why you should get out more

I bet you didn’t know this happened last weekend. This city changes all the time. Its important to get out and find out how. There is still so much about Rome I don’t know. The clock on our stay here is ticking.

Maps can be used to document the past, project the future, or to navigate the present. When a map is made it is always for a specific purpose and audience. They usually are flexible enough to accommodate multiple uses, by different people, over periods of time. The map I show below is a metro map that acts in similar ways. I think it is unique because it lacks the ability to be read for multiple uses.  This dynamic occurs because of the nature of subways. A user of this map get on the train at the places indicated on the map by a dot on a colored line. Then they wait in a tunnel of moving metal (and romans in this case) until they hit their desired dot on that line. The experience of the city is exactly what is shown on the map. Blank. A gap in time between places of arrival. After arrival, you re-enter the city with no direction, looking for ways to orient yourself.

Pyramid of Ripa

palazzeto dello ripa

Ripa shifting your perception

The Ripa apartment went out to see the Maxxi on a free entrance day in rome and ended up 10 people short of getting in before it closed. Oh well. We decided to go for a walk and have some fun anyways. We headed over to the Palazzeto Dello Sport to give it a closer look. That is when things got interesting….

PS: I also found out where to kick some Euro tail in basketball if I ever buy a set of tennies to play in. The basketball court was pretty popular this Sunday afternoon featuring a full 5 0n 5 game with people waiting there turn. I should be back there soon with Katie, she sounded game.

Mountains jut out of the sea or give it space in respect for its constant pounding forces, but something will or has stood between them. The scale of the place in between changes with the tides and the place, expanding and contracting over centuries. What happens in this space is entirely up to creativity and action on the part of a dweller or traveler. The steepest of meeting points between the sea and earth can be carved out for a road or terraced for a town. The flattest of beaches can be left natural or used for agriculture. Cliff edges can be perches for sightseers or springboards for adventurers. Birds and animals live in this space and so do lucky people. The mountains give them something to rest against. The sea gives something to swim, fish and get lost in. What stands between is possibility.

They are so alike but…

Big buildings make you feel small. Small cities make you feel like the world is small. In a big building you feel like you don’t know anyone but in a small city you kinda know everyone. In big buildings you cant tell what the weather is like outside. In small cities you know that everyone else has your same climate. Big buildings make large cities feel small and small cities make all buildings feel bigger. Small cities make you feel more important while big buildings make you feel less significant. In big buildings, someone else takes care of keeping things up but in a small city things fall apart if you don’t keep things up yourself. In big buildings people usually travel up and down in great distances while in small cities the distance is vertical distance is less. Small cites depend on their parts for community and interaction but big buildings depend on its smaller parts for support. All these differences imply similarities, because depending on you point of reference a small city can be a lot like a big building.

Big buildings can fit into cities

Small cities cant blend in with landscape

In Italy, it is well known that the people speak with their hands and body language as much as they do with their mouths. People speak at each other and over each other instead of waiting for replies. In this sense, the way in which they act is sometimes more powerful then the things they actually say. In many ways, this is exactly how buildings converse amongst their environment. In this case I present a picture of two walls side by side where two buildings meet. Of course I don’t mean that they are meeting for the first time, because they met the day one was built against the other. I mean that the buildings have met in our consciousness and begin to talk to each other as our eyes run across them, noticing the things that they say back and forth. The buildings are not important structures and seem to be built on top of ancient foundations near the Theater of Marcellus. But the names of the speakers or actors if you will are not of import as much as the fact that these dialogues happen everywhere.

whats that you say?

The building to the right says that it’s new, in terms of its roman context. The walls are plastered to hide the brick construction and soften the effects of weather and age. It announces its desire to fit in and wear the correct clothes. The rounded opening of a window is highlighted with a revealed brick arch, letting others know that it is Roman and not only Italian. The proper window above it says that it knows how to act in public as well. The building to the left is upfront about its utility. It is not afraid to show its construction and let the rain act as it will in modifying its texture. It says to the world that I will let my skin be my coat and will let the rain wash me clean. The windows of this building are framed in white, telling the world that things happen behind me and they should be accentuated with a frame. Both buildings seem to say that I used to have more dirt near my base but have been uncovered, “You put a window in, while I patched myself up with some plaster.” The conversation goes on and changes but how long will our eyes listen?

In Rome, like other cities, places are created over time. With time the landscapes change due to both human intervention and natural arcs in geology. Buildings are forced to bridge the gaps between these changes and adapt to continue functioning as changes happen. Roads recede below or rise above existing doors, forcing adaptation through steps or other methods providing a means to transgress the levels of  ground. Buildings are also intentionally placed upon the ground in specific fashions to create meaningful experience of the entrance sequence. The way a building interacts with the ground also creates meaning through the juxtaposition of elements or the separation of them. The environment in which the building interacts and its situation within it, leaves subconscious meaning or creates a setting for the people in its vicinity. This meaning does not have to be intended by the creators of the building, and even intentional building design can’t guarantee the meaning of it will last through the forces of time. The building(s) shown here are found on the island of the Tiber river. It is evident that this thing we call ground is a constructed reality at most times. The actual ground is found near the river, which regularly overflows its banks leaving it unaccessible. This relationship with the fluctuating environment accentuates the precarious way the building seems to be both perched on the small pad of land and forcefully thrusting itself out of the rushing river.

which is the ground? both and...