till

'.

The Lesson of Rome

Jon.
C

.
al

Mi hael Schwartmg

from The Harvar d Architectur

Revie~, v. 2

22

Prologue: For centuries critical tradition through important

Why Rome?
architects have gone to Rome as a

of Romanticism of the industrial attitude the most to the twentieth denigrated

when combined revolution

with the pragmatism a biased in

produced

part of their education. probably the middle or "dark"

Although the
and carried ages, perhaps

toward architectural century

problem-solving

has roots in antiquity. executors

in which the studv of history of existing built form were

and the examination

acknowledged

of this journev century.

as anti-methodological. and Romantic rejection of historv

Rome were the architects The Renaissance examination composition, Alberti, and measure

of the fifteenth

or "Rebirth"

grew out of an of Roman space, Brunelleschi, et al. did not study a style. but and those principles

But the Bauhaus

and measurement and construction. and Palladio to understand

was based on a misunderstanding of history to practice.

of the relationship

Brarnante,

Rome only to resurrect

more importantly

ideas which are styleless and timeless and fundamental to any architecture. When the education became of an architect likewise became codified at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. the experience of Rome

institutionalized. education evolved

in the Prix, de with Rome as

Rome. given by the state to the winner of a competition instructor. Beaux-Arts, examination problems. With the Romantic attitudes free expression as an impediment emotions. academicism education create movement there developed which argued new for for continued a pedagogy of recognized From the Renaissance to the Ecole des which saw the built form of of contemporarv

Architecture without history has the unchanging quality of a craft tradition, as when the old cartwright would say, "That was the way my dad made a cart and m.v grandad before him and that's the right way to make a cart:' At the risk of enormous oversimplification, there is the essence of ancient architecture. and history appears on the scene. not as afetter to the past but as a uay of escaping from it."
It is in recognition students important advocated, reacceptance the design of the value of historv that and are now again offered these studies. pedagogical in effect, process, reasons. What is being if not the in precedent

one can again talk about going to Rome for is the reexamination or

important

the past as critical

to the solution

of the role of historical

toward artistic

creativity

and rejection

of the studv of the past Although related to and to to evoke specific methodology Modern architectural sought science

to insight and invention.

style was used eclectically was rejected. as developed positivism.

any kind of design

envisaging all centuries and countries as a reservoir of motifs of composition. (the architect) is able to deduce certain broad conclusions. to discover in all periods the presence of a common denominator which is conceived as transcending style?
To use the past in this way requires abstract problems, concepts as analogies to see a certain an ability to

at the Bauhaus based on modern

a new pedagogy

for dealing

with new of formal

philosophical
I

The tabula rasa innocence

independence

This paper originated from study during a Prix de Rome. 1968-70. and was inspired by study in the Graduate Program of Urban Design at Cornell University with Colin Rowe.

z The Study of Architectural History'. 8ruce Allsopp (New York: Praeger. 19701. p. II
3

Review of. Forms and Functions ofTueruieth: Century Architectur of Talbot Hamlin. Colin Rowe. Art Bulletin (July 19531. p. 1iO. Colin Rowe obliquely describes his own method of teaching here in this discussion of Julian Guadet. t ln the Winter 68/69 ,M Quarterly. p. 54. Charles Jencks said the effect of Rowe's leaching was. "to give the younger generation of architects the metaphor of the past. of history. of references. as a viable generator of present form:'

The Harvard Architecture Review. Volume 2. Spring 1981. 01943650/8liOI002226 $3,00/0 .. 1; 1981 bv The Harvard Architecture Review. Inc. and Massachusetts Institute of Technology

:23

l a Ideal city plan as described Architectura, 1.~21 Ib Sforzinda, translated

by Vitruvius

in De,

and drawn bv Ciseriano. ideal citv of two rotated in Trattato

Antonio

Filarete's

squares with designed buildings d:-lrchittura;'1.J.57 -6.J. l c Vincenzo of a radial CniL'ersate, Id Palmonova. Scamozzi. Scarnozzis 1615 a Venetian 1593 frontier

ideal citv with grid organization

plan and water in El dea dell Archuettura garrison town bv

1a

signs from cultural

symbols.

and to look at built

How is the idea of architectural seems to have plaved process heuristic Conjectures in the past. related and Refutation theories?

precedent.

which

form in terms of ideas, typology and structure,

or formal and cultural as well as style, I

a major role in the design to the thesis of Popper's and other modern such theorist involved

One can look to arguments

Twentieth-century problem-solving

theories

of architectural to scientific method,

as that of G Polya, a mathematics

have looked

philosophical pragmatism. and materialism as methodological models. Problem-solving has been seen as an inductive conducted problem. to ascertain Cybernetics process of observation relating to a are now tools all the facts and computers

in heuristic theory. Poiva suggests that. "Good Ideas are based on past experience and formerly acquired knowledge," through implving that precedent. parable. as revealed and allegorv. is analogy, metaphor.

a primary source for devising categorizing the basic mental when one is searching role of precedent

hypotheses. In questions that occur the vou as: "Have

of this approach, A number writings Discovery heuristic objectivity judgments solution, theories of critics, beginning principally Karl Popper for a different challenges the that involves the reasoning." or bv arguing in

for an idea. Polva implies

with such questions before, could

yOU

seen the problem problem similar problem

, , or have vou seen the unknown? Given a , , its use its results,

with the Logic of Scientific Popper

with the same or similar

in 1934. have argued methodology, of the inductive

methods?"
The precedent called for in these terms, whether it

process

th~ task of deciding

what facts are relevant prejudice

which are intuitive. that hypotheses observation,

and in fact involve deductive precede

be physical form or of a socio-economic-political nature. comes from history: it comes from problems one has previously contemporaries solved. problems one's solutions have solved. the canonical

Popper argues some conjecture

or conjecture

"Onlv when one has

can one begin to

about the solution

consider the problem of criticizing that conjecture. of evaluating it. and possibly rejecting it."? In order to become speculate attempts or refined acquainted with a problem through one must successive with is changed and criticize until, facts,

of modern architecture. or from all stvles and periods of built form. Precedent comes not from the historv of events or stvles. history of ideas as abstracted one is involved in cultural but rather resurrection a return from the (unless
I,

from events

at testing to disprove the hypothesis, the hypothesis to become a more tenable solution,

the aid of relevant

From such an argument, reconstituted.

to Rome has been

Robert Venturi has written. "As an Architect I try to be guided not by habit but by a conscious sense of the past-by precedent. thoughtfully considered:' and has quoted Aldo van Evck who criticized modern architects who. "have been harping extent continually that on what is different in time to such an

they have lost touch with what is not different. with what is essentially the same:' pp. 18 and It). Compiexuvand

Contradiction in Architecture. Robert Venturi t~ew York: \luseum of \lodern Art, 19661
0;

"How Popper

is the House is quoted

as

of Science

Built." "'illiam Bartley

Ill.

saying in Conjectures and Refutations. "observations are themselve theorv-irnpregrtated , \"'\~obser-ve with something in mind. some theories: we never observe in the abstract. as it were. I Jbservuucn is selective. and depends on our problems. tasks. points of vie w. theories:' " Bartley. from Karl Popper's.
and

The Logic ofScieminc

Discocerv

Conjectures und Refutations, York: Doubledav Anchor

, G, Polva. How to Soh. Itl:'lew Books, 19571 p, 9

H

Pclva. pp. xvi-exvi i

:.n

b The relation

c between our mind and things consists that we form ideas In other words thinking is the the in and the real, between empirical conditions. historv to a general Inherent utopian But an absolute distance from the thing. concept that is supposed always separates the idea The real thingalioavs overflows the cities: cultures. century English is Brasilia. hand.

