bam! bottega di architettura metropolitana wins YAP MAXXI 2013

The installation He by Turin-based studio bam! bottega di architettura metropolitana has been selected as winner of the Young Architects Program (YAP) MAXXI 2013 in Rome.

Earlier this year, the installation Party Wall by CODA had been announced as the winner of the New York edition, MoMA PS1 YAP.

The program for the promotion and support of young architecture is organized by MAXXI Architettura in association with MoMA/MoMA PS1 of NY, Constructo of Santiago and, for the first time, Istanbul Modern (Turkey).

Studio bam! bottega di architettura metropolitana consists of Alberto Bottero, Valeria Bruni, Simona Della Rocca, and Fabio Vignolo.

The He installation will be realized over the next few months and inaugurated in the MAXXI piazza on June 20, 2013, at the same time as CODA's Party Wall project in the MoMA/MoMA PS1 courtyard and Sky Stopping Stop by Istanbul-based office SO? (winner of YAP 2013 in Turkey) in the Istanbul Modern piazza. The installation The Garden of Forking Paths by Beal + Lyons Architects (winner of the Chilean edition of YAP 2012) will be inaugurated on March 7, 2013 in Santiago, Chile.

All the shortlisted projects will be on show in an exhibition presented in the four partner institutions.

He is a large-scale aerostatic installation rising above the MAXXI piazza that will float in the air casting its shadow on the grass and a surrounding wooden platform: a place for rest, recreation and relaxation. During the day, water will drip from the aerostatic prism, ideally delimiting the space beneath the volume and creating a refreshing curtain for the public. As night falls, the water will be replaced by light as the aerostat transforms into a lantern suspended in the sky.

Large dimensions and lightness, innovation and flexibility, transparency and sustainability are the key features of He which, at the end of the summer, will be deflated with the helium being recovered for use in scientific and medical research.

Giovanna Melandri, president of Fondazione MAXXI: “The collaboration with MoMA and other prestigious institutions, is well-established. This international network supporting young talent perfectly reflects MAXXI’s mission and contributes to a reinforcing of the museum’s role on the international scene. Next days I shall be in New York to meet Glenn Lowry, director of MoMA, with the hope that the relationship fostered between the two museums may form the basis for new joint ventures.”

Margherita Guccione, director of MAXXI Architettura: “I believe that this year’s YAP MAXXI winning project’s strength lies in a well-judged synthesis of poetry and technology and in the experimental and innovative approach to the theme of the museum’s public space and the encounter with Zaha Hadid’s great building.”

Pippo Ciorra, senior curator, MAXXI Architettura: “The BAM studio's project perfectly encapsulates the three essential qualities of the YAP programme: the valorization of the public space in an unusual and sustainable fashion, as is the case at the other sites around the world, the tackling of the museum architecture "head on" and the courageous exploration of the crucial theme of powerful yet construction-free architecture.”

The YAP – Young Architects Program is aimed at young designers (recent graduates, architects, designers and artists) to whom it offers and opportunity to conceive and built a temporary space or live summer events in the large courtyard at MoMA PS1 in New York and the piazza at MAXXI in Rome. The highly innovative designs are required to respond to a brief citing environmental issues such as sustainability and recycling.

An international jury chose the winning project for YAP MAXXI 2013, the third edition of the competition, from a shortlist of five finalists. The other finalists are AKO-architettura a kilometro zero (Rome, Italy, Gianni Puri, Laura Di Virgili, Alessandra Fasoli, Stefan Pollak, Enrica Siracusa); LABORATORIO PERMANENTE (Milan, Italy, Angelica Sylos Labini, Nicola Russi); Matilde Cassani (Milan, Italia); LOOP Landscape & Architecture Design Network (Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Silvia Lupini, Francesca Sartori).