in collaboration with T.K. Justin Ng
From Antiquity
to the Middle Ages
to the Renaissance
to Mussolini...
The richness of Rome resides not in a single period but in its breathtaking sequence of successive incarnations. Each successive incarnation of Rome carries with it a new urban paradigm that grafts onto the existing city. Sometimes the new meets the old in perfect harmony, sometimes it yields to the superiority of history, sometimes it clashes with the past mercilessly. These collisions of form (and the resolution of them) are part of Rome’s eternal battle between the ideal and the real, the platonic and the circumstantial, the past and the future. They are moments where the common becomes unique and the generic becomes specifi c. It is here that the long and complex history of Rome is most evident and most Beautiful. The new Museo del Parco Celio neighbours great Roman monuments like the Colosseum, the Palatine Hill and the Circus Maximus. Unlike the existing museums at each monument, the new museum will weave together the narratives of diff erent Roman monuments, providing visitors with a more congruous understanding of Roman history.
The first part of our proposal are three lines drawn towards each monument. A ditch connects the Colosseum to San Gregorio al Celio; a ramp connects the entry gates of the Palatine Hill to a new Tower; an inhabited Wall connects the existing villa on the site to a view over the Circus Maximus.
The rest of the buildings are underground. Unlike the axis, an icon of point and focus, they are laid out on a grid - no longer concerned with centre but rather with surface. Its interaction with the axis will be expressed through collisions of form and spaces.
