NARRATIVE OU/UNL ROME PROGRAM AT AIA ROME CENTER

THE JEWISH RELIGION AND CULTURE SUBMERGES ITSELF IN THE IDEA OF COMMUNITY AND GATHERING AS ONE THROUGH ALMOST EVERY ASPECT OF ITS EXISTENCE. IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE JEWISH QUARTER OF ROME, THE CENTRAL IDEA OF THE JEWISH HOLIDAY SUKKOT AND THE SUKKAH ARE BROUGHT INTO THE MAIN STREET TO TRANSFORM THE OPEN AIR STREET INTO A THOUGHT PROVOKING AND COMMUNAL SPACE THROUGH THE NATURAL CANOPY CREATED BY THE BIOPHILIC COLUMNS STEMMING FROM THE GROUND. REFLECTING ON THE SUKKAH AS A GATHERING SPACE WITH 3 WALLS AND A GREEN ROOF, THE EXISTING BUILDINGS ACT AS THE WALL AND THE COLUMNS CREATE A NATURAL CANOPY TO CREATE A PATH OF REFLECTION AND GROWTH WITHIN THE COMMUNITY AND THROUGH ONE'S SELF. PRECEDING THE CANOPY, THE RENEWAL OF THE OLD JEWISH FOUNTAIN INTO A CENTRAL SEATING AREA SURROUNDING AN OLIVE TREE GIVES THE IDEA OF A START OF PEACE. ONCE ONE PASSES THROUGH THE CANOPY, ONE REACHES THE END OF THE REFLECTION AND RENEWAL AT AN IMMERSIVE AMPHITHEATER WHICH RESEMBLES A CROWN SYMBOLIZING THE CENTRALITY OF THE JEWISH RELIGION, BOTH IN JEWISH TEXT AS A SYMBOLIC ELEMENT AND AS THE CENTER OF JEWISH LIFE IN ROME.