Circo Massimo by Emilio Marin

MAPPING

ROMA 3.0 WORKSHOP // ROMA TRE // TEMPLE UNIVERSITY // UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO

tutor

EMILIO MARIN assistants

VALENTINA ANDRIULLI GIULIA CARBONI ALESSANDRA DAL MOS EMANUELA PETRUCCI

Italy

Rome Region

Rome

Site

Historical Sites 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

T. Fortunae Thermae Diocletianae Capitolium Vetus T. Salutis T. Serpis Thermae Constanini T. Iunonis Lucinae T. Div Traiani Basilica Ulpia

10A. Forum Traiani 10B. Forum Caesaris 10C. Forum Augusti 10D. Forum 11. T. Iuvoni Arx 12. T. Nervae 13. Tabularium 14. Basilica Vemili 15. Templum Pacis

16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24.

T. Iovis Capitolium Basilica T. Custoris Vestae Basilica Constant T. Veneris Romae Domus Tiberiana Area Palatina T. Appolinis

25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. 32. 33.

Domus Augustana Hippodomus Porticus Liviae Thermae Trainae Thermae Titianae Colossus Moneta Porticus Claudia Septizonium Severi

Secondary and Tertiary Roads Primary Roads Subway and Rail

Archaelogical and Culturally Significant Public Space Green Space Gardens and Woods

Topography Level 1 Topography Level 2 Topography Level 3 Topography Level 4

Circo Massimo Area 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Comune di Roma Circ. I Comune Roma Iv Consiliare Comune di Romacentro Elettronico Comune Di Roma Comune Di Roma Dipartmento Comune di Roma Autoparco Servizio Coordinamento Ammin.

8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14.

Santa Maria in Cosmedin Crosier Generalate Santa Sabina Basilica Ss. Bonifacio E Alessio Chiesa di Santa Prisca Suore Domenicane Villa Rosa Convento S. Bonaventura Palatino

18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.

Bocca della VeritĂ Hotel Domus Aventina Palazzo Al Velabro Fortyseven Cristalli Meet 0.75

Historical Sites 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7.

Forum Tabularium Basilica Vemili T. Iovis Capitolium Basilica T. Custoris Vestae

8. Basilica Constant 9. T. Veneris Romae 10. Domus Tiberiana 11. Area Palatina 12. T. Appolinis 13. Domus Augustana 14. Hippodomus

15. Circo Massimo 16. T. Iovis Capitolium 17. Mitreo 18. T. di Hercules Olivarius 19. T. di Portunus

MATERIALS

ROMA 3.0 WORKSHOP // ROMA TRE // TEMPLE UNIVERSITY // UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO

tutor

EMILIO MARIN assistants

VALENTINA ANDRIULLI GIULIA CARBONI ALESSANDRA DAL MOS EMANUELA PETRUCCI

*Note: Original photographic material research has been carried out through personally conducted surveys. Photography of some rare flora have been substituted for original documentation in a limited number of uses.

STUDIES

ROMA 3.0 WORKSHOP // ROMA TRE // TEMPLE UNIVERSITY // UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO

tutor

EMILIO MARIN assistants

VALENTINA ANDRIULLI GIULIA CARBONI ALESSANDRA DAL MOS EMANUELA PETRUCCI

[in a taxi in Rome; Princess Ann is drugged] Joe Bradley: Where do you live? Princess Ann: [mumbles drunkenly] ... Colosseum... Joe Bradley: [to taxi driver] She lives in the Colosseum. Cab Driver: Is wrong address! Roman Holiday 1953

The site of the Circus Maximus and associated building parcel is a loaded question. What is the existing urban condition of the building and open space, and should this be considered significant enough to inform the outcome of the proposal, or merely incidental? Is it the historical, or cultural implications of the site that should rule?

If the architecture is conceived of as an object in field, what then is its relation to program and its external presentation? Is it merely a container into which program is inserted?

While it may seem that this conception of the relationship inherently creates a disconnect on the urban scale in terms of how the public understands the buildings program and even purpose, it can also create fantastic surprises and genuinely interesting urban events.

