The OFFICINA ROMA is a villa built entirely of trash. It was specially created for the RE-CYCLE exhibition, which is running for a period of 5 months at the MAXXI in Rome.
The villa consists of a central workshop, a sleeping area and a kitchen. The floor plan purposely lacks a living room – the comfort zone is replaced by an empty workshop in the centre. OFFICINA ROMA is an experimental building project by
raumlabor Berlin, constructed with the help of 24 school students from all over Italy within a period of one week.
The building is a collage of materials in the sense that the kitchen is made of old bottles, the bedroom walls consist of discarded car doors, the workshop is built of old doors and windows, and the main roof is composed of old oil barrels and used dry wall profiles.
There is an atmosphere of urgency about this villa; it signalizes a turning point. The OFFICINA ROMA is intended to communicate the necessity to question our lifestyle – a lifestyle based on individualisation, competition, growth and exploitation of natural resources. Although situated in the dynamic and exclusive garden of the MAXXI, the design of the villa demonstrates contrasting issues. These include standstill and dependencies, as well as the need to conduct fundamental and uncompromising negotiations about privileges in our future society.
In the course of the five months of the RE-CYCLE exhibition, the OFFICINA ROMA will host several workshops and discussions on subjects such as experimental building, alternative living concepts and recycling design.