d utopian formulation or planning, and fundamental is the is of

that we think about the things. about them ... spontaneous

On the one hand. of design and utopian of design

endeavor to capture reality bv means of ideas; the movement of the mind goes from concepts to the world.

history of ideal schemes in any definition planning

proposals. or planning

the idea of a model or a concept. has often served and Vitruvius many proposals garden were models in different Ebenezer city diagram

and the historv as such. Plato ideal for and

for Renaissance as formal models historical Howard's capitals periods

these in turn served including

to hold it. An object is more in the idea of it. The

and other than what is implied

twentieth(New Delhi.

idea remains a bare pattern. a sort of scaffold with which we try to get at realitv. let a tendency resident in human nature prompts us to assume that reality what we think of it and thus to confound idea by taking realitv and

and its legacy of On the other within with the solution as demand

new towns and national Chandigarhi, there are theories

etc. (I a-fl. particularly These

in good faitli the latter for the thing

twentieth-century Vitruvian opposed to more immediate

Modernism.

concerned

itself. Our yearning for realitv leads lIS to an ingenuous idealization of realitv. iuch is the dnnate predisposition of mall .-Ortei<a
v Cassel'

idea of commodity. to metaphysical

or "real." physical speculation. no place.

problems

Order may be defined as the degree and kind or lawfulness controlling or structure. must conform: governing principles. italso the relations derives from among the
to

Outopia. in Greek.
meaning Thomas

meaning

and Eutopia, to project principles Plato's Vlores Saintthe

the good place. More to employ

have been used since the imaginary political Politics. of the good life. utopias

parts of an entitv. Such laufulness,

or obedience

the overall theme ofeacli

ideal. As ideal projections are statements Republic Utopia.

to which the behacior of all the parts applies to the makeup

of fundamental

and often are pleas for major reform. and Laws. Aristotle's Campanella's

part within itself. Without order. the organs of the human body work at logger heads icitb. each other. and the various functions would fight and strirings of the mind each other chaoticallv. Without order. our

The City of the Sun.

Simon. Fourier, Marx. and others present analvses of social institutions in an attempt to identifv major elements another. of societv, and suggest demonstrate to create how they act on one to of the likewise that the
11

senses would not function: the risible shape of an object must be clearly organized if we are to recognize, remember. and compare it with others. we experience since ichat lee have look similar Furthermore. if there were no order in nature.

how they may be adjusted a better world. criticism

each other or changed civilization existing beneath

Almost every utopia is an implicit it is an attempt

could not profit from alike and similar

that served as its background: to uncover potentialities

learned serves us onlv so long as like things consequences folloicfrom

causes. If the world were not orderlv: the mind unable to perceive and create order. man could not surtiue, Therefore. Arnheirn to man strices for order.-Rudolf

institutions the ancient

either ignored or buried crust of custom and habit. the condition

The framework harmony

for the good society. speculation.

of

in any utopian

must be social.

and it must be organized Much of the history of architecture and planning can be viewed in terms of a dialectic between the ideal

and institutionallv

articulated. The recurring discussion of the need for organized human settlement opens the way for

Ortega

y Casset, The Dehumanization. of Art and Uther Writings on .-trt and Culture. t~ew York: Doubleday and Co ..

Inc.I, pp. 3~-35

10

Rudolf Amheim. "Order and Complexity in Landscape Design." Towards A Psychology of Art. p, 123 Lewis Books .\Iumford. Edition.

II

The Story of Ctopias.

1962l. p. :2

(~e\'"

York: Compass

:2.)

-..,..-

-'.

-'~.-'--

:~~

Ie If

Ebenezer

Howard's Garden City, 1899 Unwin & Parker, 1904 plan

architecture fundamentally

and planning.

Architecture

is

Letchworth,

involved in the issue of order. It the architectural proposal. process - plan,

Ig Savannah, Georgia, 1734, view of Oglethorpe Ih L'Enfant plan for Washington, 1791 Ii New Delhi capitol by Edwin Lutyens, 1911

cannot be taken lightly that the terms which are closest to describing design, scheme, project. or program - all through or ordering is

have intimations of social organization formal organization. Social organizing philosophical structure. From Plato and Aristotle, events stimulate direction . can deduce unpleasant and psychological

a political act. This act with commensurate issues has often sought representation in a visual form order or

who sought understanding tension they take a one effects of

in form, to Freud who argued that when physical leading to a reduction arguments of that tension.

for the beneficial

order in the human mind, for a kind of biological and psvchological entropv implying that all phvsical activity strives for balance and equilibrium. IZ The principles postulates conception mechanical of significant delivered of Gestalt psychology that the mind struggles recording structural of elements patterns," made the relation obvious. for an orderlv but the grasping the argument of of these ideas to architectural principles With

of reality, that "vision is not a

to architecture

was that "all creation form must be

form involves a coping with the world of experience" and concommitantly "visual considered as a basic means of understanding environment." 13 From arguments architectural hypotheses physical-formal philosophical, consequences such as these, an important the

it would be quite value for as analytical the relationship of

simple to postulate

utopian proposals which investigate structures

to their political.

and psychological meaning and in respect to the issue of social and

formal order or organization. This discussion elements has dealt with only one of the dialogue between as ideal If the first term of

of the proposed

and real in the design process. the dialectic

would be characterized

philosophical idealism, rationalism. or utopianism. then the antithesis would be realism. empiricism. pragmatism or materialism. Whereas seeks to derive knowledge in general primary axioms by means of deductive the latter seeks to build up or construct from basic material
26

the former from certain procedures. knowledge

elements.

It relies on inductive

~/-.... -r--r

v-

h inferences argument properties that matters of fact may be ascertained The strictest materialistic as a material many physical such as ideas. mass, etc., But if the utopian proposal relationship proposition, equally assertable is viewed in a dialectical bv an contradictorv with reality, if it is opposed and apparentlv a reconciliation would be that architecture and no other properties,

through observation.

become the society which it changes; and it cannot therefore change itself."

thing is made up of parts possessing

Position in space and time, size, shape, and relationships of these are of ultimate

on a higher level of

consequence. For the architect-planner this would mean that existing political. social and physical conditions or realities must be analyzed as the The building site has context for a design.

truth can occur through synthesis. Then one can appreciate Karl Mannheims notion of the nature of Utopia as a proposition transcending realitv. which when it enters into reality, tends to transform it and by doing so, is itself transformed. 18 This rather protracted be interpreted historicallv achievements discourse has been made to process could

operational and phvsical systems. complete or latent, explicit or implicit, which constitute it, and which inform and become part of the problem requiring resolution. formulation proposal, dimensions, A building but" ... program in a materialist of the spatial and other physical performance is not a plan in terms of an ideal a description spatial relationships

propose that the design and planning

as a give and take between ideal and architectural and urbanistic

real, between concept and context. and that many

significant might be seen as a result of such an

conditions required for the convenient of specific functions." II The synthesis metaphysical realist." 15 of these two opposite

interplay or dialectic.

tendencies to be a The Renaissance presents synthesis and Baroque planning of Rome a verv demonstrative example of the of ideal and in antiquitv, architects in to descriptions

might be the suggestions

that. "It is possible

idealist and an epistemological

evolved from the dialectic Interest

Architecture serves practical ends; it is subjected to use; but it is also shaped by ideas and fantasies; ... its rationale is cosmic and metaphysical and here of course lies its peculiar ability to impose itself on the mind. I.
On the other hand the utopian architectural cannot be built, yet proposal

real, concept and context. Plato and Vitruvius describe

and their particular

of the ideal city. led many Renaissance or draw ideal schemes. discuss by Alberti and Filarete

Verbal descriptions or implv the society

which is to inhabit these cities. Filaretes Sforzinda. Francesco di Giorgio Martini's and Scamozzis fortified cities for differing topographies. schemes by Vasari and the street scenes of Peruzzi. Serlio and Vignola. etc., created proposals that reflected a body of theoretical a new conception of space.

it may instruct, political society all this, but for the work of art,

civilize, and even edify the which is exposed to it. It may do all that it cannot, any more than become alive. It cannot, that is,

12

Rudolf Arnheim . -Irt and Visual Perception. IBerkeley: University of California Press.
19651,

p. 25

13

Rudolf Arnheim, "Gestalt Psychology and Artistic Form." Aspects of Form. L. L. Whyte. ed. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press. 1951). pp, 204-208

14

John Summerson. "The Case for a Theory of Modern Architecture:' R.I.B.A. }ournaIILondon. June 19571. p. 309 H. B. Acton. "Idealism:'
31-4.

