ARCH 402 | SPRING 2018 | ROME, ITALY

Aqueducts were one of ancient Rome's most successful inventions; bringing water in to the city from the countryside via elevated pipes to retain cleanliness. As Rome grew and sprawled outwards from the historic city, many neighborhoods and suburbs occupy what used to be countryside. Alessandrino is one of those communities, and is marked by one of the many aqueducts of Rome.

As part of many projects and workshops done during my study abroad semester in Rome, the Alessandrino Community Center combined ancient Roman ruins, landscape design, and contemporary architecture

Our community center's site is shared by an aqueduct, and is at the intersection of various green spaces within the urban residences and businesses. The site is also at a crossroads between shack communities and towers of apartments, largely rented or owned by working class families or young people. We intended to restore the site to a rolling countryside that was known for accompanying the aqueducts, and build our community center into the existing topography.

The community center includes a gym, cafe, gallery space for exhibits, auditorium, and party room for community members. The programs are divided into two buildings to allow for an outdoor atrium between the two.

Our center attempts to create a low profile on the site by partially submerging the programs underground using a cut and fill landscape design scheme, and offer entrances from the many communities of the area, to be a central circulation point. The community can also walk from the hills to the rooftop of the building to see the landscape from the aqueduct point of view, or witness the adjacent excavated portion of the aqueduct that currently fades into the landscape.