Macro Museum, Rome, Italy

Old meets new in the new sumptuous MACRO in Rome
Paris-based architect and urbanist Odile Decq was commissioned with the redevelopment and expansion of the Roman Museum of Contemporary Art in 2001 by Rome City Council.

The main site of the museum was already the product of the restoration and redevelopment of the old Peroni brewery, an important industrial building from the beginning of the 20th century. The French architect was faced with the complex challenge to introduce a Contemporary Art Gallery in an old mixed industrial building.

Decq welcomed the opportunity to transgress more conventional attitudes towards the integration into a historical context: the result is a convergence of ramps, illuminated staircases, a bamboo garden, roof terraces and transparent spaces with multiple cross-flows of visitors moving through the building. Perspectives are tangential, allowing chaining and sequential points of view. Space is not centred and static but in constant tension, expressing the sense of a dynamic equilibrium.The spacious foyer at the entrance will lead to a large exhibition hall, to the Art Café’ and bookshop. The central volume of running water over the centre of the foyer intends to create a sensation of freshness.

The red « Z » running through the courtyard, the foyer, the garden, the restaurant and the roof is a projection screen.

The new museum is intended as a space where the pleasure of the visit and the promenade reinforces and increases the pleasure of discovering the exhibits
source: www.worldarchitecturenews.com
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