MAXXI Museum-2012.07.22

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MAXXI Museum

Architect: Zaha Hadid

Location: Rome, Italy.

Date: 2998-2009

Building Type: Museum

Architecture Styles: Deconstructivism

Architectural Time Period: 2000s

Construction Type: Concrete

Context: Urban

Introduction(Information mainly based on Internet and Readings):

MAXXI supersedes the notion of the museum as ‘object’ or – presenting a field of buildings accessible to all, with no firm boundary between what is ‘within’ and what is ‘without’. Central to this new reality are confluent lines – walls intersecting and separating to create interior and exterior spaces.

My own exploration:

Keywords: Dynamic, Circulation & Roof Structure

Dynamic

The “entrance” of the MAXXI

When entered the plaza, I was impressed by the urban strategy of Zaha, 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 exterbal pedestrian path follows the shape of the building, slipping below its cantilevered volumes, which opens onto a large plaza.

The volume of the museum gives us a dynamic feeling, which to me, is a variation of light and depth and visual caution of the facade and volume

Inside a large, full height atrium leads to the museum’s reception spaces, the cafeteria and the bookshop, the auditorium and galleries that host rotating displays of the two museums’ permanent collections, exhibitions and cultural events.

Lobby space, the weaving staircase breakdown the huge volume

Circulation

The circulation of MAXXI was navigated by the dynamic staircases, which shifting the views and light at every moment

Stairway make people physically shift their body and thus obtaining various feeling of the space

The roof structural beam follows the linear dynamic language of the museum, besides structural function, it helps to bring light into the space as a linear notion, which helps the co-play with physical and spiritual feeling of visitors

The bottom of the staircase has the effect of glowing, it helps to caught people’s eyes and stimulate the dynamic feeling

Dynamic curvy roof beam, indicating strong dynamic and fluidity

Interior sketch of the MAXII

Querini Stampalis Foundation in Venice Italy-2012.07.19

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Today we visited Carlo Scarpa’s well known renovation of the Querini Stampalis Foundation in Venice Italy, in general, it is a particularly impressive example of a renovation project which layers the past and present constructions into a powerful assemblage.

Front bridge entrance, it is closed as we visited.

Interior Hall

Plan Diagram

The Fondazione Querini Stampalia was founded in Venice 1869 by the last descendant of the Venetian Querini Stampalia. The site is composed of the living quarters, an archive, a library, and a museum of paintings and furnishings. In 1949, the Presidential Council of the Fondazione Querini Stampalia decided to begin the restoration of some parts of the Palazzo Querini. Malino Dazzi, director of the foundation, tasked Carlo Scarpa to restore the ground floor, which was in a state of neglect and decay. The project was completed just over ten years later.The restoration project included careful cleaning of four existing architectural elements: the bridge, the entrance, the portico and the garden.

Scarpa’s museum renovations exhibit his minimalist style within historic buildings, a style that allows the existing context to pass beneath and behind the new work without being disturbed. However, it was not the invention of spatial themes with which Carlo Scarpa was involved, but rather the manipulation of materials in relation to the human body.

For this visit, I focused on two aspects of the building: detail and water

Detail:

Scarpa’s expression of detail in this building varies at different scale, with different combination of materials, such as steel, concrete, glass and brick. Here are some examples I found intriguing about this building.

This is a staircase at the side entrance, it is an innovative stair to me due to the way that each step continuous and warp around the step above.

This detail shows how concrete hangs out of the brick wall, thus to give a feeling of depth.

This detail is a celebration of the intersection of steel and concrete

A fascinating column detail showing the compositional relationship of glass and concrete

An innovative door, it is a an interesting way to bring light in as well.

Water:

Scarpa is a master of using the water as a critical element in his building, what I found interesting is he introduced the experience of water in two different ways: the flowing water and the static water. For the flowing water, it creates dynamic feeling for the space, on the one hand, we can see something flowing compared to the other static objects surrounding it, on the other hand, we can hear the water as well, it is a special feeling as we could “listen” to architecture.

For the static water pool, the transparent nature of water gives us a feeling of brightness. Also, it reflects the scenario surrounding it thus giving an illusionary sense for people. Last but not least, Scarpa loves the zen idea taken from Japanese culture, the static water makes us feel peaceful. Here are some photos I took thus to support my point.

