Stirling Prize 2010 Goes to Zaha Hadid's MAXXI Museum in Rome

MAXXI, the National Museum of XXI Century Arts| in Rome by Zaha Hadid Architects has won the RIBA Stirling Prize 2010, in association with The Architects Journal and Benchmark.

The presentation of the UK's premier architectural award took place at a special awards ceremony past Saturday evening, October 2, at The Roundhouse in London.

Commenting on MAXXI, the judges said:

‘MAXXI is described as a building for the staging of art, and whilst provocative at many levels, this project shows a calmness that belies the complexities of its form and organisation. The nature of the project means everything has to be over-specified – throughout the design process the architects had no idea what the series of rooms would be used to hang, so walls which will bear a ton of rusting steel might be graced by miniatures.

The museum, for all its structural pyrotechnics, is rationally organised as five main suites. The building is bravely day lit with a sinuous roof of controllable skylights, louvres and beams which orientate and excite the visitor and create uplifting spaces.

This is a mature piece of architecture, the distillation of years of experimentation, only a fraction of which ever got built. It is the quintessence of Zaha’s constant attempt to create a landscape as a series of cavernous spaces drawn with a free, roving line. The resulting piece, rather than prescribing routes, gives the visitor a sense of exploration. It is perhaps her best work to date.’

RIBA President, Ruth Reed announced the winner. Editor of The Architects' Journal, Christine Murray, awarded the £20,000 check and Gilbert McCarthy, MD of Benchmark presented the certificate to Zaha Hadid, Patrik Schumacher and Gianluca Racana and client and President of the MAXXI Foundation, Pio Baldi.

RIBA President Ruth Reed said:

‘In MAXXI, we have a much deserved winner, and I am delighted to award Zaha Hadid Architects with architecture’s highest accolade.’

This is the first time Zaha Hadid Architects has been awarded the RIBA Stirling Prize, having been shortlisted for the prize on three previous occasions (Nord Park Cable Railway, Austria, 2008; Phaeno Science Center, Wolfsburg, Germany, 2006; BMW Central Building, Leipzig, Germany, 2005).

MAXXI was chosen from the following outstanding shortlisted entries:

• Ashmolean Museum, Oxford by Rick Mather Architects
• Bateman's Row, London by Theis and Khan
• Christ's College School, Guildford by DSDHA
• Clapham Manor Primary School, London by dRMM
• Neues Museum, Berlin by David Chipperfield Architects with Julian Harrap Architects

The 2010 RIBA Stirling Prize judges were Ruth Reed, RIBA President (chair); Ivan Harbour, architect, Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners; Edward Jones, architect; Dixon Jones, Professor; Lisa Jardine, historian and writer; and Mark Lawson, broadcaster.

The winners of five Special Awards were also announced that evening:

• St Luke’s CE Primary School in Wolverhampton by Architype has won the 2010 RIBA Sorrell Foundation Schools Award.
• The Pier Head & Canal Link, Liverpool by AECOM has won the 2010 RIBA CABE Public Space Award.
• The Artists House, a private house and office in Kensington, London by Gumuchdjian Architects, has won the 2010 Stephen Lawrence Prize.
• The Neues Museum in Berlin, Germany by David Chipperfield Architects in collaboration with Julian Harrap, has won the 2010 Crown Estate Conservation Award.
• Hammerson have been named the 2010 RIBA Client of the Year supported by the Bloxham Charitable Trust.

MAXXI, National Museum of XXI Century Arts - Project Description:

The museum isn’t Rome as we know it, but is all the more exciting for that, locally juxtaposed with army barracks and industrial warehouses, but with glimpses of distant views to Roman roof tops and cupolas. Its suburban context allows it a freedom denied to architects in the centre of Rome.

This is a museum of paths and routes, a museum where the curators have to invent how to hang and place the works of 21st Century art that have been collected since inception of the project – and the century. The permeable plaza recreates routes and connections, but also forces you to consider the new context that is created to engage with the activities within. The whole building is behind a 2.5 metre high industrial aluminium mesh fence which is there to protect the outdoor art that’s planned. Its setting has echoes of OMA’s Casa da Musica, an impression re-enforced by the perched box of an upper gallery with its panoramic window, reached by an array of stairs, ramps and lifts.

The museum, for all its structural pyrotechnics, is rationally organised as five main suites. The building is bravely day lit with a sinuous roof of controllable skylights, louvres and beams, whilst at the same time conforming to very strict climate control requirements of modern galleries; the skylights both orientate and excite the visitor, but also turn them into uplifting spaces.

MAXXI is described as a building for the staging of art, and whilst provocative at many levels, this project shows a maturity and calmness that belies the complexities of its form and organisation. The nature of the project means everything has to be overspecified – throughout the design process the architects had no idea what these series of rooms would be used to hang, so walls which will bear a ton of rusting steel might be graced by miniatures. In use, in addition to the innovative hanging, video projections bounce off the white curves, animating the spaces.

This is a mature piece of architecture, the distillation of years of experimentation, only a fraction of which ever got built. It is the quintessence of Zaha’s constant attempt to create a landscape, a series of cavernous spaces drawn with a free, roving line. The resulting piece, rather prescribing routes, gives the visitor a sense of exploration. It is perhaps her best work to date and shows she was right all along.

MAXXI Project Facts:

Architect: Zaha Hadid Architects

Client: Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities, Fondazione MAXXI and Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport

Contractor: Consortium MAXXI 2006, ITALIANACOSTRUZIONI and Società Appalti Costruzioni

Structural Engineer: Studio S.P.C., Anthony Hunt Associates and OK Design Group

Services Engineer: Max Fordham and Partners and OK Design Group

Contract Value: €150m

Date of Occupation: November 2009

Gross internal area: 21,200 sq m