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  • Drawings materials and construction techniques were designed

    2018-11-12

    Drawings, materials, and construction techniques were designed according to the existing colors and archeological materials, as well as respected previous restoration works dating back to the 1930s. These works are now part of the historical and contemporary landscape of Trajan׳s Market. The new pavements were conceived with the concept of “neutral” reintegration expressed by Cesare Brandi and Roberto Pane, and were envisioned according to the teachings of Paul Philippot, the former director of ICCROM. This particular condition signifies that all interventions on the archaeological parterre were realized to protect the Roman ruins and to construct comfortable paths for visitors without any modern decorative or stylistic design.
    Barrier removal elements The interventions for removing architectural barriers were completed under Italian legal obligations because of the public nature of the site. Despite the functional role that different solutions have in the archaeological context, the elements designed to remove these barriers became part of the image of the place, thereby transforming the original landscape. Different typologies of catwalks were designed in accordance with the orography and alignments of the site [Figure 4a–c]. The relation between the archeological ruins and the memory of the Roman building were conveyed by the idea of using mechanical details in steel and wood, which were the materials that existed at the time when Trajan׳s Market was built. The structural design of the catwalks was intended to be clearly expressed with the use of nobiletin steel consisting of reinforced wooden beams, hinges, and supports, with nuts and bolts for railings. The asymmetry also endeavors to determine different foundation possibilities and to offer various perspectives from multiple sides [Figure 5a–e]. The catwalk floors were designed to be transparent, allowing tourists to view the archaeological ruins below, creating a pattern of wooden lathes alternately arranged with empty spaces of the same size. When a change in direction was necessary, metal sheets were used so that the rotation was compatible with the rigidity of the wooden floors [Figure 6a–c]. All the above mechanisms emphasize the temporary nature of the modern structures, which are not only completely removable, without any aggressive support inserted into the Roman walls, but are clearly temporary as wooden structures. Moreover, the catwalks were assembled with a didactic function to solve the issue of mobility in the area. In particular, the alignments of these catwalks were planned to underscore specific views and archeological remains that have been kept in situ.
    Works at the Giardino delle Milizie The Giardino delle Milizie (Militia Garden) is a space resulting from demolitions conducted in 1919 and between 1926 and 1934. This site was also developed from archeological excavations during the 1980s and 1990s. Behind the eastern elevation of the “Grande Aula,” which is the main entrance to the complex and, today, the Museum of the Imperial Fora, a large cavity about 6m-deep that contained the ruins of the convent of St. Caterina was observed and was, therefore, saved by the Fascist demolitions [Figure 7a–d]. The hypogeal ruins consisted of two sections of vaulted arches, which were once placed to cover a Renaissance road, and a vaulted corridor, which was part of an abandoned convent. Meanwhile, a pavement made of thick slabs of travertine (about 20–25cm) was discovered in the space between the vaulted corridor and the ancient masonry. This pavement, dating back to the reign of Trajan, witnessed the level of the original Roman building and, consequently, the original elevation of Trajan׳s Market. Such an elevation was difficult to identify because two large 17th-century cisterns were directly placed upon the original Roman foundations in front of the main façade of the building [Figure 8a and b]. Another purpose of the design was to clarify the new space as a hypogeal one with natural light coming from above. For this reason, the new wooden lathe floor on the garden level was kept about 200cm away from the Roman wall. In such a gap, a designed skylight offers a view from below onto the garden outside and, vice versa, a view from above onto the ancient Roman street. As previously mentioned, wood and steel were the materials employed for the project to describe the modernity and temporary status of the interventions [Figure 9a–d].