In absentia. Three Fragments

Abstract

The city is the material presence of the built environment as much as the accumulation of lost, destroyed or imaginary elements, which not anymore or never became parts of reality. All of these elements, physical or immaterial, constitute a collective cultural capital of a place and contribute to shape its diffused mentality. The project Unbuilt Rome explores this idea of the city as a stratification of built facts and drawn thoughts, through a shared research that examines a series of projects designed for Rome and never realized. These projects – together with countless others which incurred in the same destiny – played a key role in the construction of the common imagination of Rome and had a significant influence on the architectural culture and on the debate on the city.