Urban Stage is the project designed by Andrea Tabocchini Architecture on the occasion of NXT_MAXXI L’AQUILA 2022, an invited competition announced by the MAXXI National Museum of 21st Century Arts. The Museum has invited 4 emerging architectural firms to participate in the competition with the aim of promoting a new generation of talented architects.

Andrea Tabocchini Architecture’s proposal draws inspiration from two references of the past, the Roman baths and the ancient stage machines, and responds to the requests of the call by creating a hybrid between the two references: a proteiform structure capable of transforming itself both into both a public space with a swimming pool and a stage for the MAXXI Museum summer events.

The installation is an urban machine that occupies exactly the space of 6 parking lots. It consists of 3 elements that can move and transform to respond to a dual function: a base-pool, a stage-platform, and a scenic system-shading device. Urban Stage stimulates a new way of interacting with the square in front of Palazzo Ardinghelli and the whole city, allowing inhabitants to reclaim the public spaces currently invaded by cars. Avoiding excessive formal efforts, in fact, the project proposes an adaptable and flexible structure that activates the public space and stimulates multiple collective activities: rest, reading, play, pool, exhibitions, conferences, shows, concerts, dj-sets, outdoor cinema, etc…

The project offers visitors and the local community a structure with a shape that is not easily definable: a living device that takes on different forms or attitudes in response to the needs and desires of those who interact with it. Its appearance, therefore, is the result of unpredictable circumstances: the events hosted, the weather conditions, and the behavior of the occupants. A project that reflects its dual nature also in its character: elegant by day and eccentric by night, ephemeral and glowing, abstract and mysterious, fragile and timeless.