13 Sep

notes on the below (& before)

Ground is a relative term. While it typically refers to the land on which a building sits, the ground in Rome is not merely land — below grade, there exists a history. A ruin. An artifact. A whole other city. A stratigraphical study is not only a geological endeavor but it also becomes an inquiry into these histories, these ruins, these artifacts. Throughout Rome’s rich past, cities have been built after cities built after cities, and the result is a Rome whose identity lies in the coexistence of these pasts. This coexistence occurs in different ways: in the preservation and display of ruins (i.e. Forum Romanum & Parco Della Musica, pictured right); two, in the combination and integration of building (i.e. Basilica di San Clemente); and three, in the concealment and addition atop (i.e. below everywhere you step).

A building meets the ground with respect, as if greeting an elder.