15

The Encyclopedia ofPhiiosophv.

19721.

vol.

[USA: ~adlillon.

p. 110 of Utopia." Crania. Cambridge

16

Colin Rowe. "The Architecture University, p. 20

17 18

Rowe.

p. 21

Karl Mannheim. Ideology and Utopia. Chapter IV. "The Utopian )Ientality:' "(New York: Harcourt Brace & World. Inc.J

2c . 2d ~

2a Roman Forum, reconstruction 2b Pompeii. Forum as drawn by Camillo Sitte 2c Carpi. Italy 2d Faenza. Italv

"The Renaissance artist-and-scientist had an abiding faith that space is strictly measurable and can be formally arranged 'within a cosmos. that all the constructions of art have a law and unitv. harmony and coherence .. ." 19 These ideal city diagrams argued for an understanding of the whole. and for order. and the interrelation It seems plausible intent, of the parts to themselves polemics to argue that this polemical

to this whole. They are didactic

rather than a desire for actual construction.

was the motivation for creation of these ideal plans. (Thev . were onlv . built. as in the case of Scamozzi's Palmanova. "practical on the Venetian Frontier. when the ideal as in the science" of fortification. ) city became ideal for other reasons.

It has been argued that despite this proliferation of ideal proposals. Renaissance cities continued to

19

W' vlie Sypher. Four :5lage.~ uf Renaissance ity/e

Doubleday Anchor. 19,;51. p. 61

~ew York:

28

3a

Vigevano.

Italy the attempt Castello to make a new central radial sequence with Brunelleschis can be discerned. formed void as around an articulated

Novella (41, Palazzo

Pitti 151 off the Ponte Vecchio.

3b Vigevano: the elevated

well as create

the Uffizzi 161, and Santa Croce 171. create a largescale conceptual radial organization in the medieval development around the old Roman grid. :~e Palazzo Farnese: the double reading ,.f edg': to a positive urban space or ub;ed in a 'pace which extends to the river and \'ia Giulia is discernible this engraving. 3f The radial focusing on the Ponte S .. Augelo tu St. Peter's is formed bv the Piazza Farnese t 11. Campo di Fiore (2). Piazza Cancelleria and connects the ri ver. (:31. Palazzo \Iassilllo 161 141. Piazza i'iavona 151. and Piazza S .. Apullinare ill

3c Piazza Annunziata.

Ospedale. 142 . Antonio de Sangallo the Elder's loggia opposite in 1516. the 1600 portico to the Santissime Annunziata, and Ciabolognas equestrian statue and fountains, is an urban room. 3d Around the binuclear center of Palazzo ~i~noria and the Duomo (HI of Florence. the Renaissance 1.-\1

additions of Piazza Annunziata Ill. Piazza San Marco (2), Palazzo Medici and S. Lorenzo 131. S. :\1.

: ;,.,'1

r< ,.

",i

.1. :." ;'"

; ..!:,"

'; .. ,;" .

':'1':.

(~",o, .:"

: 1: !\ ... '.I

grow in relation essentially one interprets "civilize;'

to ancient

or medieval

patterns. However. if

buildings. private

The Roman city made up of verv small with baths and toilets.

unaffected

by these ideas.

cells for; sleeping,

these ideal proposals

as diagrams to "instruct:' change a in then the many

which are not to be built but are rather and "edify" and transformation contrary argument. processes of cities.

the normal growth.

etc., as public edifice and forum as living room. connected bv streets and corridors had led Vitruvius (and Alberti following him) to Say the city was like a house. Like the Romans, artist. could the Renaissance to the medieval of a as a and plan a house. spaces conceptual craftsman. as opposed

effects of these proposals Renaissance the manner

might be seen to produce

There are. for instance.

conceive of the organization

piazzi in Italy which are rectangular of a Vitruvian forum. and occur in the 12a-d\. space.

city in the same wav they could Concomitantly social organism activities.

the city could be conceived with commensurate

center of the towns as in the ideal diagrams In a number similar tothe of Italian cities a cortile-type public space.

This was fundamentallv

a social or

Renaissance

palazzo cortile . emerged The Piazza in

humanistic idea. proposing It was made into a physical classical painting

i

cultural transformation. and formal idea through and ideas (from

as a highly organized Ducale in Vigevano, Florence degli Innocenti, outside.

interpretation

or analogy

the Piazza di S. Annunziata loggia of the Ospedale

about order and space. to look at the plans of these four and their cities in relation to a ideal city plan. It is not

with Bruneileschis

and the Piazzi Navona and Farnese An interesting insideambiguity allows the reading

It is instructive particular prototypical spaces

in Rome (3a-f) are examples. public-private

Renaissance

of the citv as a network of streets as corridors. and piazzi as living rooms with attached private cells. or

difficult to see the Piazza Ducale as a radial central piazza. S.. Annunziata as a spoke and peripheral

4a

actual and virtual entries to the Piazza di Ponte.

extending

from the crvpt

entry to the city, and the Via Giulia by Bramante which paralleled the river in the opposite direction. These streets also led to open. unbuilt areas for new Renaissance and Baroque development. and the radial system provided the location Giovanni Campidoglio, dei Fiorentini, a structure for determining (5. of new buildings and spaces

To conceptually relate the Forum Pontis or Piazza di Ponte to the center of an ideal city. to create enough reference added. reaches to a radial streets system to make the metaphor and new ones to the far read, existing were clarified

Piazza Farnese.

The new center of the medieval structures initiated

was thus connected of the ancient by the planning Urbis'

Piazza del Popolo. etc.) and meaning thus acquired

city and to the old centers city. With legislation these of Local resolutions additional significance relation to large-scale restructured became an embodiment through their fundamental structuring. The existing citv, of the Renaissance notion of to

and significant improvements

the 1480 "Restauration

papal edict,

streets (Via Giulia, Via Borgo Nuovo, Via Triumtatis (Condotti)) led to the Forum Romanum, Teatro Marcello. the Piazza Navona, the Capitolum or Campidoglio. the Piazza Colonna and Piazza Venezia on the ancient Via Lata or Corso (4a-c). Renaissance development continued the medieval streets as straight lines to the new S. Trinita del Monte on the Pincio Hill, S. Maria del Popolo at the northern

on the model of the ideal radial city.

the citv as microcosm of the universe. Thus conceived. the citv represented man's capacitv

understand the universe as an ordered and rational system. It could in turn enlighten man's abilitv to rationally organize his physical world and social institutions.

31

-la

The Piazza S. Pietro (I) and Piazza di Ponte 121. as center. with the Via Giulia 131. Via '\Ionserato Via del Pellegrino (51. Via del CovemoVecchio IJ!.
161.

