MENS S A NA IN C OR P ORE S A NO
“Now, let us make the fantastic assumption that Rome is not a place where people live, but a psychical entity with a similarly long, rich past, in which nothing that ever took shape has passed away, and in which all previous phases of development exist beside the most recent.”
Freud, Sigmund. “Civilization and Its Discontents”
If we looked at the fascination with the human body and landscape entailing the narratives of Greco-Roman mythologies, we could get sense of spiritual belief in the connections between the intellectual Mind, the Body, and Nature. And yet, what Rome lacked was a green, public park that paid homage to such spirit. Therefore we imagined, with Aurelian Wall and its infrastructure available for adaptive-reuse, that there could be a cultural green belt around the periphery of imperial Rome. Specifically for our site, Porta Asinaria, we proposed a hybrid landscape that acted as both a sports field and a sculptural park. The landscape consisted of voids, inspired by the stereotomic nature of Roman architecture. The voids were differentiated into two categories: 1) the publicly-accessible peripheral voids, and 2) the core exercise voids that amalgamated around a subterranean museum. The landscape was envisioned as an experience of Italian microclimates; its undulation indicating soft boundaries between them.
1. SURFACE sculptural park
2. VORONOID WEB park circulation
3. PERIFHERYAL VOIDS public accesses exercise fields
AGILITY
ELEGANCE COOPERATION 3. CORE VOIDS exercise facility with controlled access
NUDITY
STRENGTH
III.
.
V. IV.
SPRING & SUMMER
FALL
WINTER
ABOUT THE AUTHORS Hyun Jong Won Hyun Jong is a South Korea-born designer currently completing his Bachelor degree in Architectural Studies at University of Waterloo, Canada. He shares a broad area of interest ranging from cultural and educational projects, green urbanism, landscape architecture, and infrastructure. His design philosophy hinges on the idea that architecture and nature are inseparable; that in balancing their contradictory forces there exists a fine line of equilibrium that can enhance and animate the character of the other. Di Wang Di is currently a candidate of Bachelor of Architectural Studies at University of Waterloo, Canada. Born in China, he studied in Tongji University, Shanghai for a two-year period before moving to Canada to pursue a more ambitious academic curriculum. His work focuses on the modes and processes of re-urbanization, and responses to emerging urban activities.
CONTACTS howard.hj.won@gmail.com diwang000@gmail.com