carlo ratti associati previews a kinetic canopy for modena’s former hospital

a moving roof arrives in piazza sant’agostino

A triangular structure has appeared in Piazza Sant’Agostino, opening and closing in front of the building it will eventually transform. The seven-meter model previews the kinetic roof planned for Italy‘s AGO Modena Fabbriche Culturali, the vast cultural complex taking shape inside the former Sant’Agostino Hospital. Its three sections draw apart toward the edges of the frame, then gather overhead, turning a mechanical demonstration into a small piece of architecture in its own right.

CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati developed the canopy with artist-engineer Chuck Hoberman, whose work has long explored how large structures expand and contract. Corten steel gives the model a weathered outer frame, while stainless steel supports the moving assembly. The joints remain visible as the triangular surface changes position, so the public can follow the motion from the square and read how the full roof will operate at building scale.

visualizations © CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati

the courtyard becomes a changing room

The future canopy by CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati will sit above a triangular courtyard shared with the nearby Gallerie Estensi and other cultural institutions. In its open position, the historic facades will remain exposed to the sky. As the sections close, the same courtyard gains a broad cover for exhibitions and gatherings. The movement takes only minutes, allowing the space to respond directly to the weather and the program beneath it.

This ability to change gives the courtyard a role that a permanent enclosure could never offer. It can stay open through mild seasons and gain shelter during harsher weather, while integrated photovoltaic panels generate solar energy above. The structure adds another interior to AGO without sealing the courtyard away from its original form, keeping the threshold between outside and inside in constant motion.

the seven-meter model opens and closes in Piazza Sant’Agostino

CRA developed the kinetic canopy with artist engineer Chuck Hoberman

preservation through motion

CRA calls its approach dynamic reversibility, drawing from the conservation principle that new interventions should leave room for future change. The roof applies that idea through movement. When extended, it places a contemporary geometric layer above the masonry courtyard. When retracted, it pulls away and allows the older architecture to return to the foreground.

The approach reaches beyond the canopy. Some of AGO’s vaulted halls will remain unfinished, ready for temporary installations and uses that have yet to be defined. This leaves the conversion with a degree of openness after construction ends. The building can keep changing through occupation, while major new elements retain a visible distance from the historic fabric around them.

Corten steel forms the outer frame while stainless steel supports the mechanism

the prototype arrives before the building

Bringing the model into the square gives AGO a public presence months before its first spaces open. The structure was digitally fabricated and preassembled before installation, with CRA and Hoberman working alongside Articulated Artworks and Maestro Technologies. At close range, visitors can watch each section travel through its sequence and see how the changing silhouette alters the space below.

AGO’s first stage is scheduled to open on December 11th, 2026. By then, the kinetic roof will form the most visible contemporary intervention within a project largely shaped by reuse. Its central idea is easy to understand from the model in the square: the old courtyard keeps its sky, while a folding canopy waits above for the moments when cover is needed.

three independently operated sections reproduce the movement of the future roof