Via dei Coronari {71. and Via Condotti lal as radials. connect s. \1. del Popolo 191. S. Trinita (101. the \'ia Lata or Corso 1111. Piazza Colonna 1121. Piazza Venezia tl:ll.':the Campidog:lio and Forum 11'+1. and the Teatro Vlarcello 1151 . -lb The Falda engraving demonstrating: the radial system

about the Piazza di Ponte and Ponte 5. Angelo

piazza from the Duomo as Florence 's central and the Piazza Farnese peripheral the Vatican. speculate and Piazza Navona as ring around plausible to piazzi on a concentric Although it seems

piazza. the by

medieval organizable conditions

city. The city is conceived as such.

as a whole.

is

and is simultaneously which not only resolve to this whole. The

made up local

of local developments development

Piazza di Ponte, center of the new Rome created that these spaces were conceived as

but also relate

of these and other cities

- particularly offers a most

metaphors of the ideal plans, at the same time they are distortions of the ideal. They are responses to the particular problems which occur at the scale of buildings and surrounding the space and adjacent

Rome - through the sixteenth centurv cogent exploration of this argument.

St. Peter's and Renaissance Rome

When the popes returned to Rome, and decided to build St. Peter's as the symbol of the citv, and the Vatican as the papal residence. reorient its center. Angelo. the medieval to this new complex. Ponte S. Angelo. they saw the need to Navona S. to put One of St. of as The Castello pieces citv. with the Piazza

fabric of streets and buildings. That is, thev are sensitive to their immediate existing context. However. the mind. The local and particular histories of these isolated buildings. spaces. clients, architects. etc., are all well known. What is rarely discussed is that. a because of the metaphor of ideal city organization. larger-scale order is overlaid on the existing they distort this context bv their relation city in to these other metaphors of an unadulterated

and the Forum Pontis Inow

Piazza di Ponte) served Sr. Peter's effectively could interpret to Bernini, Peter's and the spaces

as connective

into the composition. development

the continuous

in front of it. from Bramante to make a succession

as an attempt

Sa Giuliano

de Sangallo

plan for a palazzo on the on the Vitruviun forecoun an scheme as a to the

space

to the Forum behind. conditions response show .vlichelunge lo's to given conditions of angles. the

Piazza Navona , modeled

7b The existing contextural loggie.

description of a Roman house ,)0 Palazzo Farnese with the \-itru,i~n transformed orthogonal 6b P. Portogeses into an urban piazza 6a The Palazzo Vlussuno osci llates

and stairs

in which he kept the medieval

cortile behind between towers behind

the Palazzo dei Conservatori. of the hill behind in context

and on the sides of the Senutorio , and the Palazzo the fjfbric.

Ruman house and a radiuting diagram uf Palazzo \Iassimu

the transformation \iuovu into a grotto. 7c The Campidoglio alignment Conservatori

built upun the ruins uf the theater. theater tvpe helps connect Piazza Navona. 7a Vlichelungelos splaved building attenuating Campidogliu. creates the Piazza Farnese begun 1538. The and opens the

demonstrates

of the loggia

of the Palazzo dei alignment with the

with the Cesu and Renaissance Nuevo loggia in the forum.

and the Palazzo Basilica

a false perspective

of Constantine

the climb to the Senatorio

Sa.

6aY

,
,I'
!

~-----

"1

I!
I

-==~-o,,~~

I'-.:
+. +-.+.

If the Piazza di Ponte "idea" generated a number radial connections to the city, the concentric

of

were strongly enough tied to the metaphor of the antique type that there was no need to control the appearance of the surrounding buildings. The Palazzo Massimi. in front of the Palazzo Farnese. relates to the Maesimi familvs ancient ancestry and the fact that the site contained ancient Roman theater. the foundations to the of an Peruzzi alluded

component of the diagram was also developed. The Palazzo and Piazza farnese, Palazzo Massimi and Piazza Navona can be seen as examples of Renaissance specific scheme development spaces which relate create not onlv to problems (30. These but also to this larger-scale a system of around the the looping river. could also be The radiating

movement

and open space

prototypical theater form in image. as well as to the Roman house prototype in plan (6aL In an earlier project Peruzzi had converted the Teatro Marcello of into a palazzo for the Orsini. The transformation this earlier work and the resolution of the radial theater with the orthogonal ancient house on an extremely irregular site produced in the Palazzo Massimi a masterful and dvnarnic sequence of spaces. Bv continuing around this theater tvpe one enters directly into the Piazza Navona, Bv going from theater to circus the movement from Piazza Farnese and the river continues in an open space network. radially back to the river near Peruzzi's Palazzo Alternps (6bl.

Piazza di Ponte and connecting

At the local level each of these spaces seen to involve the ideal-real

relationship.

Palazzo Farnese makes a forecourt out of city texture ISa-bl. Antonio Sangallo G. takes the forecourt of the Vitruvian Roman house and produces it within the fabric (in contrast to hi. uncle Giuliano's proposal for Piazza .\Ia'-onal. The piazza can thus be interpreted as a notion of dominance bv appropriation. or beneficence. in that private becomes public. The palazzo plan and the piazza

32

7a

-._----

b.,.

7c .

,. ;:I( ~:
I'

..
.

i,~;~E~
I

I:",,",

/]~

Campidoglio
The Cafnpidoglio is the principai piazza in Rome, Its form appears reading to be an ideal space space, (7al. It can be discussed perspective conceived "real" and executed Renaissance on superficial into a context studv of wholly

Castello

5t. Angelo

(4c, IC). However. than opening perhaps

the piazza onto it. and the

closes on this axis rather the hill less attenuated. intimacy

from the bottom ihe perspective of state to the people of Constantine a friend

makes the trip up implying at the piazzas base.

inserted

as an experimental

being the most complete point of view it was created

space in the Renaissance, out of a a its and involved to elaborate

The Basilica Michelangelo, other. creating also a vertical

is on axis with one by is axes: church Loyola) is on the

Yet from another concern minimum meaning. 5enatorio original

loggia while the Cesu (first designed

of Ignatius a shearing axis debating

for what existed, adjustment existed,

of physical The angles facade medieval

of the piazza. There the longitudinal and the modern either.

the medieval its new grid, behind the the into with and through interpreted loaded. thought to be

looms through

the piazza seems accepting svmbolicallv assembly. and state rather

to be a triangle than supporting up from either begins

with open corners One has to a

the facade of the Palazzo dei Conservatori court is revealed, context Palazzo Nuovo a grotto represen the hill. The existing and honored. Constantine, Romanum The space turning

both the ancient climb

the cutting

to the Senate with, a point. circle. depends on and

is subtly statue.

The Campidoglio

is symbolically

star. an oval. and embodies ideal meaning reference and statement

a triangle.

the piazza and the equestrian

square - all ideal forms; its message and resolution.

their backs on the Forum

as well as real

and facing on axis the Forum Pontis and

3J

Baroque Sixtus V Rome The 1585-1590 Sixtus V plan to connect pilgrimage interpretation churches can likewise of fifteenth-centurv the seven be seen as ,an ideal radial plans related to the

network derived set-pieces dissonant Rome. ,'0 Christianity churches as the arbitrarilv

from ideal-citv placed. separately

polemics

and the for

provided

an organizational

framework citv of

conceived. medieval

forms of the existing

(Ba-g). The Sistine

plan is generically

Sforzindas of the Renaissance. with these churches and their accompanying external spatial development physical as the fine-scale context. adjustments or reality. which At the fine which are and allow the large-scale and cultural reasserting the context become. the utopian idea to fit into the existing ideal formal solutions the macrocosm, accommodate.

and thus the physical were symbolically erected

church

building

were illegal until Constantine.

