Eighty years of the Italian Republic and architecture: ideas, projects and visions that have shaped the present and look to the future.
The exhibition opens with interviews with some of the most prominent figures in Italian architecture – Stefano Boeri, Maria Giuseppina Grasso Cannizzo, Massimiliano Fuksas, Renzo Piano, Franco Purini, Elisabetta Terragni, Paola Viganò, and Cino Zucchi – and by an installation paying homage to the Monument to the Fallen in the Nazi Extermination Camps by Studio BBPR in Milan, reinterpreted by Matilde Cassani.
The opening section comprises archival materials that focus on the major cultural and social themes addressed by architects and urban planners in democratic and post-war Italy. An era in which Italian architecture ‘set out anew’, fuelled by public initiative, generating the major projects that helped shape the nation’s identity.
We then delve into the heart of the exhibition’s narrative, with projects by eight successful and internationally renowned Italian studios: DEMOGO, MoDus Architects, Giulia De Appolonia, Francesca Torzo, Studio Labics, Barozzi Veiga, ELASTICO Farm, and Kuehn Malvezzi. They are the representatives of the so-called ‘Erasmus generation’, born between the late 1960s and the early 1980s, presented in the exhibition from two different perspectives. The first is a photographic project, a commission for which Allegra Martin created a portrait of a signature work for each studio. The second is a large table on which each architect has summarised their own way of working.
The exhibition concludes with a showcase of the freshest and most promising talents in Italian architecture, featuring a section presenting the finalist projects of NXT, the programme through which MAXXI invites young designers to propose an installation to be hosted in the museum’s outdoor space during the summer. Inside, materials relating to the winning project of NXT 2026 are on display; this project, Rubato by the HPO collective, is now part of the museum’s collection. Also on display are this year’s four finalist projects, proposed by the groups Associates Architecture, Atelier Vago, Facchinelli Daboit Saviane and m²ft architects.
header: Allegra Martin, Gembloux Town Hall by DEMOGO, 2026, MAXXI Architecture and Contemporary Design Photography Collection
Eighty years of the Italian Republic and architecture: ideas, projects and visions that have shaped the present and look to the future.
The exhibition opens with interviews with some of the most prominent figures in Italian architecture – Stefano Boeri, Maria Giuseppina Grasso Cannizzo, Massimiliano Fuksas, Renzo Piano, Franco Purini, Elisabetta Terragni, Paola Viganò, and Cino Zucchi – and by an installation paying homage to the Monument to the Fallen in the Nazi Extermination Camps by Studio BBPR in Milan, reinterpreted by Matilde Cassani.
The opening section comprises archival materials that focus on the major cultural and social themes addressed by architects and urban planners in democratic and post-war Italy. An era in which Italian architecture ‘set out anew’, fuelled by public initiative, generating the major projects that helped shape the nation’s identity.
We then delve into the heart of the exhibition’s narrative, with projects by eight successful and internationally renowned Italian studios: DEMOGO, MoDus Architects, Giulia De Appolonia, Francesca Torzo, Studio Labics, Barozzi Veiga, ELASTICO Farm, and Kuehn Malvezzi. They are the representatives of the so-called ‘Erasmus generation’, born between the late 1960s and the early 1980s, presented in the exhibition from two different perspectives. The first is a photographic project, a commission for which Allegra Martin created a portrait of a signature work for each studio. The second is a large table on which each architect has summarised their own way of working.
The exhibition concludes with a showcase of the freshest and most promising talents in Italian architecture, featuring a section presenting the finalist projects of NXT, the programme through which MAXXI invites young designers to propose an installation to be hosted in the museum’s outdoor space during the summer. Inside, materials relating to the winning project of NXT 2026 are on display; this project, Rubato by the HPO collective, is now part of the museum’s collection. Also on display are this year’s four finalist projects, proposed by the groups Associates Architecture, Atelier Vago, Facchinelli Daboit Saviane and m²ft architects.
header: Allegra Martin, Gembloux Town Hall by DEMOGO, 2026, MAXXI Architecture and Contemporary Design Photography Collection