Archive for January, 2012

Travertine, fascism, and more travertine: aka EUR.  EUR is a city envisioned and partially realized by Benito Mussolini and differs radically from the center of Rome.  Instead of having small cobblestone streets and alleys that wind through highly densified neighborhoods, EUR is reminiscent of common American cities: large avenues, green grass, and urban sprawl.  The most interesting area we visited, aside from the new Fuksas project, was the Museo della Civilta Romana (Museum of Roman Civilization).  This museum holds hundreds of plaster casts of Roman artifacts ranging from antiquity through the height of the Roman Empire.  These casts were utterly amazing!  Until I was told they were plaster casts, I was under the impression that they were the original ancient artifacts.  At the culmination of the museum is a massive, and I mean MASSIVE, model of Rome as it existed at the height of the Roman Empire.  It was extremely detailed and took up about a 40ft by 40 ft room.  We spent well over an hour just staring at the model and trying to figure out where everything belongs as it exists today.  After we departed from the museum we were left to our own devices to get back to Rome.  Naturally as architecture students, we all wanted to go see the new Massimiliano Fuksas building that is under construction just a few blocks from the museum.  A few of us were lucky enough to gain access to the roof of a hotel across the street, allowing us a glimpse of the massive scale of the interior of the ‘cloud’ described by Fuksas.  It was an incredibly awe inspiring experience and the perfect way to round off the trip, balancing the fascist, and slightly modernist, side of Rome with the possibilities of contemporary architecture.  Simply inspirational.

Ciao for now!

Today, our Six Ecologies teacher Ferro took us Southeast to a housing complex called Corviale. To put the size of the complex into perspective, he compared it to the Empire State building, just put on its side. The reality is, the Empire state building is 443 meters high and Corviale is 1000 meters long! As we arrived, we were greeted by a facade that makes you feel miniscule in comparison. The size almost seemed surreal at first glimpse, but as we walked through and around the building, we realized just how long it took to walk from one end to the other. A local Priest , and friend of Ferro, was kind enough to sit down with us and give us a history of the complex as well as answer our questions. The most striking thing for me about Corviale, besides its massive size, was the fact that it housed 9,000 people, and only 70% of those people actually pay rent! The experience of being in such a large complex was breathtaking and contemplative. I say contemplative because it caused a discussion of “Is this type of architecture good?” and as we all know, those conversations can lead to extremely interesting places.  All in all, neither words nor pictures could do justice to the experience of being at Corviale.

An architectural investigation of Baroque Rome simply wouldn’t be complete without a trip to the library designed by Francesco Borromini in Piazza della Chiesa Nuova.  We went on a slow day and were able to access one of the archives holding countless books written and bound in vellum.  These books are hundreds to thousands of years old…talk about mind blowing!  The moderator was gave us a large amount of history surrounding the library and life of Borromini (translated by Paulette thank goodness) and the trip culminated with the opportunity to go through a transcription of original etchings by Borromini himself.  The amount of detail and precision in the drawings was awe inspiring, not to mention intimidating.  The combination of the architecture of the library and etchings created a once in a lifetime experience, allowing us to appreciate the work of a true master of architecture.  A visit to La Biblioteca Vallicelliana is an absolute must!

Ciao for now!