Once institutionalized. on the sites of which

scale these piazzi contain microcosms transformed ameliorate transformed of set-pieces and uitirnateiv also to resolve.

the previous underground church activities. had had as little to do with the center and organization problem Peter's. of the city as possible.

The "real" into the center the citv to notion of

for Sixtus was, as it had been with St. to bring these fringe events using the developing as the vehicle this bv bringing

into which they are inserted The Baroque planner into an ideal plan into a concept inserted

citv. He accomplished the fringes. axes of movement

Baroque

or ideal fragments

for ci tv expansion.

existing city fabric as nodal points along, or terminating, lines of movement. These were intended to clarify the organization of these lines and thus the areas related
20

Piazza del Popolo The Piazza del Popolo is analogous to the space in an ideal city where a radial route tfrom the Piazza di

to them. The large scale

This is the idea of "tensioning" that Edmund Bacon develops in Design Of Cities, tNew York: Viking Pre as, 19671

8e

8f

8g

.r-:

\.-/
35

8a The Baroque

Sixtus \. organization

of Rome with the churches.

(.31.

as a deformed 8d Rome: Antoine the svmbolic 8e

ideal city diagram, Lafrervs ISiS engraving indicates program of the pilgrimage,

St. Pietro 11) connection

(;{I. Ouauro

to the pilgrimage

S. \1. del Popolo UI. Piazza di Spagna Porta Pia 161. S.. \1. .\[aggiore

and S. Trinita in

Fontana I.J.I. Piazza Quirinale

III. S. Croce

Diagram of the Renaissance and Baroque organization of Rome 1)\, Sigfried Giediun. Brocchis cunditiun 18:20 map illustrates the tupographic uf Rome and the Sixtus \" organizations from the river through the hills "f the ,"

Cerusalemme 181. and S, Ciovanni in Laterano I')) overlav a larker scale orgunizatiou and expansion on the Renaissance city, 8b Rome. Taddeo di Bartolu's pieces" of the city 8c Rome: Giovanni of the ordered Francesco connection 14U painting uf the "set-

sr

they extend

city, providing a neutral measure of their condition, 8g The Sixtus V organization, Bacon map , 8h Sistine Library fresco indicating the n,:w organization of Rome

Bordino s IS8.3 engraving of the set-pieces appears

~-, :-.....:'.,
'

-'-

;;"

.. -,<,::"'-' ... -.

Sa

8e

34

9a The 1660 Rainaldi

organization

of the Piazza del of , Via

Popolo with S. Maria del Popolo both in. the piaiza and at the edge because the oblique Babuino eccentric Ripetta side. of the ainbiguousreading Via Ripetta III ends in the church,

the Corso 121. in the gate and the third street. 131 continues organizational 11), connecting the pilgrimage. rejected the recognition Vatican of Via di 9b The 1813 Valadier organization

to S. Maria del from 9

Popolo (2), but expands hill to river. 10 The Spanish

the piazza connection

Steps III connects

S. Pietro 12) and S. the shift to the an orthogonal

Maria del Popolo (3) to S. Trinitv, S. M. Maggiore etc. (41 and resolves and diagonal geometry. lla S.:V1. Maggiore (ll connects obelisk, a set of stairs. citv, and its front connects Gerusalemme llb llc The back, Front facade, entry facade

its back - bv way of an - to the (31. both S. Croce in in Laterano

Ponte) intersects

with the outer wall making

an entry

and aisle entries

to, and exit from, the city. This space Renaissance obelisk, Flaminia, church,

is complicated With an

by the fact that it is also a piazza to a major earlv S. Maria del Popolo. the intersection Sixtus marked of the Via with the and projected

(21 and S. Giovanni S. M. Maggiore,

of S. M. Maggiore transparent to the

the major Roman road north, trident trident of streets

ua
lle

medieval mosaics and tower The regular nave of S. M. Maggiore Plan which indicates the nave as a neutral like a Roman attached chapels

Roman wall and gate and the church, a symmetrical form the city. Sixtus's

from the piazza into

could be seen as an attempt

Forum with an array of 'free'-formed

to organize the major natural and artificial elements of early Rome. The Via Flaminia. the middle street running ancient Babuino to the ancient center of Rome, was the Via Lata (and became runs east through the Corso); the Via

five of Rome's seven runs west to the Tiber of the 1660s Despite the trident. the Piazza century of of events.

hills, and the Via Ripetta River. Rainaldi's reinforced symmetry this intersection of Sixtuss

twin churches projected

del Popolo as developed

in the sixteenth

acknowledged the eccentricitv S, Maria del Popolo. The 1813 plan of Giuseppe

of the placement

Valadier, in linking the

and hill on one side the effect

Piazza with the Pincio Gardens

and the Tiber River on the other. extends

of the single set-piece on the surrounding fabric. However, Valadiers exedral scheme perhaps overstates the idealization of the space in that S. Maria del Popolo is matched gate with identical the real complexity church on the other side of the oversimplifying of events. The

"poche," possibly of the intersection

and Via Ripetta

from the Vatican finally lose

their place in the scheme. Piazza di Spagna The eastern proposing arm of the trident to measure which goes through seemingly the hills was intended to be straight,

the hills in height and

llb 36

11a distance by the way they interact with the ideal line. promenade, long used as a place to catch the into a sequence. in essence, bv two

Rather than complete the arduous task set out by Sixtus of connecting the Piazza del Popolo directly to S. Maria Maggiore, the Spanish Steps and Piazza which recognizes connection As a di Spagna (10) act as a set-piece the land forms and creates virtually symmetrical ideal. In one sense,

breezes and view the city, was formalized spatial and ordered

The bow tie at the bottom produces, the space to look stretched Spagna and Bernini's

the intended

piaszi, breaking down the scale as well as causing

and thus activated movement forces and activities. The Palazzo di Concezione

using the existing streets and topography. because

form the steps are, in essence, of their purity of form,

facade of the Propaganda

the steps can be seen, like the Campidoglio, as a foreign element collaged onto an existing situation; yet in another, they work as an elaborate context ural design. When the steps, which as an image and form suggest the hill that caused their being, linked S. Trinita and Piazza Trinita dei Monti at the top with Piazza di Spagna and Via Condotti at the bottom, the ideal set-piece influence, to react, respond, larger territory. began to extend its and organize a much

Fide, and the Column of the Immacolata

visible from Piazza del Popolo, are on one minor piazza while a group of trees gives a different character discussed to the other. The Via Condotti. as one of the Renaissance previously radial streets,

can now be seen in reverse linking the piaszi, church. and the Pincio Hill to the Corso, the river and the Renaissance hub at the Piazza di Ponte.

Thus what at a cursory review might have appeared to be an idealized formal design or at best merely a can be seen as able connector, of with which connector in the Sistine scheme

The Piazza di Spagna has a form which could be called a "bow tie:' with the Fontana della Barcaccia as the knot, on axis with the steps and the Via Condotti. The bow tie is made up of two angles. is the Corso, or orthogonal grid, which much of by the Via Babuino The Piazza di but One

simultaneously

to do more. The Piazza di Spagna and represents, buildings

exists at the level of a metaphorical hill. in which it is embedded local connection surrounding Piazza

water, towards which it faces. Or it can be seen as a of four significant provides an open space orientation urban fabric. Maggiore in for a dense

ancient and modern Rome in this area is made up of. The other angle is produced arm of the Piazza del Popolo trident. also conceptually distance away.

