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Roma Interrotta and theMonte Celio A NewProposal Based onPast LessonsKEVIN HINDERSUniversity of Il l inois , Urbana-Cham paign

This pape r traces the relationship between the Collage Ciry textand the Ro ma Interrotta exhibition while positing a new design forthe Monte Celio and extending the design method used in theoriginal Roma Interrotta. The new proposal is first done as arespo nse to the 17 48 map of Rom e by Giovanni Battista Nolli. Theproduct is then placed into the existing context to explore opportu-nities for current urban design proposal. The new proposal alsoinvestigates potential design opportunities using computer mo rphingto explore unforseen opportunities.

It is easier to des ign the cities of the future than cities of thepast. Ro me is an interrupted city because it has stopped beingimagined and begun to be (poorly) planned.iulio Carlo Argan, Mayor of Rome, 1978

INTRODUCTIONThe R om a Interrotta project submitted by Colin Rowe with PeterCarl, Judith DiMaio, and Steven Peterson was an important event

follow ing the publication of Collage City ' written with FredKoetter. The exhibitio n gave Rowe the opportunity to follow up theCollage City text with a didactic example. However Rowe'sInterrotta project can b e read a s a total design. It was executed withauthoritarian, though benevo lent,control similarto perhapsHadrian'sVilla within a shortened time frame. As a follow up to the Interottaproject, I hav e created a new design proposal for the Monte Celio,illustrated here with similar premises to those Rowe's submissionuses. The project is based u pon ideas formulated in Collage City andillustrated in Roma Interrotta. (The project is in the quadrant ex-ecuted in 1978 by M ichael Gra ves2 and includes sites adjacent tothose of the Sector IX executed by Graves. Just as Row e's submis-sion includes both a design submittal and a section written byPeterso ncalled Urban DesignTactics , so too does this submittal.')The key difference between the original Interrotta project and thenew Monte Celio proposal is the Monte Celio also includes atransformation series that inserts the proposal into the existing city.The stages of transformation begin to indicate potential m odifica-tions to the existing condition s.. .a methodology of imagination forfuturec onside ration. Throug h this examination the idealized an d thereal come in to a dialogue which allows for both the planned and theunplanned to be seen.ROMA INTERROTTAIt has been 2 years since the publication of Roma Interrotta byArchitectural De sign. Ro ma Interrotta was a design exhibition andtext involv ing twelv e invited proposals based upon interpretation ofthe 1 748 Nolli m ap of Rom e. In describing Roma Interrota, Michael

Graves wrote:f one were to compare modern Rom e with No lli 's plan of1748, the development which has oc curred since the 18thcentury is, one might think, crude and without the substanceof the urban structure as recorded by Nolli. In speculatingabout the nature of urban experience, it seeme d appropriate toidentify the thematic assumptions of the proposed exhibitionaround the expansion of Nolli 's Rome to accommodate thecity's growth.

Since Nolli 's plan was divided into 12 sections, presumablybecau se of the technical limitatio ns of printin g, it was felt thatthe distribution of these sections to individual pa rticipationmight yield a comparison of urban intentions, especially attheir junctures or seams.jThe twelve primary investigators in the exhibition included:Piero Sartogo, Constantino Dardi, Antoine Grum bach, James Stirling,Paolo Portoghesi, Romaldo Giurgola, Venturi and Rauch, Colin

Rowe, Michael Graves, Aldo Rossi, Rob Krier, Leon Krier.'ROWE WORD AND FLESH

Row e is fond of the use of complex oppositions in his w ritings.'In his introduction to Five Architects Rowe states:W e are here, once more, in the area where the physique andthe morale of modern architecture, its flesh and its word, areagain, not coincident; and it is when we rec ogniz e that neithermorale nor physique, neither word nor flesh, was ev er consis-tent with each other, that we might reasonably approach thearchitects whose work is here presented.'Rowe's statement refers, in 1972, to a body of work that issimultaneously within and at odds with the manifestos of modern

architecture. Several years later, in 1975 with Fred K oetter, Row ewrote Collage City,8most certainly an urban design m anifesto. Thisarticle was laterelaboratedupon and published in book f orm in 1979.The exhibition of Row e's Section VIII could thus be seen as theword made flesh.Rowe 's exhibition project and texts of Rom a Interrotta illustratethe statement from Collage City:It is suggested that neither object nor space fixation are, inthemselves, any longerrepresentative of valuable attitudes.the situation to be hoped for should be recognized as one inwhich both buildings and spaces exist in an equality ofsustained debate. A debate in which victory consists in eachcomponen t emerging undefeated, the imagined cond ition is a

