Young Architects Program International

PICNICTOPÌA
Word composed by PICNIC picnic /pik'nik/ noun [origin: french Pique-nique] – Breakfast, meal in the open air, during an excursion. By extension the excursion itself, and TOPIA [origin: greek τόπος – Place].

Picnictopìa is an installation that, through the iconic and representative use of a simple and direct module, such as a picnic table, tries to re-create a place of relationships, passions, plays, and dialogue. The interpretation of the artwork, given by the visitors, becomes an installation itself, or to be more precise, a performance.

The basic module of the project is a single picnic table. Pools of standardized dimensions will be placed between the picnic tables, filled with grass soil, water, simple walkways. Parasols will provide shading.

On one side of the installation will be an artificial waterfall that will welcome visitors arriving from Guido Reni Street, while those arriving from Masaccio Street will be welcomed by a quiet and shaded space with parasols, a sort of urban beach. Two multifunctional stairs, modeled as small urban hills, allow the shaping of different spatial configurations for the public for events organized by MAXXI, while two central stages (main and secondary), framed by the stairs and facing Guido Reni Street, are placed under the wide overhang of the building.