Spagna not only orients one to the trident street, to the major Corso system some

S. Maria

Most of the other Sistine nodes were developed for analysis thai the Piazzas del Popolo and di

open contexts and do not provide the opportunities The Piazza Trinita dei Monti with the church is on the Corso system but the Villa Medici at the end of the widened boulevard was extended which runs north out of the piazza is on the trident system. This upper sequence by Valadier to connect with the Pincio Gardens and thus the Piazza del Popolo. The Spagna afford. S. Maria Maggiore was adjusted a double facade to accept multi-directional through spaces surrounding characteristics configuration. are its facades and basilical it (Ll a-e). Its ideal internal with

entry

These pure ;~..yns are strong enough to

37

nr

Plan.

j. Giovanni

in Laterano

also has a formed

12a

S. Maria della Pace. Pietro Cortona. existing context conditions illustrating adjustment was necessary and facade

1686. with

nave and aisles which act as a neutral container of special events: the Palazzo Laterano.: a cloister. '. 11g and baptistry. "Ia,"e. j. Giovanni: plan provides-the "plug ons." 11h 11i facade. Borrorninis neutral rigorous five-aisle 12b 12c 17:,5: in the scale of

how little space both a the

to allow the existing

to pass through

an idealized

The portico

were ambiguously 1727. continues the facade and

structure

for diverse

back drop and the actors. Piazza Ignazio. Raguzzini. through space of the inside to the

!: S. Giovanni. Galilei. the space towards S. Croce

fontana

Side facade: city.

118861 turns the side into a movement from the 12d

outside by continuation organization. The "stage" is defined as objects. allowing the context.

of the rhythms by surfaces

front with a piazza accepting

which also read

the space

to move back into

lIf

11g

receive

and order an odd series

of "plug-on" external center

chapels space. creating and an

reorient to convert masses. Though enriched co'ncerns

the building. the transepts keeping

The church

was large enough nave for lesser

and an oddly configured Like a hazelnut. irregular irregular surround. spaces

surrounding

into another related

it has a geometric connecting a series

the main nave for high masses. to the large city-scale. of the church and richness was changes. Large-scale of space

The street was widened.

this program through

of radiating

the spatial

and social complexity the external and local complexity

streets (one of which was to connect the Colosseum or Sixtuss multi-use wool factory proposal). Piazza

and place were brought

into concert

with one another.

S. Giovanni in Laterano
of S. Giovanni in Laterano is similar to Local Focus The Sistine Rome. the scheme. development outside as strategy was to organize vast areas of untouched and Baroque however, as della by It left large areas conceptually The High Renaissance Sistine Through the addition of the and a new entrance into the which made the church plan. a a large amorphous into a group of ordered

The problem

S. Maria Maggiore. Palazzo Lateranense transept right-angled surrounding smaller buildings

of the church, double-nave

of Rome which could be considered structure, concept by inserting focuses

area was transformed better related spatial scheme. sequence the church which defined

the large-scale places,

spaces

in scale to the (Llf-i). As at new facade

also used the ideal set-piece local spaces, references in local-scale

them and better

and organized areas.

a perceptible for the Sistine

The Piazza

S. Maria Maggiore.

faced the wrong way were used to

so an obelisk, spaces

Pace, Piazza Ignazio and the Fontana di Trevi. the Porta di Ripetta. Piazza della Rotunda (Pantheon), or Piazza Navona 12b and numerous others, make use of

and entry, and transformed 12a

:38

llh

the existing exemplify irregular. adjusted reading. references.

context subtle

and adjust

it in a minimal They regular between

way and

space. arresting

The continuation space.

is as strong a reading debate

as the

so as to carve out an ideal formal space. relationships by testing or distorted These street places

Thus the idealization

and realitv and enriched

how far an ideal form can be and still maintain spaces around its intended tend to give order to them. becoming

work together accord. In S. Ignazio. shaped church through (12c,d).

in an interesting

Baroque patterns

the tripartite

division

of space is of the pass

the random

to conform

to the internal

modulation

and local centers. to a a

Thus the nave and aisles into the forecourt public

the facade which acts as a screen

rwhite
I sienna

The Piazza delia Pace is a minor adjustment street to allow recognition popular church kind of proscenium ambiguously simultaneously receding are oblique first appears condition continues and stopping

with three large doors), and outside sequences public around

at a once

brown) which is the city. Inside

institution The movement but

(Iza.bl, The space is idealized,

on which the church and minor role by into the space and

space are merged.

the piazza are not interrupted, it. In fact. the Piazza Piazza delia Pace. by re-facading

plays a leading projecting to the central

merge into and flow through Piazza Ignazio, subtly converts like Cortonas existing

itself is very open and porous to the citv. Haguzz ini's What buildings

as a backdrop

wall. The street and vista axis of the church. street which still the facade of the is a clue to the

as an eccentricity

and minor addition

or subtraction

in such a wav as adjacent to the space

of the pre-existing to the side through

to produce a good environment as well as within it.

12c

,~

12d

r.,

.,::_.1

,......

:\ ..

'\',,:,.~".'

-':.
13b

13a

The Campo Marzo Orthogonal Organization

The piazza and the linkage of piazzi are the main organizers of the texture of Rome. There is very spine to the the because little grid. The Corso, the ancient north, probably made straight

and the Corso in the other. The orthogonal order gives a clarity to this large area. It becomes another morphology binding the hills to the river. As the Sixtus V plan can be argued to oscillate between ideal radial city conception and real contextural execution, so too the small-scale Baroque piazza and system of linkages can be seen as moving between the same dialectical provides a physical demonstration notion of a Utopia transcending it enters reality, transforms itself. opposites. which Thus in each there is to be found a synthesis

topography was Rat, organizes a large area between the hills to the east and the river to the west (l3al. This area appears organized cities are gridded to have been orthogonally Rome. Many Italian towns and during the Middle There are a number to use the Roman foundations from the Corso through the and today because in ancient

Ages it was simpler of parallel parallel

of Mannheims realitv which, when

and street systems which existed. connections

both the reality and

Campo Marzo to the Piazza Navona which is nearly with the Corso. The Renaissance Baroque church, piazza, and street reinforced this order, by being perpendicular or parallel to the Corso (13b). From the portico of the Pantheon, instance, Ignazio, and from the Piazza Ignazio one can likewise see the Pantheon columns in one direction for one can see the white screen facade of S.

Building-Piazaa Relationships
This large-scale planning methodology in fact reflects a similar means of solving smaller-scale architectural problems. Many Roman Renaissance and Baroque buildings provide interesting

14a

40

, !
I

/
(

--;;--

" --~---

-~ ---'-~

,-""'-

,...-,//

--.:

13c

13d

illustration

of this. The Renaissance examples

polemic

for

13a ub

Campo Campo

Marzo. Marzo.