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type of solid-vo id dialectic which might allow for the jointexistenc e of the overtly planned and the genuinely unplanne d,of the set-piec e and the accid ent. of the public and the private,of the st ate and the individual.'Row e and Koe tter state what cou ld just as well be a descriptionof their Section VIII submittal to Roma Interrotta:It is acondition of alertedequilibrium whichise nvisaged ; andit is in order to illumina te the potential of such a contest thatwe have introduced a rudimentary variety of possible strate-gies. Cross-breeding, assimilation, distortion, challenge, re-sponse, imposition, superimposition,conciliation: hesemightbe given any number of names and, surely, neither can norshould be too closely spec ified; but if the burdenof the presentdiscussion has rested upon the city's morphology, upon thephysical and inanima te, neither people nor politics areassum ed to have been ex ~ l u d ed . ' ~In Rowe's text for Roma Interrotta the physical design proposalis linked with a plausible genesis for the design's reality. Throughthe creation of the mythical Father Vincent M ulcahe y, S.J., Rowe isable to create a fantasy history for the project. A fantasy that weavesevents, real an d proposed, in to a narrative that imagines how politics

and people create settings for realized urban inventions and inter-ventions. But the truth is, as much as it may aspire to the jointexistenc e of the overtly planned and the genuinely unplanned, theproject could neve r realize such a conditio n. The project, because ofthe design method , was ne ver open to the genuinely unplanned, justas it was never completely produced by this fantasy of history.Instead it was a dialogue between the formal tendencies of thedesigners and the imagination of what could have happened.In the ollage City a methodology is proposed to replace theantiquated and often brutal utopian models of the platonic andMarxian utopias. This method is an attempt to allow a range of vestpocket utopia s for the here and now, w hile allowing for the reality ofchange , motion, action and history. Th e major accomplishment ofRowe and Koetter is to replace the paradigm of modem urban designwith a more adaptable, less authoritarian vision. A paradigm whichcan allow for variety and je ne se quois. Just as importantly thisparadigm re-e stablishe s the possibility of values, giving thedesignera refere nce according to which they can evaluate facts. Thisparadigm empowers the designer by re-establishing a link with thepast that the mod em urban design paradigm (thec omposite Hegelian,Marxist, Darwinian) had removed. T he paradigm further empowersthe designer to create idea lizations within the larger context. Theseidealizations have value within the time frame of the designer.Propose d here is a method, an expe riment, that allows the designgap between the ove rtly planned and the unplanned to be narrowed.I have created the M onte Celi o project as a series of these vest pocketutopias, based upon the 1748 Nolli map of Rome, using Rowe' sRoma Interrotta exa mple. Up on reinsertion of these idealized pocketutopias back into the existing condition of Rome, a variety ofpossibilities arise. Through a se ries of transformation exercises newsituations can be imagined. The text below includes description ofthe tactics and strategies for the design of this area. The existingcondition of Rom e isnot largely consideredduring thehterrottapa rtof the investigation, except for the phenomenological understand-ings gained through visitation to existing sites.

NEW ROM INTERROTT ON THE CELIOUpon my investigation of the current Celio Hill in Rome, Idiscove red an ama zing state of disarray an d a general lack of qualityurban design. Although the list of individual buildings is quitesubstantial (Bascillica di San Giovanni in Laterno, San StefanoRotundo, the Casino M assimo, the C urria, the Scala Santa, and soon) the urban infra structure rarely supports these edifices. To facili-tate further investigation of this area, chos e to isolate a portion of