These are ships painted in dazzle camouflage. The idea of dazzle camouflage is to make an object unrecognizable by disguising the form.

Like a present that has been carefully giftwrapped, it can create surprise when its contents are discovered.

This idea of surprise is an essential part of what makes the city of Rome such an interesting urban environment; the fabric of the city is such that there are constantly turns and dead ends and suddenly appearing spaces that one cannot anticipate in a linear fashion. In utter contrast to the planned city and the superimposed grid of North America, it camouflages and conceals until the last minute.

This is another example of urban camouflage. It is a burger joint in the backroom of an upscale Manhattan hotel, accessible only through the lobby. The juxtaposition of these two disparate environments that creates such an interesting argument about space. I doubt it contributes to their delicious hamburgers though.

This ship looks ridiculous. But is it still a ship? does the distortion of its form change its meaning?

This becomes an interesting proposition; at once, there is an idea about hiding an object by making it hypervisile and obscuring oneâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s perception of it while at the same time it also appears to be an exercise in abstract pattern making and graphic experimentation.

I also happen to love their sign. Even while concealing the entrance behind a curtain in the most unlikely of locations, the restaurant still identifies itself with a literal and instantly identifiable iconographic representation of its purpose. It is hidden in its surroundings, and yet in plain sight.

It also stands in stark contrast to ideas of contextuality and the concept that the best way to hide an object is to have it blend perfectly into its surroundings. These two competing ideas have obvious urban implications; if we accept that surprise is a desirable outcome of urban spaces, then what is the best way to achieve this? Is it always desirable, or even prudent to try and achieve it?

This does not mean that they make good planning princples for cities, however. The strict arrangement of programs and segregation of uses along geometric and asethetic principles can

This is a summary in two frames of the Monty Python sketch, ‘How Not To Be Seen’. It expresses, as the first rule of not being seen, that one should not announce one’s presence. It is also hilarious.

This painting looks like abstract geometric forms and colours. Largely, thats because it is. In reaction to previously held ideas of beauty or composition, it is very clearly Modern.

This is a quilt. While it is probably very warm and comfortable, it is assembled through the connection of disparate, smaller components. While this is true of many things, the quilt shows this very clearly. The city is a lot like a quilt.

Yet despite their different graphic and artistic representations, there is a continuity of Renaissance and earlier ideas of the importance of the axis, of balance, of an abstract sense of symmetry.

This is broadacre city. Rather, it is a plan of broadacre city. The informing aesthetic principles can be seen clearly informing this new ideal of the city.

These abstract geometric propositions ultimately have spatial implications when applied on the scale of urban and infrastructural projects, and their imposition on the landscape creates a strangely beautiful abstract contrast.

The idea of infrasctrucure as Architecture, and monument in an urban context is recurring. Tatlin’s tower, Eiffel’s tower, they seek to combine functionalism and a sense of the grandeur and awe at the power of man to build.

Is this not the idea of the Circo Massimo, though? A space of spectacle conceived of on such a scale that it is simultaneously part of and apart from the city; how can we understand its relationship to the urban fabric? Does the space retain its monumentality despite the removal of the building, the infrastructure that is constructed on such a heroic scale?

The idea that infrastructure has no real scalar relationship to the human is interesting. That we can create works on such a scale as to become a part of the natural world is as essential to Modern thinking as the importance of abstract concepts of beauty and order that inform art and planning

This bears a resemblance to the natural rock formations of Giants Causeway; yet while the manmade edifices seek to control changes to the environment, these changes are an essential reaon for the existence of these formations.

Does the natural mimic the man-made, or do we mimic the environment?

These images are both of coastal â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;defencesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, attempts to use man made forms to stop the relentless march of the sea. They form a hard barrier to the ocean, and imply a very clear relationship between the world of man and the world of the natural; that there should be such a clear demarcation implies an underlying desire to control our surroundings completely.

What if we come to see the creations of infrastructure as places of great reverence? Surely the achievements themselves, if not always the results, are heroic. The spaces can sometimes be no less awe-inspiring than the greatest cathedral.

