Porta Asinaria: A New Roman Urban Centre
fall 2016 academic work
The porta Asinaria on the Aurelian Wall in Rome was historically seen as the ‘exit’ of the city in the same way Porta Popolo was the entrance. This studio is calling for the revitalization of the area around the port, with a particular focus on the creation of a museum and curation program.
The project was approached with an idea to evoke the ‘pleasure of ruins’ - Rose Macaulay, in her book of the same name, proposes that there is a particular temporal and ephermal experience in the act of viewing and promenading through ruins. The site was then researched historically, in order to conceptually excavate it archaeologically, thus producing a map. This map was then the informant to building on the site, where a series of terraces, niche spaces, excavations and additions will evoke a similar narrative to walking through the ruins of baia, cuma, pompeii, or trajan’s market. A focus on reviving the aqueduct outside the Aurelian walls, pulls an axis to the spine of the project organization.
