The MAXXI. Museo Nazionale delle Arti del XXI Secolo (Via Guido Reni 4a, Flaminio quarter, Rome, the National Museum of 21st Century Arts, opened in 2010 in the building designed by the British-Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid) is the most significant piece of contemporary architecture in Rome and the only Hadid building in Italy: the MAXXI building (the competition winner selected in 1999, designed over the next decade, and finally inaugurated in June 2010, 5 years before Hadid's death in 2016) applies the specific Hadid formal vocabulary of intersecting curves, fluid interior volumes, and the specific concrete-and-steel construction that refuses orthogonal angles to the specific challenge of a museum on a long narrow site that had previously been an Italian Army barracks. The result is a building that is simultaneously a piece of sculpture at urban scale (the exterior, visible from Via Guido Reni and the surrounding Flaminio streets), a complex spatial experience (the interior, where the overlapping galleries and the skylit circulation ramps produce constantly shifting views and unexpected spatial connections), and a functional exhibition space (the 21,000 sqm of exhibition area that houses the MAXXI permanent collection and the temporary exhibition program).
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MAXXI: Building, Collection, and Program
The Hadid Architecture
The MAXXI building (the structural system: reinforced concrete for the primary walls and floors, steel for the roof and the spanning elements over the largest gallery volumes, the specific combination that allowed Hadid to achieve the curving floor plans and the non-vertical walls that the design required) is experienced most completely on the interior: the entry sequence (the approach from Via Guido Reni, the concrete exterior, the entrance plaza) gives the initial scale impression. The interior atrium (the five-story circulation space at the building center, with the criss-crossing concrete staircases and the overlapping gallery bridges above) is the specific MAXXI spatial climax. And the individual galleries (the varying-width rooms with the continuous skylights that provide the specific MAXXI natural top-light quality) are the working spaces where the building format encounters the art it contains. Admission to the building without an exhibition ticket (for architectural tourism without the collection visit): not formally offered, but the entry plaza and the café/bookshop at ground level are accessible without a museum ticket.
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See availability & prices →Compare tours on Viator →We may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you.The MAXXI Collection and Program
The MAXXI permanent collection (approximately 400 works of contemporary Italian and international art, plus the MAXXI Architecture collection, the drawings, models, and documents of significant 20th-21st century architectural projects, including the Hadid archive donated to MAXXI after her death) covers Italian art from the 1960s to the present alongside the international contemporary canon. The temporary exhibition program (typically 3-5 major temporary exhibitions per year, covering contemporary art, architecture, and design) is the primary MAXXI cultural offering for the regular visitor. Check maxxi.art for the current program before visiting.
Q&A: MAXXI Rome
Is the MAXXI worth visiting if I am primarily interested in Renaissance and Baroque art?
The MAXXI is worth 2 hours specifically for the Hadid building, regardless of your primary art interest: the building is the most important piece of contemporary architecture in Rome, and Rome is the city with the most significant architectural heritage in the world. The encounter between Hadid's 21st-century spatial language and the Roman urban context (the Flaminio quarter with its 20th-century rationalist buildings, the Tiber river 300m away, and the 1960 Olympic stadium by Pier Luigi Nervi 500m north) is the specific MAXXI urban experience. For the visitor whose primary interest is the Renaissance and Baroque: the MAXXI visit completes the Rome architectural timeline from Bramante (St Peter's) to Borromini (Sant'Ivo) to Hadid (MAXXI).
Internal Links
- Flaminio: Il Quartiere del MAXXI e dell'Olimpico
- Roma Contemporanea: MAXXI in Bassa Stagione
- MAXXI: Orari, Prezzi e Prime Domeniche
- Fotografare il MAXXI: Architettura Hadid
- Architettura Roma: Dal Borromini al MAXXI
- Roma Architettonica: Il Percorso dei Secoli
- Arte Italiana dal 900 ad Oggi: Il MAXXI nel Contesto
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