ROME IMPROVEMENTS

摘要

It's been a long time coming, but Zaha Hadid's Maxxi in Rome has been worth the wait. This museum of contemporary art is a modern icon in a city famous for the more ancient variety. It has taken five years to create because the government has released the cash for it inrndribs and drabs. As you would expect from a Zaha Hadid design, Maxxi is arnfreeform, flowing structure. But the building doesn't stick twornfingers up to its traditional neighbours; instead, a modest threernstoreys high, it defers to its low-rise setting. It is very obviously concrete and strikingly different from thernrest of the city, but its strongly linear forms look relativelyrnmuted. Get close up and those lines become much more dramatic. A cantilevered, glass-fronted box over the entrance is perpendicular to the storey below and is the clue to the way this building has been laid out.