ARA PACIS
The project for the new container, which was to replace the old one built in the Fascist twenty-year period by Architect Morpurgo, dates back over ten years ago. It is located right in the historic center, in Piazza Augusto Imperatore, on the side where the square, crossing Via di Ripetta, overlooks the Tiber (in fact it is the site where until a century ago there was the port of Ripetta). The work, as always in Italy, has suffered many delays, postponements, interruptions. It has been the subject of vehement protests (!!!!!), but in the end it has come to light. Do you want to know what I think of it: it is a "signed" work which in the jargon of us architects means that you can tell from light years away which architect designed it (same style, same colors, same materials, whatever he realizes).
It is, however, a well-designed and well-built building, perfect for the function it must perform and above all it enormously enhances the area and the work it contains compared to the eyesore of before. It has, today, become a place of meeting and gathering for Romans and for tourists who linger for a long time on the staircase built at the entrance and around the fountain and the obelisk. Furthermore, very interesting is also the visit to the recently restored Roman-era findings (6.00 euros for admission). Very well stocked with modern architecture texts absolutely impossible to find in Italy is the bookshop of the complex (to visit, I feasted my eyes!!!!). Very interesting is also the beautiful 7x8 meter mosaic, a work by Mimmo Paladino, created at the entrance of the auditorium of the complex, but also visible from outside (from the back).
Furthermore I must add that the complex does not end here because shortly the works for the rearrangement of Piazza Augusto Imperatore will begin (competition won, if I remember correctly, by Studio Cellini) and the works to bury, with an underpass, the stretch of Lungotevere in Augusta that passes behind the structure so as to reconnect the work, through a pedestrian area, a garden and overhanging balconies, with the Tiber. Unmissable for those visiting Rome!!!! See you soon friends.
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