GiganteBlu
GiganteBlu is a temporary installation created for the 2024 Rome Architecture Festival. The proposal was selected as the winning entry in the competition launched by the Rome Order of Architects at the end of 2023. Originally conceived for the Parco Marconi site along the Tiber River, the structure was later built at the Acquario Romano, the current headquarters of the OAR. Taking inspiration from the abandoned structure of Rome’s former granary, the installation reflects on the value of architectural heritage in the contemporary city.
In the Marconi distric, at the corner of Via Blaserna and the Lungotevere, sits an uninhabited giant who has just returned from a thousand adventures. Born as a granary in 1935, it changes his destination (and its skin) few times. Untill in 2014 it became victim of administrative irregularities that sanctionated the end of is activity.
This is the heritage of the contemporary city. Not a good to be preserved, as an industrial archaeology to be musealized, but as latent potential to be reactivated.
The Gigante Blu is an artificial object landed on the shore of the Tiber, where the archaeological area of the Port of Pietra Ripa emerges. Its function is not clear at first sight. Ready to welcome climate change, it is lifted off the ground in the event of a sudden flood of the river. Like a stilt, it is a shelter, a safe haven for living beings, or a boat ready to sail.