These images also have a specific idea about the quality of spaces and forms that can be created with an economy of means, that are in an abstract and concise way beautiful. How does this translate to a site or project that doesnt have direct infrastructural implications? How is it scalar in a way infrastructure isnt?

These qualities and ideas are certainly not embodied in the Mitrea on the site as it currently exists; disconnected and an afterthought in relation to the city and to people.

These ideas of urbanity and the relationship of the urban and the natural imply an inherent conflict; where as the renaissance idea of this relationship; that they The inner values of art, its could be reconciled, both ability to make us think and feel, its spiritual values. within the form of the city, and the form of the villa as This project emerged from an extension of that. the inside out, and from the place. How are fragments and the layers of the place related, how are they different and what are the implications of that to what we value?

A sense of reverence; colour, light, material. Harmony and at the same tme clear separation of the new and the old; an imposition of new order on the existing.

Parts of the whole; separate, and yet related. Mirrors and connections.

“gentlemen! you can’t fight in here! this is the war room!”

What does a natural space mean in the context of the city? is it a peice of perfectly green space within the urban fabric, an object within the field? Is it an island in a sea of concrete?

How is that perception of space, this stance on either the positive or void nature of public and space changed by a different perspective?

Public spaces, like this pig, are made from void spaces within the urban fabric. But are they the solid, inhabitable space of the urban landscape? or the void left between building?`

Nolli’s map of Rome demonstrates a clear stance on this issue; iregardless of the interior or exterior nature of a space, the public ground is rendered as a continuous plane and thus clearly shapes our understanding of the usage of these spaces.

How does our understanding or conception of a space differ from how it is actually used, how it is appropriated during the course of its use? what happens when our understanding of a space is dichotomous with its use?

The idea of palimpsest has a rich history, both in Architecture itself as well as a metaphor for our understanding; layers upon layer, each appropriating space and existing circumstances for their own uses.

This transformation of the built fabric but retention of the essence of the space is clearly demonstrative of Rossi’s collective memory, and of course manifests itself in the current form of the Circo Massimo and its current incarnation as a space of public assembly and a kind of nature preserve within the city; a space of recreation, now as it was in antiquity despite the obvious differences.

None of these stones were quarried for this floor; it is exclusively appropriated stones from other sources, an architectural embodiment of the idea of a quilt.

The space of the Circo Massimo may retain the historical imprint of its past uses, but how has its meaning changed? The nuances of appropriation of both the footprint of the Circo, as well as the buildings around it, have left their mark and

I was always fascinated with the Rube Goldberg machine. It is essentially an over-engineered machine, involving a chain reaction, that performs a simple task, in an over complicated fashion. I have to say that “Professor Butts and the Self-Operating Napkin” is an allegorical reference to “the architect”, or at least the architecture student, or maybe just myself, as the architecture student.

The chain reaction was first analyzed by Isaac Newton, the Sir of physics, math, astronomy, philosophy, alchemy and theology. His third law of motion, stating that for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, provided the basic explanation of how a building structure works. I hope one day an apple falls on my head and knocks some sense into me. Isaac Newton is considered by many to be the most influential scientist who ever lived. He is the God of Science.

I don’t see what the constant struggle is to define it. I hypothesize that I may just be in the bloodline of Sir Isaac. Therefore, “Fountain” is art and so is a bicycle wheel perched on a stool.

Zeus however, is the greek god of lightning!! Whenever I see this sexy deity, I remember the time that my friend and I got caught in a lightning storm at summer camp. On our sprint to safety, a lightning bolt hit a telephone pole only meters away. I blacked out for a second and my friend peed her pants. We were 16.

For most of my childhood, a hamster wheel was always in motion. I was promiscuous with hamster companions. Most of my friends at school had goldfish or plants, but I learned the art of responsibility through maybe a few too many attempts at caring for hamsters. It’s funny to think that these important values, which intern help me design spaces for humans, came from my hamster’s; Teddy the First, Teddy the Second, all 7 of the Second’s babies, and Teddy the Third. One time I drank a milkshake of worms, hamster pellets, wet dog food, sardines and soy milk. It was for a competition. I guess you could say I am competitive.

