Diller Scofidio + Renfro argues for the importance of impermanent architecture in new exhibition

On view now at the MAXXI, the National Museum of XXI Century Arts in Rome, Diller Scofidio + Renfro is presenting an examination of motion and change as fundamental elements shaping design through their new exhibition titled Restless Architecture.

Reconfigurations, repositioning, the "relentless" turnover of politics and economic conditions, and more compelling factors, tied together with themes of mobility, adaptability, operability, and ecodynamism, will tell the story of how architecture has become more malleable and resistant to rigid forms in the postwar and contemporary eras.

This is despite the contrasting state of the industry, which they say remains "slow, heavy, expensive, and inert" while frustrating the visions of those who hold instability in our built environment as a virtue.

Examples including the firm's own design for The Shed at Hudson Yards and other historic buildings like the demolished Nakagin Capsule Tower (a preserved component of which is on display outside in Alighiero Boetti Square) come into focus in dialog with the "frozen movement" of spaces inside Zaha Hadid's 2010 Stirling Prize winner. Newly commissioned kinetic models, full-scale mock-ups, experimental prototypes, and video installations, each made necessary by conventional modeling's incapacity to represent motion, provide additional highlights to complete the presentation.

DS+R explains of the four-part focus: "Mobility allows buildings to physically relocate, whether forced to move to avoid demolition or transported elsewhere by choice. Adaptability enables buildings to reconfigure and absorb technological or programmatic changes wrought by economic or social developments. Operability allows buildings to function like machines, tuned to the needs of their inhabitants to serve individual or collective purposes. While most buildings form an airtight seal against the elements, ecodynamism integrates technologies to create supple interfaces between a building and its environment."

The museum itself is in the process of expanding after following the announcement of plans for the new MAXXI Grande in February of 2022. The final day to see the exhibition is March 16th, 2025.