Villa Medici Festival des Cabanes 2022

From 25 May to 2 October

The Festival invites architects, artists and researchers to make use of the historic gardens of Villa Medici, a setting with a remarkable arboreal heritage, the design of which was conceived by Ferdinando de Medici at the end of the 16^th century. Transient installations, micro-architectures, pavilions: four original creations of “cabins” will take place throughout the summer in the heart of the gardens of Villa Medici.

The four pavilions have been specially designed for the Villa Medici Festival des Cabanes by the French architectural agencies DREAM, KOZ and WALD as well as by a group of students from the Master of Political Arts (SPEAP) of Sciences Po and the “Place du vivant” studio of the École des Arts Décoratifs. Exhibited in the open air for five months according to a visual design by the Italian architectural collective orizzontale, these light structures made of wood, often from reused materials, offer the public a renewed experience of the eco-responsible gardens of Villa Medici and invite them to rethink the question of sustainable and modular housing.

On Saturday 25 June, the Nuit des Cabanes will be a season highlight with a programme of artistic, musical and culinary performances featuring artists and thinkers from various backgrounds.

Discover the pavilions:

orizzontale, designers of the signage for Villa Medici’s Festival des Cabanes

orizzontale is an architects’ collective based in Rome, whose work crosses the field of architecture, urbanism, public art and DIY practice. orizzontale since 2010 has been promoting projects of common relation spaces, giving form to both dismissed and unseen images of the city. These projects have represented the ground for experimenting new kinds of collaborative interactions between city dwellers and urban commons as well as occasions to test the boundaries of the architectural creation process.

More about orizzontale

orizzontale developed projects in Italy, Spain, Germany, Austria, Greece, Ukraine, Portugal, Netherlands. “8 ½” is a mobile theatre designed by orizzontale in 2014 and was awarded the international prize of Young Architects Program by MAXXI Museum and MoMA PS1. In 2016 orizzontale won the competition “Periferie”, organized by Italian Ministry of Culture and Italian Board of Architects, with the project “Prossima Apertura” that is currently under construction and in 2020 achieved the Premio Ubarnistica by the National Institute of Urban Planning. In 2018 at Venice Biennale, orizzontale was awarded the “Young Talent of Architecture 2018” for the best Italian under 35 practive. In 2021 orizzontale was invited to the 17. Venice Architecture Biennale in the Italian Pavilion.

orrizontale’s team: Jacopo Ammendola, Juan Lopez Cano, Giuseppe Grant, Margherita Manfra, Nasrin Mohiti Asli, Roberto Pantaleoni, Stefano Ragazzo

→ Download the press release

Image credits:
Cover image: aerial view of the Villa Medici © M3 Studio
Views of the pavilions: © DREAM / KOZ : © Daniele Molajoli / © WALD / Preparatory sketches for the “Banquets des vestiges” pavilion © SPEAP / École des Arts Décoratifs
orizzontale team © Musacchio Ianniello courtesy of Fondazione MAXXI