Marcel Duchamp believes that a urinal turned upside down is art. I agree. The definition of art, is anything that someone acknowledges as art.

A milkshake is a collage of food, blended to create a single taste. My design is inspired by surrealist collages like those done by artist, Talat Darvinglu.

The scene in the movie Fight Club, where the Ikea catalog is being collaged onto the protagonist’s/ antagonist’s room is my favourite cinematic moment. Cataloging information in a diagrammatic way, arouses me. Maybe it is somehow linked to “Teddy’s Cage Cleaning Schedule” that I spent hours making in the second grade. To me, architecture is an Ikea Catalog, creating a framework for living. It designates a program or use to a space that can be pieced together differently by each client.

Tetris is all about the art of customization. You are given a plan constructed of 4 squares. The squares are of the same dimension and are connected edge-to-edge. Every two-dimensional possibility is presented. It is your job to orient the plan appropriately to fit into the conditions presented. With every additional piece, the conditions are altered and the overall plan changes. The older the site grows, the more complex it becomes. Once you start playing you become addicted. With every new game there is a new strategy and a more advanced approach. You start thinking about falling pieces all the time even in your subconscious. And that’s it. It’s too late. Your brain will never fully rest if you remain a Tetris player.

The future exists in the architect’s brain.

No. The architect’s real brain. Sex.

Like Britney Spears, a visual connection between the “Temple” of Hercules and the “Circo” Massimo is to be enjoyed by the public. Visual connections draw attention. They give the pedestrian a sense of place.

Plug-in City by Archigram.

A sense of place is a reference of where you are to your home. Architecture is about connecting past to present in order to encompass a future.

The past exists below the Basilica. The Mitreo.

A library is a place that stores information regarding the past. One can go there in the present to educate themselves about; Rubes Goldberg, Sir Isaac Newton, Zeus, Marcel Duchamp, Hamsters, Worms, Talat Darvinglu, Fight Club, Ikea, Tetris, Archigram, Sex, Britney Spears, the Temple of Hercules, the Circo Massimo, Toronto, Rome, the Mitreo, the Brain and Peter Zumthor’s Kolumba Art Museum.

The Kolumba Art Museum in Cologne, is a perfect personification of an architecture that is the past, present and future.

This document is Chanel Dehond’s extension of Lax by Ryan Gander, soon to be found in this library.

Present day technology can improve the quality of life. Just ask Darth.

Placing a new retrofit building on ancient ruins allows it to be experienced by people, the way it used to be.

The “Dark Side” of our site references the short side, abutting the Circo Massimo. This side is raised higher off the ground than the parallel, so I would like to propose opening the Temple of Hercules side to the public and continuing a path through the ruins, out onto the Circo Massimo.

The Circo Massimo will now become the extension of the library.

The space has always been about special events, since its inception

The site next to the largest open urban space in Rome, embedde right in the historical urban space

From chariot races, religious celebrations and parades, the circus has always been about the crowd Even today, the largest celebrations and protests are happening in the circus maximus

To further activate the space, there needs to be more program happening more often

The void can be compared to central park, in that it is completely surrounded by the urban fabric However, the success of the circus maximus as a public space is not nearly on the same level

Maybe the space is empty most of the time There is a good quality about an urban void that may not need to be tampered with

But the type of program needs to be sensative to the surrounding and historical context, and what the spaces is capable of already. For example, there is always the opportunity to re-excavate the site in order to preserve the circus as a historical monument Thus there intervention should probably be light, sensitve, and reversible

Given how empty the space is, it becomes very versatile for unusual times of the year

To take this ability away by adding too much intrusive program would undoubtedly take away the spaeceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ability to host large events, whcih would be a shame given the scarcity of large gathering space within the area

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s important to maintain the versatility of the space.

The experience of picking up a book and reading it can never be replaced with a digital equivalent

With the digital revolution, access to information is much faster, and more abundant. There is also a decentralization of information There is an interesting dichotomy between the rambunctious atmosphere of the circus at its peak, and the insular activities happening in a library adjacent

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also valid to question the role of the contemporary library

There is also the irreplaceable aspect of human ineraction taking place in the library The library now needs more to compete with the virtual world; it needs to be more a resource for intellect, and less for codified information

Because the books are always changing positions, the readersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; relationships are continually being redefined to the spaces as they naviagte around and read.