These details show how well done of the usage of water in this building.

Carlo Scarpa’s addition to the Museo Canova-2012.07.18

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In 1955 the Monuments office commissioned Carlo Scarpa an extension of the old canova museum  and in 1992 the new wing was built.

For my own opinion, the addition part relate to the original museum perfectly, one of the reason is the consideration of light.

Light in the Canova Museum is the important aspect of the spatial composition that is designed to animate the collection of the plaster  figures that are displayed. Scarpa, with the introduction or the corner window, was able to create a well-modulated and varied light throughout the gallery spaces.

Corner windows, an invention of the modernist movement, produce a room in which the glazed apertures – the light sources – and the walls – the surfaces which diffuse this light-are at right angles to each other. This solution avoids the dazzle resulting from a window in the middle of the wall, where the only diffusers are well away from the light source. Once it is realized that light can be modulated by an opportune combination of sources and diffusers, a new level of architectural quality becomes possible.

In the same manner as described in Wright’s ‘Destruction of the Box’, the corner window in this case also becomes a device through which the collection can conceptually inhabit the surrounding environment and vice-versa. Scarpa goes one step further by making it an inverted corner window. The view of the hillside is thus pulled into the interior while the space of the gallery is projected outward on to the hillside.

The relationships between the figures of the collection are also of note. Because it is a permanent collection, it affords the possibility of creating juxtapositions that give life to the figures. A bust, cantilevered from the wall, can be said to be in conversation with the reclining figure below it. The tension that is created by such a placement is one that is suspended between presence and absence. Unlike the modern diorama which takes this tension and frames it, the visitor in this context can fully navigate through this viscous space.

The sketch showing the “re-entrant corner”

“For Scarpa, criticism was an experiment on the work of art, awakening the reflection by which the work becomes aware of itself. Scarpa’s architecture functions as a system of symbols, as an architectural language, which, being a language, becomes a ‘means’ for the recognition/production of reality rather than the ‘object’ of such a recognition/production” – Sergio Los, 1994.

Palazzo Corner Spinelli-2012.07.16

The Palazzo Corner Spinelli is a palace in Venice, northern Italy, located on the Grand Canal, in the sestiere of San Marco. It stands across the canal from the Palazzo Querini Dubois.

The palace was commissioned in the late 15th century by the aristocratic Lando Family, and built on designs by Mauro Codussi. The present facade, helps introduce Renaissance geometric style to Venice for its day, was designed by Codussi between 1497 and 1500; compare it with Codussi’s Ca’ Vendramin Calergi. In the 16th century, the new owners, the Corner family asked Michele Sanmicheli to reconstruct the interior. An interior fireplace was designed by Jacopo Sansovino.

Ca’ Rezzonica-2012.07.15

Ca’ Rezzonico is a palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice. Today it is a public museum dedicated to 18th century Venice and one of the 11 venues managed by the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia.

Ca’ Rezzonico stands on the right bank of the canal, at the point where it is joined by the Rio di San Barnaba. The site was previously occupied by two houses belonging to the Bon family, one of Venice’s patrician families. In 1649 the head of the family, Filippo Bon decided to build a large palazzo on the site. For this purpose he employed Baldassarre Longhena, the greatest proponent of Venetian Baroque, a style slowly replacing the Renaissance and Palladian architectural style of such palazzi as (its near neighbour) Palazzo Balbi and Palazzo Grimani built over 100 years previously. However, neither architect nor client was to see the completion of the Palazzo Bon: Longhena died in 1682, and Filippo Bon suffered a financial collapse.

The design was for a three story marble façade facing the canal. The ground floor rusticated, containing a central recessed portico of three bays without a pediment, symmetrically flanked by windows in two bays. Above this the piano nobile of seven bays of arched windows, separated by pilasters, above this the “second piano nobile” was near identical, and above this a mezzanine floor of low oval windows. The slight projection of the two tiers of balconies to the piano nobili accentuate the baroque decoration and design of the building. The palazzo today follows this form, although it was not finished until 1756 by the architect Giorgio Massari, who had been brought in to oversee the completion of the project by the new owners – the Rezzonico Family. Massari however, seems to have adhered to the original plans of Longhena, with the addition of some concepts of his own which reflected the change in architecture between the palazzo’s conception and its completion 100 years later.

The courtyard

Above are some interior images of this museum