TEMENOS
TEAM: Andrea Siciliani, Eleonora Ghezzi, Giulia Marzocchi – La Sapienza
Awakening on a Roman terrace
A multitude of secret spaces, visible but inaccessible, are dotted across the city of Rome. Fluttering sheets animate the view of the rooftops, but nobody really lives in these places.
The project aims to rearticulate the way of traveling starting from the terraces and combining the microcosm of the inhabitants with the urban landscape dimension. Each place is characterized by its own genius loci that makes it unique and therefore makes the vacation itself unique. The proposal springs from a feature of the Roman landscape to develop a holiday that gives the opportunity for travelers to build a personal rela- tionship with the city and its residents, without any tourist-filter media- tion. It combines the possibility to stay in central locations with an unexpected outdoor holiday experience.
The reactivation of flat roofs unites the perspectives of tourist and resi- dent, generating new human relations at different scales. The inhabitant in fact takes an active part in the reception of travelers, without providing its own intimate space, but collaborating with the group of residences, for the development of a micro-economy. The hotel is therefore no longer perceived as a foreign body in the urban fabric, but sprawled and suspended on an unusual level, it creates another dimension that reflects and subverts the standard rules of living.
The “classic” housing units lifted on this unexperienced floor are synthe- sized in the fundamental acts of living: protection/delimitation, body care, nourishment, rest. The living archetypes are articulated in basic structu- res, replicable in several terrace typologies, for size and location. These volumes generate, from place to place, through different combinations various spatial qualities.
The fence, designed as a scenography changing through the seasons, constitutes the interface between the urban dimension and the specific architectural intervention, enhancing the dichotomous nature of the terrace. A space that always oscillates between outside and inside. This contrast is further emphasized by the relation between the light metal tubular structures, which belong to the imaginary of the garden, and the furniture brought on the terrace by the residents. The fence has also the function of delimiting the holy space of living and protecting it, so the architecture can open up.