Urban Transit Hub in Rome, Italy

This design is for an urban transit hub at Largo di Torre Argentina in Rome, Italy. Considerations were given to archaeological sites, pathways of transit, and pedestrian protection.

Like most of Rome, archaeological ruins can be found about 20 feet below street level. Specifically at this site, four pagan temples were buried. After being uncovered decades before, the ruins began to act like a building in scale, access, and urban treatment. A nearby and related temple has small museum, the Crypta Balbi, which lets viewers descend into the ancient layer. This proposed urban hub also pays homage to the ruins it protects in a museological fashion. Space for temporary and permanent exhibitions is made available at the ancient ground level.

Several means of transit exist in the area. Corso Vittorio Emanuele II is a major highway for motorists just north of the site. Buses and taxis use a widened area of the street as an opportunity to stop and pick up passengers. Another bus stop is located south of the site and a railed tram terminates just west of the site. Construction has already begun on a subway that will travel 80 feet below the ancient ruins and have a scheduled stop near the site. Each of these modes of transportation has accommodations by the urban transit hub.

The aggressive Roman motorists pay little heed to their pedestrian counterparts. Crossing the street can be a dangerous cat-and-mouse affair. This design helps the disenfranchised walkers by tunneling under the street for crosswalks, which also double as subway and tramway passages. The space that the street vendors and performers once occupied becomes an indoor public space that overhangs the widened street.

The multiplicity of forces, be them archeology, transit, or pedestrian paths, form a complex network of movement around the site. These forces are represented by a ribbon-like façade that is drawn out of the subterranean, weaves through the stratification of time and forces, and culminates in a knot around the volume of the site. The existing complexity gains representation, function, and unity.

Design and animation by Drew Weinheimer

2006

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• formz
• rome
• animation
• walkthough
• architecture