Image courtesy of University of Washington Rome Center
The University of Washington Rome Center invited me to be on their Advanced Architectural Review Jury for the students’ final presentations. Here is the project brief from their site:
Challenge: Museo del Tevere
“How do you design a museum dedicated to a subject that is constantly in flux? – a living, flowing, dynamic system? This is the challenge of the “Museo del Tevere,” a new foundation proposed for the site of a former Papal Arsenal on the banks of the Tiber river, just beyond the city walls at Porta Portese. For two decades there has been discussion of creating such a museum, but so far little progress has been made. Perhaps this is because the museum is difficult to define, lacking precedent. Or perhaps it is because the Tiber has become a forgotten river, flowing silently (most of the time) through Rome. Formerly the commercial life- blood of trade, the source of water, sanitation and power for grain mills, it is now bounded by high embank- ments and pathways for high speed automotive traffic. It has been reduced to a picturesque foreground for tourist photographs, a semi-developed bicycle path, a home for the homeless, a shadow of its former self. Or is it? Your challenge is to re-interpret the river, its place in the city, and its future by making proposals for a museum that seeks to serve as a lens to re-focus attention on the Tiber.”
The architecture and landscape architecture students had 10 weeks to research, analyze and design a museum of the Tiber River. I was impressed with the depth of some of the proposals and the amount of collaboration that UW encourages. Several professionals and academics from around Europe and Rome were on the jury with me. It was a rewarding day of presentations and great conversation.
