FLAMINIO PROJECT. ROME
CITTA DELLA SCIENZA NEIGHBOURHOOD
As a networked sequence of block internal rooms this proposal also stresses the necessity of the Citta della Scienza to presence as a recognizable figure on the Roman skyline. The four corner towers (max. height 50 m.) provide this signalling effect locating this particular precinct as belonging to the family of singular, self focussing
typologies that includes: the Maxxi Museum, the Nervi Sports Arena, the Flamino Stadium and the Parco della Musica Auditorium.
HISTORIC MEMORY - BARRACK STRATEGY
The intention is to preserve two of the linear barracks and for these to provide the geometric rules for new interventions. Removing the central, shorter barrack defines a central piazza activated by commercial and cultural functions in the flanking barracks. The gable ends of the barracks specify the location of the Four Anchoring Towers.
MUSEO DELLA SCIENZA
The bigger square building to the east is ideal for a large scale cultural function, enclosed functional rooms (black boxes) would be set down into the ground, their roofs providing an archipelago of exhibition platforms. The existing roof of approximately 4,000 square metes would be equipped with photovoltaic panels.
VIA DEL VIGNOLA BLOCK
To the south of the precinct is a 6 floor residential block. This respects and reinforces the Via del Vianola street frontage and with shops at ground level it also activates the cross-site Boulevard. This diagonal pedestrian route is framed on its east side by linear one-floor market stalls. The pedestrian boulevard cuts through the
south barrack to reach the Central Piazza and to facilitate a cross-site network of routes.
TRAFFIC AND PARKING
It would be desirable for the Via Guido Reni to be replanned as Shared Space (example - Exhibition Road, London). With traffic speeds limited to 20 km/hr Café and restaurants in the north barrack building would activate this new Citta Della Scienza public domain. In principle in this plan there are no cars at ground level within the new neighbourhood (only emergency and service vehicles). A new tree lined access street crosses the site along the west perimeter connecting via Guido Reni to via del Vignola. From it ramps lead down to one level of parking (450 cars) below the main Piazza. A Hotel entrance with taxi drop off is located on this cross-site street.
Closing the west-end of the main Piazza is a parking building on 3 levels (200 cars). The piazza-facing facade is here to be planned as green terraces, a stepped garden (precedent - Isola Bella) leading up to an elevated garden
above the parking decks. This garden takes advantage of cooling west wind in summer. Here a kindergarten is planned ( ‚kiss‘n ride from lower parking decks).
PUNCTIFORM HOUSING
5 Punctiform housing objects animate the centre of the Piazza, these are ideal for Students and Young People also Dinkies and Empty Nesters - those who animate and take advantage of the active life of the Piazza. Ground levels of these objects contain Piazza activating functions - Tabacchi, Spritz Bar, Convenience Store, Sushi, etc.
RECOGNIZABLE FIGURE
A further ground for choosing such a distinctive typological layout for this site is an awareness of the historical and theoretical echos associated with this exact location. We are here in a field outside the ancient city walls, a location theoretically reconstructed by Piranisi in 1762 as Il Campo Marzio dell‘antica Roma. A counter-factual
collage of hermatic machines, the triumph of the fragment, a magnetic field jammed with giant objects, as Manfredo Tafuri described it. We see this proposed ensemble, characterized and located by its four towers, as a late addition to the Campo Marzio Iconographic Taxonomie discoursed and interpreted in 1980 by Tafuri in his book The Sphere and the Labyrinth.