In the past, the library was a critical resource for information. Resources could not be organised efficiently in other ways

The serendipidous interactions between the occupants will inevitably increase as well Perhaps there is a way to use digital media to enhance the experience of the library. Imagine if the books were not organised ever, but actually strewn about the entire library, and it is up to the inhabitants to find the book the want.

Libraries were a source of pride, providing a wealth of information. It also made access to infomation very centralized.

This would not only reduce the incredibly tiresome task of continually organising the books, but also create an emphemerality within the spaces.

Evolving from a place of resources to more of a place of intellect

In a way, the library is no longer centralizing information, but centralizing the human potential of the people who arrive, in order to retrieve information, interact with others, and crucially have productive exchange with another occupant.

The pervasive model for intellectual exchange since the industrial revelution has been the cafe, a convivial place for informal conversation which potentially lead to world-changing results

The crruent conditions of hte site creates an existing urban fabric that can evolve to become a miniature city.

There is already an internalized relationship that focuses the energy

Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also not difficult to imagine the library as an extension of a self-organizing academy Where the individuals can pool their collective knowledge At the same time, there are crucial physical and visual connections with the surroundings, as to not cut off the site from the context

Wayfinding becomes in a way navagating in a ever-changing urban condition You never know what youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re going to find

Some precedents In a way, the library becomes something much bigger, a city for learning The tower of the church acts as a existing landmark structure

As the first and largest stadium in Ancient Rome, the presence of the Circus Maximus has preserved an open tract of land in the heart of the city since its earliest days.

Though it was generically open, the Circus would sometimes be filled with a scenography appropriate to The Circus was originally built into a dip in the land- the theme of the beast-hunt, race, or spectacle on display. scape that made a conveThe 3rd century emperor nient seating area across Probus staged a hunt of from the Palatine Hill. wild beasts in which the Though permanent seating Circus was filled with a was eventually constructed along its perimeter, the way purpose-assembled forest of it looks today is closer to the trees. This is all starting to remind me of Kersten Geers original condition. and David van Severen’s project for a USA-Mexico Border crossing.

In its architectural form, workshops and shops lined its edges. A programmed edge defined the open space within.

Enclosure lent it a sense of ownership.

Being hunted in the woods in the city. That reminds me of this still image from Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 film Blow Up. This image is actually an image of an image. A fashion photographer accidentally documents a homicide in a London park and blows it up until the grainy image of the corpse is visible.

This is the photographer:

I’ve used the setting for this scene as a precedent for urban rooms in a few projects now.

This is a little like the roof garden of Le Corbusier’s Beistegui Apartment. The Swiss architect had designed a bare perimeter wall to block the historically loaded view of 1930s Paris. The client, Charles de Beistegui, loaded the generic roofscape with an eclectic selection of decorative furnishings. The result is an otherworldly experience, collaged into neutral space.

I’ve always been curious about the little cowboy in this collage for OMA’s entry into the competition for the Parc de la Villette.

He lends an immediate identity to the little patch of cactus-laden Wild West in the larger snapshot of the park. He adds character, which is unique, but is a familiar figure at the same time. Cactuses also grow in Rome. I saw some on Monte Testaccio, which is not far from the Circus Maximus, and a little like its own Wild West sometimes.

The overall design of La Villette is a collage of experiences, organized into a generic organization of bands.

The Circus Maximus is a similar field. A more or less homogeneous space framed by a topography in low definition.

The low relief is a little like an Isamu Noguchi sculpture. I’m thinking of the one called ‘The Tortured Earth.’

Ok, there: density.

Conveniently, Noguchi has sculpted seven mounds here. In this context, the allusion to Rome’s seven hills is selfevident.

A stream ran through the naturally occuring valley, the Vallis Murcia, and the land would have been fertile and suitable for agriculture.

As in the following image of a ski resort hill, the homogeneous surface is best defined by the activity it supports.

Here’s a closer look:

If that were the case, then the Circus Maximus would be right...

