Lyric Barnik, Enoch Liu
Beacon
Lyric Barnik, Enoch Liu
Beacon
Beacon
→ ARCH 492
About
Rome is a complex palimpsest. With each new era the city enters, the dominating zeitgeist contributes new artifacts and beliefs to the urban grid and society. However, with this continuous insertion incurring over millennia, these built structures fragment pockets of the city from the urban center and the practices of antiquity. This is the condition our site is found in: disconnected on all sides from Rome, through landscape, infrastructure, and architecture. Considering these current barriers, the goal of the BEACON is twofold: to reconnect the site to the Tiber and city, and to bring back public engagement in curating and appreciating artifacts. The museum program presents a consolidated approach, where the journey along the river reveals the processes involved in making various objects. Through the division of the site between city, river, and museum, this journey takes the user from an activated urban piazza, to a public podium and workshop, then back to its original naturalized condition.
The procession through these structures leads to the tower: the fulcrum that contains the main galleries and research spaces. Housing a shifted paradigm towards the museum, the mass curates a circulation that guides users through its reinvented program structure. Clad in traditional travertine marble and a steel matrix, this monolithic form relates itself to the different histories of Rome, both ancient and industrial. It becomes a symbol for a new typology: a beacon that brings a once-disconnected complex back to the eternal city.
About
Rome is a complex palimpsest. With each new era the city enters, the dominating zeitgeist contributes new artifacts and beliefs to the urban grid and society. However, with this continuous insertion incurring over millennia, these built structures fragment pockets of the city from the urban center and the practices of antiquity. This is the condition our site is found in: disconnected on all sides from Rome, through landscape, infrastructure, and architecture. Considering these current barriers, the goal of the BEACON is twofold: to reconnect the site to the Tiber and city, and to bring back public engagement in curating and appreciating artifacts. The museum program presents a consolidated approach, where the journey along the river reveals the processes involved in making various objects. Through the division of the site between city, river, and museum, this journey takes the user from an activated urban piazza, to a public podium and workshop, then back to its original naturalized condition.
The procession through these structures leads to the tower: the fulcrum that contains the main galleries and research spaces. Housing a shifted paradigm towards the museum, the mass curates a circulation that guides users through its reinvented program structure. Clad in traditional travertine marble and a steel matrix, this monolithic form relates itself to the different histories of Rome, both ancient and industrial. It becomes a symbol for a new typology: a beacon that brings a once-disconnected complex back to the eternal city.