Fig. Portion of the 1748 Nolli ma p

Fig. 2. Proposed deslgn for the Monte Celio Rome, ltaly

Giovanni Battista Nolli's 1748 Map of Rome . A new Celio Hill andaccompanying valley has been designed. Th e area is not limited tothe engraving divisions as created by Nolli and used in the 1978Roma Interrotta. Instead the new design seeks to find more naturalor at least relevant boundaries to the area. This new design investi-gates the nature of the field and texture of the city, while introducinga balance between street square (figural void) and building /object(figural solid) as described by Rowe and Koetter.This new hill town sits on topof the ce lia n Hill with the south andeast bounded by the existing Aurelian Wall. The major focal pointof this area, as recogn ized by the plan of Pope Sixtus V , is theBascilica of Saint John 's in the Lateran. Using Saint John 's (one ofthe four major pilgrimage churches in Rome) as a nucleus, theproject is made up of a number of rione, or districts, each oneseparable yet interconnected. Included in these districts is an exist-ing investigation made by Steven Peterson and Colin Rowe for the1978 Roma Interrota.URB N DESIGN STR TEGIES

The Monte Celio Project is used to illustrate a number of urbandesign principles and strategie s. Th e following text describes avariety of useful design tactics to be used when creating urbaninterventions.Nolli's 1748 map used a loose crosshatch to indicate the majortopograph ic change s of Rome indic ating where the hills and valleyswere located . In this design the space s and the buildings corre spondto the contour changes in the site and the protected valley inside theAurelian Wall. Th e design for the area creates a hill town with aprotected valley extension.Primary connections between the major monuments and figuralspaces exist in the proposed pla n. Many of these connections de rivefrom studying, reinterpreting and reinforcing the existing site con-

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ditions. Secondary connections are created internal to larger fieldsthat begin to organize these internal areas and tertiary figures makeup the texture and the fabric of the individual neighbor hoods. Thistexture is reflected in the aerial perspective. The design 's distinctfields create five separate, yet interdependent districts.The Region of the Villa Massimo is an example of a districtshown separated from the surrounding context. This region focuseson thec asin o Massimo, thechurch of SS . Pietro e Marcellinoand theScala Santa. The A qua Claudia bounds the region to the south andeast while a view to the Coliseum extends to the northwest.In figure the illustration indicates the integral relationship ofbuildings and spaces with the topography as spaces are intercon-nected with the building fabric. Above is a rendering of the spacesas physical solids with respect to topography, while below shows thebuildings that give form to the spaces. B y separating this region from

Fig. 3. Perspective view

the overall design am able to see how the fabric and space-to-solidrelationship weave at both the local level and large scale.The district of SS . Quattro Coronati illustrates the manner inwhich a series of objects may b e used to organiz e the countryside inan Acropolian like manne r, eac h set piece in a prescribe d locationbased upon perspective and over lap. Sequential views enfold as onerounds a sweeping curve at the lower area of the Celian Hill a ndbegins to see the Belvadere in the d istance, then an initial terrace toa proposed villa. Next one sees the villa with the Belvadere in thedistance as well as the steeples of San Giovani in Laterno. Finally,up the hill are the buttressing and thec hurch of Sa n Stefano Rotundo.Thus these objects, although seen in plan in a loosely organizedfashion may be used to actually create a very organize d scen e for theviewer.The overall design has two major set pieces, San Giovanni inLaterno and the Aqua Cla udia. These two elements tie the hill towntogether and organize the entire composition. T he first set piece, Sa nGiovanni in Laterano, is used to form a part of all the surroundingregions. The second set piece is the Aqua Cla udia, which threadsthrough the entire town on its way to the Pala tine Hill. I use the AquaClaudia as both an edge to, and link th rough, the v arious districts . Inthe design, San Giovanni is placed in a proper spac e so as to allowthe facade to have a surrounding ba ckdrop. This new space uses theScala Santa as a secondary focal point for the overall piazza. Th edesign creates a clear connection between S an Giovani and SantaCroce in Gerusalemme and the adjacent amphitheaterigarden. Theview back from Santa Croce indicate s how the buildings to the northpull back and the street widen s to create a figural sp ace that leads tothe major figural piece of the composition. San Giovanni acts as aknot, holding all the surrounding regions together.Bricollage is a strategy proposed by Colin Rowe and FredKoetter in ollageCity o use this tactic I took known pieces, piecesat hand or in the mind, and found new uses or manner s in which theseknowne ntitiescan be applied. It is a handym an'sV way of resolving