...and spectators came for this instead...

Though not all Romans chose to spend their leisure time this way. ‘Otium’ would have been spent outside of the city for those who could afford a villa.

Even before the chariot races, it could have been the site for leisure, the past-time of the countryside. To help understand the site in its current state, I’ll offer this image of Kisho Kurokawa’s ‘City Farm,’ as an example of the opposite condition.

Here!

Kurokawa offers a framework for organized development in a rural landscape. The Circus Maximus provides a This valley in the city, mostly spared from centuries terrain vague in an urban setting. It is not without of urban development, use though; apparently it has always been a site for sometimes hosts concerts leisure. This next photo is and political gatherings, of (dormant) horses at a being one of the few (different kind of ) circus. places in the city that can accomodate such crowds.

This is an ancient bust of Seneca. He lived from Here’s the same around 4 BC to 65 AD. phenomenon, witnessed at a He could afford a villa. Phill Collins concert at the In part, Seneca is Circus Maximus. remembered for his quotation which reads “Otium sine litteris mors est et hominis vivi sepultura.” It translates to “Leisure without literature is death and burial for a living man.” The slope is legible, though invisible. In fact, the This is Etienne-Louis ancient use of the slope is Boullée’s design for the completely legible too. This Bibliotheque du Roi. is basically what it could have looked like when it looked like this...

(this one:)

It’s a design for a library that serves a fairly literate culture. It’s big so that many people can use it.

I don’t really know what Seneca’s own collection of literature was like, but it’s doubtful that it matched this one housed by Boullée’s design. Of course, Ancient Rome’s literacy rates were much lower than those of 18th Century Paris.

...has a historical justification, punctuating this site for leisure...

It, like the Circus Maximus, was at the geographic heart of its city. Perhaps the dense agglomeration of buildings at the Circus Maximus’ northwest end...

...in its repurposing as a library. And when I think of a library, I think of the super-dense: solid stacks of information. It’s something like this:

(Guy Ben-Ari, ‘The Library of Babel,’ 2010). The organization of his Library of Babel isn’t so different from his rendering of a panopticon prison.

(The Garden Scene fresco from the House of the Golden Bracelet in Pompeii.)

However that isn’t to say that large libraries didn’t exist in ancient cities.

The Great Library of Alexandria was reported to hold hundreds of thousands of scrolls.

leisure scenes back to the race track...)

Guy Ben-Ari’s painting of ‘The Library of Babel (Tower),’ 2010. (Berlin’s Mauerpark, linear in form, like the Circus. It marks a former stretch of the Berlin Wall, an urban artifact loaded with a sinister history, not unlike the Roman race track.)

(Andreas Gursky’s ‘Rhein II’, which set the record for most expensive photograph ever sold when it was auctioned for 4.3M USD in 2011 at Christie’s New York, depicts a digitallyperfected serenity along the Rhine ) (Which strikes some kind of resemblance to Malevich’s ‘Cavalry’ paintings, which somehow takes this tour of

Which is loaded with an endless matrix of information, here presented in a sectional array. (Guy Ben-Ari, ‘The Library of Babel,’ 2010). Bunshaft’s Beinecke is the super-dense made manifest.

(Guy Ben-Ari, ‘Panopticon,’ 2010). Though I maintain that it’s no mistake that his jumpsuit-clad inmates look proto-alphabetical in form. Also, very gumby-like.

In any case these are basically ideas for cataloguing strategies. For organization of books. For shelving.

This scene from ‘Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Ark,’ is almost like the Beinecke core, disassembled. Oh, and I nearly forgot this one...

This image, this woman and her magnifying glass, set the mood for a rainy evening spent in the depths of a rich library.

Slope.

That would take us through this.

(Blocked)

But the ruins of the Mithraeum, a sanctuary to an ancient cult, are best observed from above in some cases.

But this image of a field of Marni chairs, crafted by former Colombian prison inmates, is a little more upbeat, a little more appropriate for a public space. Is this the reading area? Or are we at the piazza level...

A B

A is the Circus Maximus. B is the Tiber.

Tunnel?

Like here. But it would also be nice to move through it...

