Works in Progress at the American Academy in Rome
INTENT
My work at the American Academy intends to investigate how simple architectural elements can provide dignity for pedestrians by not only meeting their basic needs for water, rest, or shade but also provide civic beauty and encourage community engagement.
CASE STUDY I: STEPS
Let us take our first step together by studying the simplest yet likely most common places of rest for pedestrians of the Eternal City: the often humble, sometimes grand, often narrow, sometimes wide, occasionally curving, many varied steps of Rome.
Steps of Bramante’s Tempietto in the courtyard of San Pietro in Montorio on the Janiculum.
Steps at St. Peter’s Square by Bernini. Not only are these steps deep and long enough to provide plentiful urban seating, the scale of the columns is so grand that the transition from square plinth to round torus results in an “accidental” bench offered by each column.
This example on the Via Luciano Manara in Trastevere shows how unfortunate use of gates (these stairs are enclosed by metal gates) prevents community enlivening and ends up feeling somewhat forlorn.