Rome Centre for Contemporary Arts
Rome, Italy 1999
Client: Centro per le Arti Contemporanee, Roma Competition, finalist
The competition brief for the Centre for Contemporary Arts asked for the image of an institution that had not previously existed in the city. The building was required to function not only as an art gallery, but also as an architecture museum, academic resource, experimental installation space and performance centre. The proposal can be understood as a constellation of these programmatic components, avoiding a hierarchical organisation in favour of a loose balancing of forces.
The project is located on the site of a former car factory and military barracks in the Flaminio district, and the existing structures on the site already provide a coherent and varied spatial structure. Through strategic demolition and new construction, these are augmented and mediated by new spatial experiences. This project is not interested in making the choice between conservation and new construction. Like the city of Rome, the Centre achieves its identity through inconsistency, ambiguity and juxtaposition. New buildings are placed beside and around existing ones, producing a diversity of experience that is unimaginable within a singular, new structure.







Competition entry





References

Monastery plan of St Gall

Thomas Struth, Campo dei Fiori, Rome, 1984

George Braque, Houses at l'Estaque, 1908

Hallen für Neue Kunst, Schaffhausen, Switzerland
Credits
Location
Rome, Italy
Date
1999
Client
Centro per le Arti Contemporanee, Roma
Status
Competition, finalist
Caruso St John Architects
Adam Caruso, Peter St John
Project team
Irina Davidovici, Laurie Hallows, Birgit Schoenbrodt
Structural and services engineer
Ove Arup and Partners
Cost consultant
Hanscomb
Photography
David Grandorge
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