(Through/Split?)

Terrain.

One could begin on the urban river-side edge of the site, traverse the rugged terrain of the ruins, below the mass of the buildings themselves, and emerge at the plain of the Circus Maximus, delimited around its edge to prove its own existence.

(Through/Split?) (Through)

(Through)

Through/Split still leaves us with this awkward height difference.

...delimited around its edge to prove its own existence.

Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re probably going to have to climb at some point. Steps.

(Through) This is kind of tunnel-like.

(This is about what we could do with the given block...)

Enclosure lent it a sense of ownership.

This is an image of my house in Toronto, Canada where I have grown up my entire life. Being in Rome, surrounded relentlessly by a frenzy of culture and people it is difficult to imagine to this place. The front lawn, the raised porch and 2-storey post-war construction speak to a different notion of living than in Rome.

like the piazza, but rather as singular events. In its current state the Circo is a void. It is tentatively used as a place of repose but sits predominetly empty; a monument of its past but detached from from the life of the city.

The piazza is the archetype of successful public space. An urban room formed by the facades of the surrounding buildings. A place for people to sit, observe, perform, congregate.

The Noli Plan illustrates the monumental scale of the Circo in comparison with the urban fabric at its head.

These buildings act as a physical wall, seperating the Temple of Hercules and the Tiber from the Circo.

There is a dichotomy between the Circo in its present state and its ancient past as the physical apex of sport, competition and violence in Ancient Rome.

Rome is a place where your sense of public and private, past and present is constantly being questioned. The layering of time is everywhere especially in the architecture.

Below the foundations of these buildings lies the Mitreo which was the original site of the Great Altar of Hercules which marked the the start of the chariot track and held stong religious significance,

The Circo Massimo is a place for people to congregate but on a completely different scale. Where the colosseum still stands as an architectural ruin, nothing of the Circo remains but for its monuemental footprint. The streets through Trastevere speak to this density of culture. Everything is condensed creating a public realm that is always alive. The atmosphere of the street is what should be strived for At this scale its occupation in comtemporary archidoes not happen as a regutecture but giving form to lar part of the urban rythm culture is a real challenge.

Tadao Ando uses light passing indirectly into spaces

which evokes an atmospheric quality which could be achieved by opening up the subterranean ruins to daylight.

This gate into the city of Verona is a metaphor for the city as a stage set. Some of the buildings on the site could be reduced to facades which would act as visual and physical gateways between spaces.

The openings in the existing facades could create opportunities for spaces to project out of these planes. Platforms or balconies creating individual moments of repose suspended over the public realm.

The interior rooms that could be repurposed as library spaces are dramatic open warehouse spaces flooded with natural light through large industrial windows. Theses spaces are used for the fabrication of opera sets and are ideal for repurposing into public library spaces.

Here Tadao Ando makes a library which makes a physical statment on the interaction between the medium and the user. The books gererate the form through expansive vertical shelves.

These structures are reminiscent of the structures designed by engineer and architect Pier Luigi Nervi. He has the ability to make sturcutral concrete a sculptural and light material. Perhaps an idea for canopies or retrofitting the extisting building shells.

Like the orators in roman culture, the public face of the oldest forms of library, OMA conceives of the library as public forum of learning and culture. It is this idea of the library as a public forum that binds it with both the contemporary city of Rome and the history o the Circo Massimo.

This idea of elevated repose is like the tree house. A place where one can remove themselves from the activity of the ground plane.

An architect that mastered this idea of platforms and planes in three dimentional space is Carlo Scarpa. At the Castelvecchio in Verona the courtyards are layered vertically, bridging between interior rooms and creating moments of pause, suspended in space.

CONCEPT

ROMA 3.0 WORKSHOP // ROMA TRE // TEMPLE UNIVERSITY // UNIVERSITY OF WATERLOO

tutor

EMILIO MARIN assistants

VALENTINA ANDRIULLI GIULIA CARBONI ALESSANDRA DAL MOS EMANUELA PETRUCCI

FRAME

RUINS

OPENNESS

GARDEN

BIOLOGY SCALE UNTOUCHABLE TRAFFIC

LEISURE