CRA–Carlo Ratti Associati and kinetic-structure pioneer Chuck Hoberman unveil the scale model of the origami-inspired roof that will crown AGO, set to become one of Europe’s largest cultural sites at some 22,000 square meters. Installed in Piazza Sant’Agostino in Modena, Italy, the model gives the public its first encounter with the project’s architectural centerpiece and marks the countdown to the opening of AGO’s exhibition spaces.
AGO transforms an 18th-century monumental hospital complex into a new cultural hub combining museums, research spaces, educational facilities, and public areas. Designed by CRA–Carlo Ratti Associati together with the late architect and Golden Lion recipient Italo Rota, the project reimagines the former Sant’Agostino Hospital as a sequence of interconnected spaces dedicated to art, technology, knowledge, and civic life.
Occupying approximately 22,000 square meters, the complex will host Fondazione AGO, the University Museums, the Museo della Figurina, the Digital Humanities Research Center (DHMoRe), and FEM – Future Education Modena, creating a new cultural district at the heart of Modena. The first stage will open to the public on 11 December 2026.
At the center of AGO is a triangular courtyard shared with the nearby Gallerie Estensi and other cultural institutions. A new kinetic roof transforms the courtyard into a flexible environment that can shift between open-air and covered configurations.
Designed with Chuck Hoberman, pioneer of kinetic structures and Harvard University scholar, the origami-inspired canopy can open and close in minutes, adapting to changing weather, seasons, and public uses. Rather than treating the courtyard as either permanently open or fully enclosed, the design introduces a structure capable of moving between the two conditions, allowing the space to host exhibitions, performances, gatherings, and everyday activities throughout the year.
Integrated photovoltaic panels will harvest solar energy and contribute to the sustainability strategy of the wider complex.
The intervention also addresses a long-standing architectural question: how should historic courtyards evolve? At AGO, the response is a reversible and adaptable structure that preserves the identity of the original architecture while extending the ways in which the courtyard can be used.
Dynamic Reversibility
The canopy is part of a broader approach developed by CRA called dynamic reversibility, a framework that brings together heritage preservation and kinetic architecture, two fields that have traditionally remained separate.
The restoration of historic buildings has often moved between two opposing positions. Eugène Viollet-le-Duc advocated restoring buildings to an idealized “original” condition, while John Ruskin argued that architecture should be allowed to age naturally, retaining both its history and the traces of time.
The 1964 Venice Charter established a middle path through the principle of reversibility: interventions should permit future transformation without damaging the original structure.
Dynamic reversibility extends this principle by proposing that buildings should not only accommodate future change, but actively support adaptation from the outset. In this model, architecture can evolve in response to changing needs while minimizing waste and intervention.
At AGO, the roof makes this principle visible. When deployed, the canopy introduces a contemporary layer over the historic courtyard; when retracted, the original space reemerges.
This approach is particularly relevant in Italy, where the architecture of the future will increasingly depend not on new construction, but on the intelligent transformation of existing buildings. The strategy extends beyond the roof itself. Some of AGO’s vaulted halls remain intentionally unfinished, allowing them to accommodate temporary installations and future uses that cannot yet be anticipated.
Restoration is therefore conceived not as the production of a single finished condition, but as a process capable of continuing over time.
A Full-Scale Idea, Tested in Public
Ahead of AGO’s opening, CRA and Chuck Hoberman have brought the kinetic roof into the public realm, allowing citizens to experience its geometry and movement before the full-scale structure is completed.
Installed in Piazza Sant’Agostino, the model presents one of the defining architectural elements of the future cultural complex. Measuring seven meters on each side, the triangular structure was created by CRA, Chuck Hoberman, and Articulated Artworks.
Digitally fabricated and pre-assembled before installation, the model is made from Corten steel and stainless steel. It reproduces the opening mechanism of the future roof through three independently operated sections, demonstrating how the structure moves between different configurations.
“Architecture should not be frozen in time,” says Carlo Ratti, founding partner of CRA and professor at MIT and the Politecnico di Milano. “The kinetic roof reflects this idea. It changes with the seasons, the weather, and the people who gather beneath it. Presenting it in Piazza Sant’Agostino before AGO opens allows visitors to experience the project as it begins to take shape — revealing how movement and adaptability can become part of architecture itself.”
By placing the model in the square before AGO opens, the project’s central architectural idea becomes accessible beyond the construction site. The roof is presented not only as a future building component, but as a working structure whose movement, scale, and changing geometry can already be experienced by the public.
Architecture Designed to Adapt
AGO continues CRA’s research into cultural spaces as platforms for interaction, exchange, and collective life. Through projects such as CapitaSpring and MEET Digital Culture Center, CRA has explored how architecture can establish new relationships between people, technology, and the environment.
At AGO, these lines of research converge within one of Italy’s most significant heritage transformations. The kinetic roof is its most visible element, but it belongs to a wider architectural strategy in which preservation and change are treated as complementary rather than opposing conditions.
The former hospital is not restored toward a single final state. Instead, its historic spaces are combined with interventions designed to respond to changing programs, environmental conditions, and future uses. In this context, the moving roof becomes the first public expression of a broader ambition: a cultural institution designed not only to preserve the past, but to continuously adapt to the future.
For a closer look at the ideas shaping his practice, join us at Rethinking Architecture with Carlo Ratti, a free PAACADEMY keynote lecture exploring the intersection of architecture, data, and urban intelligence. The session examines how information, sensing technologies, and systems thinking are reshaping the way architecture and cities are understood, designed, and experienced.
Credits
Future Kinetic Roof
By CRA and artist-engineer Chuck Hoberman, with the roof model produced by CRA, Chuck Hoberman, Articulated Artworks, and Maestro Technologies.
AGO Modena Fabbriche Culturali
A project by CRA–Carlo Ratti Associati and Italo Rota
CRA Team: Carlo Ratti, Andrea Cassi (partner in charge), Francesco Strocchio (project manager), Valentina Grasso (preliminary phases project manager), Alba Leon Alvarez, Lorenzo Anghinoni, Iratxe De Dios, Serena Giardina, Giulia Lodetti, Eugenia Macchia, Nicolette Marzovilla, Giovanni Trogu, Gizem Veral, Jelena Krco, Matteo Zerbi, Gary Di Silvio, Pasquale Millieri, Gianluca Zimbardi
Italo Rota Building Office Team: Italo Rota, Francesca Grassi
Kinetic Roof: Hoberman Associates — Chuck Hoberman, Matthew Davis
Kinetic Roof Structure: INGEMBP — Corrado Curti
Restoration: Studio Associato Architetti Francesco Doglioni e Renata Daminato — Francesco Doglioni
Structural, Mechanical and Electrical Engineering and Safety: Politecnica — Luciano Gasparini, Giorgio Poggi, Francesco Micheletti, Ferdinando Sarno, Francesco Frassineti, Claudio Pongolini, Ilaria Mazzi, Claudia Zironi, Giovanni Gamberini, Giuliana Bellei, Francesca Ficarra, Massimo Trento, Tania Costantini, Sergio Boccaletti, Emanuela Gosti
Landscape: Studio Laura Gatti — Laura Gatti, Marco Peterle
Acoustics: Vibes — Alessia Griginis, Sabrina Canale
Fire Prevention: GAE Engineering — Giuseppe Amaro, Valentina Crimì
Lighting: Light Follows Behaviour — Elettra Bordonaro, Argun Paragamyan
Cost Consultant: Marco Figazzolo
