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Every summer since 2022, the Festival des Cabanes has transformed the historic gardens of Villa Medici into a laboratory for architectural experimentation at the heart of the Académie de France in Rome.
From May 20 to September 28, 2026, its fifth edition brings together six original creations and a multi-disciplinary artistic program, at the crossroads of architecture and landscape.
Villa Medici Cabin Festival is celebrating its fifth edition from 20 May to 28 September 2026!
Since its inception in 2022, the festival has transformed the historic gardens of the French Academy in Rome into a laboratory for architectural experimentation and practice every summer. This year’s edition features six cabanes (hut) to visit in the gardens, a pop-up bookshop and a multidisciplinary artistic programme.
The six huts are original architectural creations designed by six teams with varied practices and backgrounds: Bento Architecture, l’ECAL, University of Art and Design Lausanne with Mutina, la Fondation Huttopia, la NABA/Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, PRÌA and VELIA, and salazarsequeromedina.
The idea of the hut, which gives the Festival its name, is the starting point for a dialogue between architects, artists, designers and landscape architects around various concerns: how to propose non-invasive architectural forms? What are tomorrow’s sustainable housing solutions?
Designed in wood, steel, brick or recycled materials, the cabins are set in the quadrati of the historic garden, rectangles of grass planted with pine trees, some of which are almost 200 years old, and bordered by hedges of laurel, box, holm oak and myrtle. Wandering from hut to hut offers a new experience of Villa Medici gardens, and invites you to take in the breathtaking panorama of Rome.
Find out more about the Villa Medici gardens
The 6 cabanes
IL DUOMO INVERTITO, designed by Bento Architecture
Bento Architecture (Brussels, Belgium) reinterprets the archetype of the Roman dome by subverting its codes: monumentality gives way to the lightness of a suspended wire structure. Made of wood and mycelium (fungal roots), the organic installation creates an island of shade and coolness, questioning the persistence of architectural form and the fragility of living matter. Co-produced by the Centre Wallonie-Bruxelles in Paris, it will be presented there in 2027.
© Bento Architecture
FAÇADE, designed by ECAL/Ecole Cantonale d’Art de Lausanne with Mutina
ECAL (Lausanne, Switzerland) has joined forces with Mutina (Modena, Italy), a company that specializes in creating ceramic tiles, to present a trompe-l’oeil project in which a single wall becomes architecture, transforming a fragment into a real space. Through a subtle use of motifs and colour variations, this installation interrogates the boundary between surface and depth, reality and illusion. The project was selected and supported by French designer Ronan Bouroullec.
©HaoWei Hsu & Hayao Takebayashi
CREETOPIA, designed by Fondation Huttopia
Fondation Huttopia (Lyon, France) presents a prototype for a sustainable dwelling designed to cope with the extremely harsh climate of Canada’s Far North. Inspired by the traditional skills of the Cree, the indigenous people of that region, the project combines high tech, contemporary design, and respect for ancestral practices.
© Fondation Huttopia
REASSEMBLED VIEWS, designed by NABA/Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti
NABA/Nuova Accademia di Belle Arti, a prestigious school of art and design, with campuses in Milan and Rome, is developing a project that forms part of a reuse initiative by recycling materials from the 2025 festival, producing a series of seats and light structures scattered around the garden.
© Alberto Lucchetti, NABA
Acquifère, designed by PRÌA and VELIA
The PRÌA (Saint-Laurent-la-Vernède, France) and VELIA (Rome, Italy) architecture studios have devised a project that combines travertine stone with terracotta vases to create a natural cooling system. Based on the principle of evaporation, this installation helps to lower the temperature in the garden of Villa Medici, thereby offering a model of “communal water management” to address climate issues in urban environments.
©Prìa
CABANE 7L AND LIBRAIRIE 7L X VILLA MEDICI, designed by salazarsequeromedina
The salazarsequeromedina studio (Madrid, Spain; Lima, Peru; New York, USA) is occupying two spaces at Villa Medici. On the one hand, it has designed Cabane 7L, a reading pavilion nestling in the heart of the gardens, which is inspired by Villa Medici’s Room of Birds and offers visitors a place to pause for reading or contemplation. On the other, Librairie 7L x Villa Médicis presents a selection of books related to the themes of the Festival des Cabanes.
© salazarsequeromedina
Find out more about the cabins
Practical information
Opening days and times:
Monday to Sunday (closed Tuesdays), 10am to 7pm (last admission at 6:30pm)
Rates:Full rate: €8 / Reduced rate: €6 TRIBU rate: €1 Free for SOLO or DUO card holders
Tickets coming soon
Festival partners
The Festival des Cabanes de la Villa Médicis 2026 is made possible thanks to the support and guidance of
With the support of Air France, Sofitel Rome Villa Borghese, Azienda Frank Cornelissen
Partners of Habiter Demain
Photo credits
Cover image/ Aerial view of the Villa Medici © M3 Studio, Nicolas Vanegas Sanchez