Imperial Baroque

Rome Rome: the orthogonal through the

ideal forms produced and ideal church writings Renaissance an involvement context building 'the context and diagrams

of the ideal palazzo witlt actual

as well as the ideal city. These can be contrasted built forms which indicate the ideal into a real or latent structure the ideal of Ud 14a Uc

Roman condition

is still organizing

and Baroque

reuse of its foundations. Lateral striations connect center of the medieval as interior painting, illustrating as edge of Baroque The churches ancient "Baltimore" Francesco. orthogonal Rome,

the Piazza "Iavona. Marzo. to the Corso space obev the

with inserting

Campo public

by using the implicit to restructure tvpe and vice versa.

and enrich

system. bv Laurana or Piero delia ideal city object the Renaissance in the central

Piazza Navona-sS. Borromini'sS. important Rainaldi squashed. perspectives Agnese example

Agnese
in Piazza Navona is an The centralized by false Borromini carries it back, plan by 14b (l4b,c).

with the ideal distilled "temple"

is wider than it is long and appears the flattening enhanced in the side chapels. pushes

S. Agnesi in Piazza Navona of Borromini illustrates the "ideal' pushed into the "real" context; the ideal piazza becomes Borromini illustrates neutral-stretching a reuse of an existing the dvnamic-pulsating, result of this condition,
;,\

circus. vet

the theme through which conversely

on the facade by pushing

the dome forward so it can a frame which of the

be seen in the narrow piazza. The push and pull theme on the facade simultaneously activates ties into the existing facades

14b

41

15a

Borrornini's result Quattro

S. Carlino

plan "parti" seems to be a with D. Fontana's causing versions. appears the In to church into one corner centralized of the corner similar fontane

16a

Palazzo Borghese surrounding organization internal

in context

where the external static the

of a reaction Fontane

to the corner.

piazzi are more positive masses.

as figures than the

impacting

The internal

deformation the facade. have caused the columns 15b

of an ideal. t~e impact - a reaction

and figure of the cortile allows as well as to define the

the oval. expanding

and contracting

solid of the plan freedom organization

to go its own way as an

'the front plane to "wrinkle"

around 16b

to that of the plan. space looks as if it

external spaces. One side of the cortile is fragmented screen to offer the garden as antithesis space and to create a linear sequence.

visuallv

into a

The more pure Quattro

of the u-rban

deformed the church plan. squashing and pushing the cortile back to a more diagonal location.

-----,

// ':h.

~lfj

15a

l~f~S."".~ ~ ~/)L~1I1
.:

I~f~~."". ~~
I

/~4~ ~A'A . ~.Q~c,,;~

~s~
16a 16b

/0!1

1l;;Zf!:-':1.

IIIII1111111111111111111111111111111111111 15b

17a

17b

lia lib

Sacred

wav, procession

to the Acropolis .. Athens like the Parthenon urban space Ill. the

Palazzo Barberini appearing from the Piazza Barberini, up through

17c The procession

fragment of a Palazzo cortile 121. and through the building and garden to the piano nubile l:lJ. is a lateral lavered movement up a hill. lid Diagonal and orthogonal and context.
components of bllildini!

piazza

in terms vf scale and rhythm. that the idealinto a wall-

This seems to

the building buildings. periphery Borghese connection enfilade. identity. pragmatic

itself as well as external Bv providing

spaces

and the

be arguing been pushed of S. Agnese

pure object (15al - has the context (15bl. The axis (in the Piazza Navona

order in the center The Palazzo

is freed to respond is stretched each getting

to both programmatic

and the axis of the Palazzo Madarna paralleling

needs as well as site pressures.

the Piazza Madarna

to make a facade and visual light and air. The formal to take its own course without creating

with an important entry into the piazzas shear past the center of the piazza marked by Bernini's Fontana di Quattri Fiumi. Building and space outside the by piazza and building inside the piazza are related and to the piazza itself (l5c,dl. Quattro Borromini's important Fontane-S. S. Carlino Carlino is another provocative to the side of an the Quattro

with the river, the rooms strung out in of its strong visual and conceptual

cortile, because

allows the building or programmatic

chaos. A garden on the inside and a sequence of piazzi on the outside are formed on the Cartesian coordinates building of this cortile. On the outside forming the functions as surface, urban space. the connector Steps.

ideal! real solution.

It is attached

city intersection

and space.

Even at a large scale the spaces form a web between Via Tomacelli. Porta di Ripetta Corso relationship.

and the building

Fontane. which marks the top of a hill between the hills of S. Trinita and S. Maria :l-Iaggiore. and is bisected

the Via Condotti.

of the Piazza di Ponte to the Spanish which connects and Corso to the open-stepped.

.md the
::'teps similar

bv a major connection

of Vlichelangelos

the Spanish and forrnallv

Porta Pia with the obelisk in the Piazza Quirinale overlooking central Rome. It seems that Borrominis earliest diagonal A dialogue internal external geometric Maggiore experiment implosion space. with the expanding of the external between space. and ( lea.b}. and bv the contracting wall membrane is established comes from the major fountain deformed

in an angle equal to the Condotti-

Piazza Barberini-Palazzo The Palazzo Barberini palazzo manifestation Piazza Barberini. a fragment stretching spaces (l7b-d) presented or Delphic facade. related

Barberini important Baroque the by to a civic space.

the external

is another

The internal

force, reasserts perfection

itself as a pure form of at S. :Vlaria

The Il-shape plan can be read as which has been eroded building with wings This the landscape.

which then allows a monastery in Laterano). Borghese form of

of a courtyard

to be organized

by it (like the chapels

the site. or as an expanding out and engaging

and S. Giovanni

virtual court exists onlv midway in a sequence Piazza Borghese-Palazzo The Palazzo and movement which begins

of

in the piazza

Borghese, like S. :Vlaria Maggiore and

in Laterano, structure uses the idealized device to provide fabric of

and winds its way up to the obliquely palazzo (TernpleP) sacred like the Athenian an implied front into the cortile
wav, It passes

S. Giovanni
conceptual

the court or nave as an ordering

for the surrounding

which fronts the piazza,

lic

lid

\.

18 Ville Radieuse.

Le Corbusier,

objects in of I. I. T. shows a and

undifferentiated space 19 Mies van der Rohes presentation

rejection of the context as usable spatial ultimatelv social structure. polemics of revolutionarv ignored in America dislocation was accepted.

20 New York in 19:~Osand New York in 19.')05. The change of the cities were imagery of but the spatial

18 through the building, geometries up a ramp to the garden and The two infuse the the idea to its In relation to the notion of ideal and real postulates, proposals planning a significant number of today's planning or by Tonv can be seen as misinterpretations of early twentieth-centurv The proposals Howard, formulated Sant'Elia, schemes. so that a certain consequence achieved. perfection of appropriateness and

back to the entry, at the piano nobile. which make up the piazza intimately whole site plan and building that it is a palazzohnlla context. It derives from the relation The site destroys partially intact, center on "piloti:" its richness the palazzo; the piano

to existing formal and social realitv is

to reinforce wedded

as well as its parti the cortile is only with its is sheared.

to urban texture and topography. rustica is eroded.

misappropriations

and the section

Soria y Mata, Ebenezer

Although the building appears at first free like a temple facing St. Peter's, it is in fact, like all temples, rooted in the structure of its landscape which it accentuates support. and from which it derives

Garnier, Le Corbusier. and others were presented in terms of new cities and were not involved with the context of the existing city. Most of these utopian plans solved urban problems by abandoning the existing city for new counterproposals, others, such as those suggested proposed the replacement or phase-out. displacement although

by Le Corbusier.

of the city by planned Ideas about the for the

The Renaissance

and Baroque architect humanist

in Rome culture. On

relationship

of old and n~w were discarded

was a product of a particular search for order, the attempt understanding city existed;

the one hand he was involved in the intellectual to bring conceptual who used it. of the citv to evervone

notion of a departure and separation from the fabric of the decaying citv inherited from the tenth through n'ineteenth centuries. The new was to be a complete the old which. and self-sufficient organism replacing

However, the problem was not posed so simply. The there was no desire to destroy it but it into an orderly rather a desire to transform system. These architects

it was said, could no longer function. " Since their inception. distorted. schemes Le Corbusier's Radiant have been that existing the utopian as solutions of City

did not simply impose an

and other utopian or ideal schemes cities could not be completely to present problems.

ideal form on a situation; they also perceived and responded to a structure in the existing context. The formalization which they developed was adequate and appropriate to both the problem of large-scale organization and to small-scale connection. The lesson of Rome opposes the imposition of irrelevant ideas, and thus forms, upon a given situation. Rather it involves the discovery of forms which contain notions of order through idealization, transformed in relation to notions of contexturalism,

