AELIN SHAOYU LI SL2796 AELIN SHAOYU LI SL2796 AELIN SHAOYU LI SL2796
CONTENTS
ARCH 3823 FINAL PROJECT ARCH 3823 FINAL PROJECT ARCH 3823 FINAL PROJECT
PIAZZA DEL POPOLO TRIDENTE
1650
1750
1847
Pope Sixtus V's new street system
During the 15th to 16th century, Rome experienced city growth and new roads were laid out by Pope Sixtus V, including the trident streets which joins at Piazza del Popolo. The name "piazza of the people" reminds me of Shanghai's People's Square and in a similar fashion suggests the function and initial purpose of the space. The trident was completed after several papacies, including works commissioned by Leo X and Clemens VII. The central street, Via del Corso, leads to Piazza Venezia. The obelisk at Piazza del Popolo and Vittorio Emanuele II Monument overlook each other as the street runs between them without any blockage. On the other side, Via del Babuino points towards St. John in Lateran. It is rare
to find perfectly straight streets in Rome but also an amazing experience because one could always see the obelisk walking along the tridente, which provides a sense of distance and direction. Right across Porta del Popolo (reconstructed 1475 on Roman ruins) are the twin churches: Chiesa di Santa Maria dei Miracoli and Basilica di Santa Maria in Montesanto. On the northern side and adjacent to the porta is Basilica Santa Maria del Popolo, which is run by the Augustinian order and contains works by Raphael, Bernini, Caravaggio, Bramante, etc‌ As the piazza sits at the foot of Pincian Hill, a series of stairs leads up to a terrace and then to the private gardens of the Borghese and Villa Medici.
PARCO AQUEDUCT
Rome's aqueduct within the Aurelian Wall
The aqueduct park locates just outside the city on the Appian Way and can be easily accessed by subway. The park is free to the public and a lot of the citizens choose to exercise right along the aqueduct or enjoy their sunny afternoons here. The largest remains are that of Aqua Claudia, one of the four great aqueducts in Rome; part of the smaller Aqua Felice can also be seen. Aqua Claudia was commissioned by Caligula in 52 AD and nowadays runs through Porta
Maggorie where it joins two other aqueducts: Aqua Anio Novus and Aqua Caelemontani. The largest remaining piece casts a shade wall on the lawns; as I move along the aqueduct from south to north, little fragments are scattered linearly until the park is cut off by the train track. The sketch in the previous page is my favorite little fragment because it contains the masonry larger arches which carry the water channel and double-height brick arches as additional support.
VILLA GIULIA
I have included a detailed record of Villa Giulia in the mid-term exam. Here, I did some more studies on its plan and section and would like to emphasize again on how much I like it and how its axiality divided by loggia screens react to the physical experience as one walks in between the gardens. As the little gardens terrace downwards in elevation and less dominating in sight along the main axis, they as well become less and less accessible physically. The series
of loggia screens brings visual depths into the design, where the foreground, middle ground and background can be clearly distinguished on various viewpoints. Meanwhile, its porosity adds to the “mystery� of a garden. What usually achieved through planted bushes are here transformed into manmade structures which obscure the boundary between the buildings and the gardens.
