Rome Poetry Hall

Beyond time, down to earth / Rome, Italy

2016

Honorable Mention, International Architectural Competition

Concrete, Poetry, Rome.

These concepts guided our research for a narrative, deriving power from its interweaving with time. Focusing on the specificities of the site, our proposal developes underground. Thus, a big central void space acquires its shape and form from a ellipsoidal ring, housing all programme. Our intention to amplify “Underground Rome”, led us to the creation of a contemporary space as a vaulting temple, with three-partite division and structural articulation by cross-arches.

We designed an interactive public space, where programmatic meets unpredictable and creates chance encounters. Our intention was to translate into space the haiku “Like the strings of a violin, lights and shadows vibrate telling me a story that is always new.”1 A circular hole on the roof collects light and sounds, which invigorate the interior. The convex and concave form of the porous vault and the aquatic ellipsoid ring define and, at the same time, blur the boundaries of our intervention.

Above ground, the dynamic, gentle and generous characteristics of concrete are highlighted: its lightness, simplicity and plasticity. A vaulted structure with self-compacted low viscosity concrete of 20cm thickness is proposed, interweaved and enriched by voids and glass spheres.

Rome Poetry Hall

CREDITS

Architectural Design: SPARCH

Architects: Morpho Papanikolaou, Rena Sakellaridou

Collaborators: G. Papanikolaou, C. Moustakas, D. Pouniou, M.Vollas, A. Carrer Vives, S.-A. Gkounta, E. Charalampidou

Structural Study: I.Lavassas, P.Zervas