MAXXI NXT2026

“The Magic Triangle – and the 19 rooms" is a temporary pavilion designed for NXT 2026 at the MAXXI piazza in Rome. Moving away from play as a mere visual theme, the project constructs a playful condition through atypical spatial rules, inviting visitors to experience architecture through disorientation, curiosity, and bodily adaptation.

Inspired by Johan Huizinga’s “magic circle," the pavilion consists of a non-linear sequence of 19 right-angled triangular rooms that progressively shift the user from an ordinary state to an “other" state. Rather than prescribing specific uses, the architecture activates different kinds of free play by continuously challenging the body's relationship with its surroundings. As visitors navigate the sequence, the spaces alternate between stimulating a sense of vertigo and exploration, inviting informal rest and simulation, introducing material friction that alters balance, or leaving areas entirely open to spontaneous collective invention.