PALAZZO SPADA
It is amazing to find so many incredible sites near studio; one of which free to us and do not require reservations is Palazzo Spada. To enter, one has to circulate through the courtyard to the back and go up one floor to access Galleria Spada. Galleria Spada is very small and contains only four rooms but a humongous amount of paintings assembled by Cardinal Spada starting in the 17th century. In 1632, Borromini was asked to redesign the palace, whose most famous piece here is the perspective corridor in the side courtyard. Unfortunately, one could not enter
the corridor anymore; a lady there works to explain the design and demonstrate the proportions as she walks through the path. I think the piece is extraordinarily important because it demonstrates an obsession towards proportion and beauty which puts aside normal function; yet it is not out of scale at all because all values are calculated. As this lead into the Baroque period, the pursuit towards art now goes beyond a “necessityâ€? level but into sensorial pleasure and physical comfort: who but those seeking a luxurious life would build a corridor without a useful purpose‌
PALAZZO BARBERINI
Palazzo Barberini is one of my studio sites this semester, as can be seen from the above city analysis project. It is commissioned by Pope Urban VIII from the Barberini family in 1623 and Carlo Maderno is appointed the architect. Borromini and Bernini later worked together to finish the palazzo. Besides the exhibition, there are four parts that I liked a lot at the site. First is a square stairway leading up to the third floor in the northern courtyard of the palace, designed by Bernini. Second is a much smaller helicoidal staircases on the southern wing which is probably designed by Borromini. Third, the garden is not located
on the central axis of the main building but on a higher terrace to the eastern back, where it is also visually blocked by a screen wall. Last, a progressive pathway on the central axis which lifts up the main first floor and slopes upwards towards the higher terrace. As the plan indicates, in the center of the H-shape plan is a loggia hall marked by thick piers and vaults. Then the slanted pathway goes beyond the building; with the white plaster decorations on its side walls, the pathway provides an interesting perspectival experience as one might be fooled by the “fake� vanishing point.
COLOSSEUM
I did not plan on a visit to the Colosseum until our last few days in Rome because Jan, during our forum class, describes the Colosseum as “a place only tourists would go.â€? But I am surely a desperate tourist in the last few days‌The Colosseum dominates the city as it sites in the valley between the Caelian, the Esquiline and the Palatine Hills. Such a huge project took in total 8 years to construct, starting from 72 CE in the reign of Vespasian and opening to the public at 80CE in the reign of Vitus. The amphitheater is built with quarried limestone, bricks, roman concrete and
volcanic stones; later restorations of the theater with newer bricks and concrete are pretty obvious in their texture and color differences from the original. Only a tiny part of the seating steps, covered by white marble over bricks, have remained and what is left now are the arches and walkways. My studio project also develops based on the amphitheater section. However, as the Colosseum section divides underneath spaces into grids of arched walkways and rectangular spaces, my project tries to follow the rules of supportive arches while keeping spaces as open as possible.
TERME DI DIOCLEZIANO
The largest of all Roman baths built, the Baths of Diocletian was ordered by Maxentius and occupies the most densely populated area of the Esquiline, Quirinale and Viminal. It is a great example of how Italians construct their cities on top of ancient structures and respecting their original forms, which is similar to what happens to Piazza Navona. Similarly, while the old Roman buildings no longer exists as a whole, new buildings and road systems constructed later follow the ancient planning and only alter its functions. The northern remains of the complex is turned into Santa Maria degli Angeli in 1561 by Michelangelo. Michelangelo maintains the original plan of the frigidarium, therefore the church does not follow any regular basilican plans. Instead, one would
enter through a concave entrance into a domed exedra foyer, then into a narrow nave spreading deep into both ends: it is as if a normal nave is oriented side ways with the high altar placed in the middle. After Rome became part of Italy, Roma Termini was built adjacent to the water reservoir. Piazza della Repubblica was built on top the southern semicircle wall of the baths complex, which now has a fountain at the center. The cloister in the back of the Sta Maria degli Angeli along with the charthouse and baths remains are turned into the national museum. Although the domed ceiling all fell off, part of the semi-domes supporting the main ceiling in the baths complex can still be seen, where one would be astonished by the scale of these ancient Roman constructions.
TEMPIETTO
Tempietto is one of Bramante’s most wellknown pieces of work but probably his most unvisited site in Rome. Located in the southern back of the Tiber and on top of the Janiculum Hill, it sits in a small courtyard of S. Pietro in Montorio. The original design sits in a circular cloister of sixteen columns and was never executed. The building is designed more for a monumental purpose because of its tiny scale. The symmetrical circular plan contains one horizontal and another identical cross axis; however, in reality there is a clear sense of orientation reinforced by the
surrounding rectangular courtyard and the placement of the altar. Wolfgang Lotz describes it as “the first time…that the structural technique and forms of the antiquity were employed on a modern project”, referring to the classical style of the Tempietto. I think that Tempietto is an answer to the modesty towards the revival of classical art but with the ambition for a new era of innovation based on the history; here, Bramante is not simply reviving the forms of classical architecture but assigning them new meanings and spirits.