Fig. 4. Plan of districts separated

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a problem rather than an engineering mentality. The same methodcan be used with spaces and buildings. Bricollage is a tool thatenab les thedesign er to utilize potential memory invoking to assist inthe creation of new places in the city. There are numerous exam plesof bricollage throughout the design.The re are two distinct texture patterns in Rome. Th e first textureis in the C amp us M artius, the historic city center. Intimate relationships between the m ajor buildings and the spaces they sponsor canbe observed there as well as the connections between those spacesand buildings. T his sa me strategy of texture is used in the westernportion of the design for the Celio. Sp ace is the mediator of the field.The a rea to the south and east of the Piazza del Popolo introduced bySixtus the V in the 1600s illustrates the second distinct pattern. Thisarea being m ore recent, it show s a textured grid in which the streetis the primary space andconnector. Thegrid begins toconform to thetrident. In the area near Santa Croce in Gerusalemme the samestrategy is used. Th e street as space begins to be extended. The areabetween Santa Croce in Gerusalemme and the surrounding fabricseparate to form a space between the buildings and the figuralmonument.

NEW PL N FOR THE MONTE CELIOThe insertion of the idealized hill town back into the existingurban fa bric is initially a compo sitional strategy. Recognizing ap -propriate locations for cutting away the existing or altering theidealization facilitates the creation of the composite. In the next stephave created a series of transformations that gradually allow theidealized Monte C elio to beco me existing Rome, a transformationwhich can be read in both directions. Computer technology is usedto create a morphological transformationof one plan into the other.

Exploration of the internal sequence allows a glimpse into potentialsolutions and situations not previously envisaged. The in- betwee ntransformations create meresting possibilities. In this proposalalternatives are explored to invoke the im agination. Sinc e no singlecondition along the way is seen as idealized the potential forallowing both the joint existence of the overtly planned and thegenuinely unplanned becomes enhanced. The method treats thearea as a composition while each piece can then be seen as a point ofreference for a real urban proposal. Finally, the city becomes onceagain a part of the imagination.Shown here is one solution that utilizes the current a nd idealizedplans and then proposes a new possibility. T he ma jor districts of theidealized plan are created though the field patterns are different inseveral districts. Th e new plan utilizes existing buildings to createurban design opportunities first imagined by the idealized plan. Forexample the idealized plan proposed a reverse Belvedere Court-yard behind the Lateran. By exploring the transformations of openspace and solid a new piazza along the Lateran and San Stefanobecomes e nvisaged. Most of the new plan requires little alteration tothe existing condition. The enhancemen t of the a rea is created withstrategic reinforcement a nd adjustment to the existing co ndition.In closing it is fitting to return to the form er Mayor of Rom e takenfrom the original Roma Interrotta:

Before Rome becam e as flat and shapeless as an unmouldedpolenta, the Romans lived, moving in the layers of thestratified centuries, like fish in wate r, in the dep ths and at thesurface In contrast to space which is opaque, time is trans-parent. Swim ming under the surface of the water, the nionu-ments are seen as reefs, the ruins a s coral. This is the cityBernini and Borrimini had imagined I 2

Fig. 5 . Solid /Void comparison

Fig. 6. Still frame progression of existing condition to idealized Nolli Map.

Fig. 7 . Existing plan of the Monte Celio

Fig. 8 . Proposed plan for the Monte Celio.

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NOT SColin Rowe and Fred Koetter, Collage City (Cambridge andLondon, 1979).

* Michael Graves, guest editor, Roma Interotta A.D. Projle 20Architectural Design, Haig Beck ed., vol. 49 no. 3-4, (1979).Th e original Rowe submittal included a historical narrativewhich sought to reinforce the role of politics and people in thecreation of urban design. Fo r the sake of brevity (and the author'slimited desire to indulge in as much, given the focus here is onmethodology) the narrative shall be all but eliminated in thisdraft.Graves, op. cit., p 4 .For a review of the impor tance and worth of these investigations

see Alan Chimacoff's, Ronla Interrorta Reviewed Ibid, p. 7-8.George Baird, Oppositions in the Thought of Colin Rowe,Assemblage no. 33 (August, 1997), p. 22-35.Colin R owe, introduction to Five Architects: Eisenman Gra vesGwathmey Hedjuk Meier (New York: Wittenborn, 1972), p. 3.Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter, Collage City, ArchitecturalReview v. 158 (August, 1975), p. 66-91.Colin Rowe and Fred Koetter, Collage City (Cambridge andLondon, 1979), p. 83.

O Ibid., p. 83.This strategy has long been used to teach transformation tobeginning architecture studen ts at Cornell and other Universitiesin the U. S.* Graves, op. cit., p. 37.