens lies the Cosmic Calamita Gino de Dominicis, 24-meter human skeleton with Pinocchio nose.
Externally impacting the large rectangular body that protrudes from the horizontal structure and smooth concrete surfaces without windows that make their outer walls together with the floor, the same material, over which pass holes large as 45 meters wide or 20bmetros huge overhang outwards near the main entrance.
Interior
Once inside the fabric of surprising and gateways interlinked ramps at different heights and often suspended in vacuum connecting rooms with corrugated walls, which are folded on themselves with openings both outside and inside. Although apparently a pharaonic work, its design has been designed following ecological and sustainable criteria. The spaces, fluid and flexible thanks to a system of movable panels, enjoy natural light, calibrated by a sophisticated mechanism, according to the seasons and the weather. The silky concrete lining all the walls combined with glass and steel, giving the necessary neutrality spaces that works are the real stars.
As it has in some of his works Hadid uses static elements to create energy and fluidity by apparently randomly placed volumes in a given space. The National Art Museum this architectural resource was used in the entrance atrium, cafeteria, bookshop or stall tickets seem randomly located in the huge reception hall, with stairs or corridors that depart in different directions indicating that there is more to discover.
Spaces
With four floors of the MAXXI is full moving through undulating walls and stairs that seem to start or end anywhere, placing the visitor in a futuristic, floating offering multiple possible routes go all the museum allowing bypassing the same way.
Ground floor
A high-rise spacious lobby provides access to the various exhibition halls, the auditorium, the room bibliomediateca and architecture files. In this hall the visitor has a cloakroom, a café and an information and ticket sales. In its structure include two museums, the MAXXI Art and MAXXI Architecture.
Plant 1st-2nd-3rd
These plants are fully dedicated to showrooms. All plants have adapted toilets.
A key feature of the project is the use of the walls as spatial elements. The interiors of the galleries, almost linear, are bounded by parallel walls that follow the longitudinal movement of the building, at other times by moving panels
In the words of Zaha Hadid: “One of the interesting aspects of the museum Rome, is that it is not just an object, but a program to which you can add items. It is not only a museum but a center. We designed weaving a dense texture of interior and exterior spaces, resulting in a provocative mix of temporary and permanent galleries, together with commercial galleries, irrigating urban plane in which surfaces are linear for samples. You can make connections between architecture and art and bridges connecting the van and transform it into a unified sample “.
Outside, a pedestrian walkway, surrounds and penetrates buildings under the cantilevered volumes, restoring connectivity between the streets, which was interrupted for nearly a century with the previously existing military construction at the site and was demolished to make way the museum
Structure
The design of Zaha Hadid presents a structural challenge, a structure similar to the galleries, elongated linear spaces with concrete walls and floors made in situ with partially glazed roof that make something of channels with lids glass. Alan Jones, a structural engineer who was involved in the project said that structurally, the building serves as the gateway of a building… “only the floors and walls proportional structural stability, not the ceiling…”
The structure also included large gaps had to be filled with reinforced steel bars with density higher than 300kg/m3. By reducing the number of joints was necessary to increase the concrete poured over 70 meters high by 9, a complete plant, which required 260m3 of concrete in situ. The formwork was made in Germany, modular panels of 9 meters long and 2.4 high which were assembled at the site and were linked using lasers to ensure the flat surfaces in the the discharge time. Dumping in these areas a liquid mixture consisted of self-compacting concrete, a fine aggregate of limestone powder and an additive in epoxy resin, which was allowed to settle uniformly by the force of gravity and which was cast around the reinforcement bars.
While the concrete is poured, the formwork panels are controlled to check the protuberances nanometers. Finally, as the pouring of concrete has to dry slowly and evenly, without risk of overheating, had to take into account the outside temperature did not exceed 25 °, in the Mediterranean climate of Rome these conditions can result only from November to April.
Statement seismic zone
In 2003, Rome was officially classified as seismic zone, which required that the structure of the museum was completely revised and reformed in some cases. Several sets of hydraulic pistons associated with the motion of the joints should be incorporated into the concrete walls and floors and discarded movement joints 5mm 3mm other less visible, among other measures.
Materials
In its imposing structure include concrete, steel and glass. The concrete covers not only walls and floors, but also was used in performing functional and decorative elements such as the lobby desk made of concrete and fiberglass. The concrete is the dominant element in the design of Zaha Hadid.
The concrete walls were treated with a finish “fairface” quality first, to improve their soft, without air bubbles, like the holes resulting from the screws or exposed joints of the spill, rustic least possible, according to taste architect.
Plasterboard connected with concrete walls create cavities containing complex mechanical systems and museum technicians.
Roof
The system used on the roof is a particularly complex, both technologically and mechanically. Is formed by an outer glazing, complicated systems with different types of shading blinds and artificial light system, a temperature control system and guides moisture and resistant to hang heavy panels. The air conditioner is in the gap created between the upper skin of the double glazing and lower the glass ceiling.
The vertical blades which characterize the ceiling system are made of steel and coated with a finishing material. The glass is protected externally with a steel mesh that filters the light and easy maintenance. All vertical columns, including columns that support the overhang are steel.
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