The city if Rome has a picturesque quality around every corner. However, no picture could ever do the beauty of the city justice. The church of St. Peter is perhaps the most magnificent building I have ever seen. The basilica is located at the end of a very long stretch of road, like so many of the churches in Rome. It symbolises their place as the destination and the idol location for Rome’s inhabitant. In other words in becomes the Panopticon symbol of Rome, and shows how important religion is to the people and how integrated it is into their lives and in history. These boulevards emphasise the horizontal and can be seen around the city. Examples include the Porto San Giovanni and the Arch de Constantine, the Monument to Emanuel II. Bridges are also used in this function, however not primarily created for this effect, eg the Castel Sant’ Angelo.
Infrastructure therefore has an impact on the architecture and planning of the city, and is perhaps why the modernist buildings of Rome show a response to this. The Maxii Museum by Zaha Hadid was designed by looking at the infrastructure around the site. Roads that lead towards the site were taken by Hadid and then effectively incorporated into the design as two intertwining channels that line up in plan with these roads and continue through the plan in order to line up with another two routes, at the opposite end of the site. This shows how links between the infrastructure of the city and architecture can be created and develops an effective response to the site’s location.
The Maxii Museum is a complex ensemble contrasting old and new architecture. The front façade blends with the classical style of its contemporaries and neighbours: the back extends into an intertwining concrete extravaganza in a typical Zaha Hadid style. The concrete of the exterior is smooth with sleek, neat edges emphasising its orientation and intention. The rear also has slanted steel posts, effectively finishing the design physically while offering another feature to the aesthetic. The use of glass to enclose the ground floor works well to allow light in as it reflects off of white pebbles, that Hadid used in the landscaping of the exterior.
The Auditorium along the road from the Museum is a building that attempts to link old a new as well. Its form dominates the skyline and consists of three massive steel eggs that sit atop extensive brick walls that enclose the interior. The metal skins of the upper structures appear to be made up of individual scales that overlap, allowing the viewer a preliminary glimpse of the interior steel framework. The proportions of this project are effective in that they allow the aura of a peaceful space: somewhere that the users feel welcome as well as leading them on to their destination: a transitional or mediated space encouraging one forward.