25 Oct

Good architectural translation can come about in a variety of ways. A new project can look back toward precedents and re-imagine their significance in a new context, such as the Prato della Valle in Padua. A good architectural translation can also occur when architecture adapts over time to suit the needs of its context; a translator that must take something that is given and express meaning in it for a new audience. Rome, a city that appears frozen in time architecturally, allows us to observe many examples of these translations; from a palazzo becoming a museum, to a theatre becoming housing. The performative value of the work becomes something other than was intended, refiguring itself to a new context. The fragments of the column in this image once were used to support a structure near Piazza Navona (a space that evolved from a roman racetrack). The fragments stand today, by themselves in an unknown piazza where they serve as a landmark for the people around it. Reserving space among the cars to create a place where old men meet on Sundays to play cards.