Even when it was recognized replaced, have been literally interpreted

The need for analysis

existing conditions. of both physical and social structure', has not been sufficiently recognized. and thus planning has not responded to the existing fabric where the problems occur. Plans divorced from their utopian or ideal intent and simply imposed on the urban fabric have created even more

tl)

44

deleterious Presented accepted, utopian ultimately symbols revolution plausible, the Modern the existing argument. continuity, change

effects on the existing creating as a progressive

city structure, polemic, was as

without effectively

a new structure, or revolutionary proposed architecture

by the end of World War II, modern and what was originally appropriated of progress.

in both formal and social terms was for the display of capitalistic Both the forms and the content for starting over

lost their original

meaning .. Although the industrial in the fight for to renew to do That

had made the argument what was not understood polemic

was that the desire

city was not merelv a conservative It might also have had something social, cultural. equilibrium, or even regeneration. and psychological

with fundamental

can perhaps

only come about through The traditional even We can of to change. in these terms.

transformation

was never considered. in socio-political continuity,

city is now being reevaluated by those interested cultural and physical no longer be insensitive the creation

I...ES
\

to the complex

problem

and its relation

of the new. Theory is needed

in which

the existing fabric is no longer rejected but is to share in the process of renovation. The new and the old must relate to the reorganized operational system. context. If, as Arnheim says, "Art has always been used, and systems new must transform physical and The upon which both depend. it seems relevant the interplay

the old into a new functioning to involve and of concept

In these terms,

theory which discusses

thought of, as a means of interpreting the nature of the world and life to human eyes and ears.":" then art does not always have to state or describe what is, but can also be involved with what could be. Custom
21

For a discussion of these ideas in relation to housing. see "The Form of Housing." Neave Brown. Architectural Designs (September 19671.pp. 432-~33

22

Arnheim.

Toward. a Psychology of Art

LES -~:
:20

-,

21 a

and habit. planning

wants and needs no doubt provide criteria. If the city which is made up of old is conceived as transcending and habits ideal and involving the customs

church survival. private problems

and seventeenthThis system interest

and eighteenth-centurv of power in the hands any public resolution or ruin the of of

monarchies

found thev could not afford for their prevents

and new components

as well as accommodating

presentlv established. schemata real consciousness are essential. ansu'ers to temporal problems, background. for perfection human conditioned h.armonv."

for fear it will unbalance svstem. to private power-a problem.

established and by so its social striving of recurrent by liberty and in which it

The image of the city thus seeks the universal The alternative obviously public of cities-is For architecture implications. control doing reflects as icell as challenges is a clear indication necessity is replaced of power and thus of the planning a socio-political and urban design

At any rate, the consistent

it has two significant

desire to attain a state in which

One is the conversion of a stock of qualitv private buildings into public (as has occurred in the Louvre. Palazzo Pitti. Leningrad. etc. I. The other. implicit in Corbusier's statement. OOunemaison, un palais," is that public everyone. achievements planning cannot mean just something the highest for but must aim at providing

A plan. an image of the political

society

exists, can propose as well as represent: and it is not inherentlv authoritarian in 50 doing. Like most historical of Renaissance manifestation of powerto represent represent controlled buildings organized directed development. the proposals

of the arts. What was once

and Baroque

Rome were a to acquire families who whose a citv

commissioned to ag"randize private power. to educate. comfort. and edify the elite few. must have a~ its goal the aggrandizement the provision everyone. of commensurate of public amenities power and for

of the acquisi tion and representation the power of the church its might to the world. Thev also

the power of individual or were related and spaces by the church. to the attainment

to the church. Because

The 1748 map of Rome bv Giambattista a double reading which makes

Nelli allows

were part of the system thev were of power, the is often and displav as analogies

an interesting

commentary on the relationship of public and private conditions. This map of black and white can easilv be read as a code for private domain. All of the anonymous black. are white. are rendered open spaces while streets. However. and public of the city a-id other and other piazzi: churches buildings

value of these proposals questioned. relating

It might be argued

that Julius to Julius

II. in
Caesar. thoughts.

his name and ambitions

and Mussolini.

having not too dissimilar

made the development

of Rome a lesson of warning. manifestations. for the It is how of this issue.

significant buildings are drawn with their ground floor plan rather than as black "poche." Thev read as white. and spatially public? important honored The churches participate are public with the streets Are these meant institutions revealed and to be of

But power has many possible proletariat" it is used. are also statements

"Power to the people" and "the dictatorship not a question

piazzi, and other open spaces.

sort but why are the ground familv palasze? the owners

of a

of power or no power, but rather today between private and

floor plans

bv whom, whv, and for what. The struggle In this centurv we find a svstern based too self-centered public enterprise amenity is a

At the time it no doubt depicted. but the

for power continues public forces. on philanthropv and confident ithrough

to be speciallv

that has become to provide substantial of power. Private

alternative meaning, revealed bv a more literal reading, is undeniablv present. In fact. as the church second and major families interpretation have lost their power and of socialism in Italv. this are being with the growing strength occurring. converted

beyond self-advertisement displavi

and maintenance

of the Noll i map is indeed

perhaps too much removed from public problems. situation that the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century

Vlanv once private buildings into public institutions.

.!J

Helen Paul.

Rosenau.
19591. p, p.

The Ideal City

l.ondon: Routledge and Ke-gun

23

s
200

Le Ccrbusicr. Towards a Sell: Architecture, "The Lesson of Rome:' r'The Architectural Pree. 1')591. p. 161

:.! I

\lannheim.

cJ.6

:21a.b Le Corbusier's proposed

19:33 scheme extending

for Stockholm beyond

with

planning Asplund's

the city

limits
22a.b Gunnar 19:2:2scheme for the Hoval Chancellery
attempting

proposes non-revolutionarv change. to revise ur transform the existi nz new development.

context

to accept

Rome provides addresses process. connecting relevance sociallv provided and political ideal fragment

a valuable

lesson which criticallv economic. the set-piece social, or or with the planning

a concern As specific operational

for making precedent. systems.

reality consonant

as a point along a line, terminating has a continuing and the of the point than requiring, economicallv.

todav. Politicallv, the impetus

the Roman development for. rather

development of the line. In economic social terms. the partial development set-piece. demolition. as opposed to planning total development. would alleviate disruption.

as well as implicit in the requiring of

schemes

the problems relocation,

conservation.

etc .. that we face todav, A lesson derived Rome is certain advanced persistent from Renaissance to be complex. archetype; and Baroque to a and

The lessons as they pertain man's elemental

here are verv general aspiration

belief in a primary

toward order. If social change

is important then the history of utopian social and formal proposals f.>royide precedent. The lesson is also specific relationships process in terms of the way the actual as representing and realistic to organize of idealistic plans for Rome can be analyzed which attempted particular thought and structure If a then a a theory :22 a
.~ ..

the city to satisfy philosophical as well as practical contextural in history problems approach is valuable and political. to planning

and psychological. criteria. is relevant.

study of Roman planning based on the synthesis

and similar

involvements and

in terms of developing of real conditions "The most

with ideal formulation.

immediate problem of [architectural] research is to bring the conceptual system and the empirical reality into closer contact with one another.":" The lesson thus implicitly use of architectural historical available etc., suggestions solutions solutions offers suggestions precedent. to particular through problems analogy. about the become metaphor. for. or of new 22 b The particular

for abstraction

into ideas which exist as catalvsts to. the discovery for new problems.

and invention

"The lesson of Rome

is for wise men. for those who know and can appreciate, who can resist and can verifv":"