Architecture and Time
EPFL, Studio BAUKUNST, Fall 2023
To start this studio, we started to investigate the relationship between architecture and time by studying different sites in Rome.
The shores of the river Tiber have evolved naturally on a geological scale, but has undergone rapid change in the last few hundred years due to human construction. With construction of buildings, roads, retaining walls and bridges, the topography and flow of the Tiber has changed a lot, and today is still affected by the ruins of old infrastructure like the Pons Amelius.
Model Photo by Solène Hoffman
While today the Piazza Navona is a vibrant city square. It was originally built as the Circus Agonalis, and was later renovated to become a public square that could be flooded for naval games. While back then the flooding was carefully designed, today the piazza dries in a more ‘patchy’ way due to rapidly increasing forces from pedestrian activity, and the ground underneath. This prompted a study on the micro-topography of the Piazza Navona. This model exaggerates the change in elevation so we can visualise the subtle crests and throughs in the squares surface, and understand why the square dries and drains the way it does.
Study with Daniel Azrak Marban and Blai Abel