The Lessons of Rome Jon Michael Schwarting

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1The Lesson of Rome .Mi hael SchwartmgJon. C al

d Architecturfrom The Harvar Revie~, v. 2

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Prologue: Why Rome?

For centuries architects have gone to Rome as acritical part of their education. Although thetradition probably has roots in antiquity. and carriedthrough the middle or "dark" ages, perhaps the mostimportant acknowledged executors of this journev toRome were the architects of the fifteenth century.The Renaissance or "Rebirth" grew out of anexamination and measurement of Roman space,composition, and construction. Brunelleschi,Alberti, Brarnante, and Palladio et al. did not studyand measure Rome only to resurrect a style. butmore importantly to understand those principles andideas which are styleless and timeless andfundamental to any architecture. When theeducation of an architect became codified at theEcole des Beaux-Arts. the experience of Romebecame likewise institutionalized. in the Prix, deRome. given by the state to the winner of acompetition for continued education with Rome asinstructor. From the Renaissance to the Ecole desBeaux-Arts, a pedagogy evolved which saw theexamination of recognized important built form ofthe past as critical to the solution of contemporarvproblems.

With the Romantic movement there developed newattitudes toward artistic creativity which argued forfree expression and rejection of the studv of the pastas an impediment to insight and invention. Althoughstyle was used eclectically to evoke specificemotions. any kind of design methodology related toacademicism was rejected. Modern architecturaleducation as developed at the Bauhaus sought tocreate a new pedagogy based on modern science andphilosophical positivism. The tabula rasa innocence

I This paper originated from study during a Prix de Rome.1968-70. and was inspired by study in the Graduate Program ofUrban Design at Cornell University with Colin Rowe.

z The Study of Architectural History'. 8ruce Allsopp (New York:Praeger. 19701. p. II

3 Review of. Forms and Functions ofTueruieth: CenturyArchitectur •• of Talbot Hamlin. Colin Rowe. Art Bulletin (July19531. p. 1iO. Colin Rowe obliquely describes his own method

of teaching here in this discussion of Julian Guadet. t ln theWinter 68/69 ,M Quarterly. p. 54. Charles Jencks said theeffect of Rowe's leaching was. "to give the younger generationof architects the metaphor of the past. of history. of references.as a viable generator of present form:'

The Harvard Architecture Review. Volume 2. Spring 1981.0194·3650/8liOI0022·26 $3,00/0 .. 1; 1981 bv The HarvardArchitecture Review. Inc. and Massachusetts Institute ofTechnology

of Romanticism when combined with the pragmatismof the industrial revolution produced a biasedattitude toward architectural problem-solving inthe twentieth century in which the studv of historyand the examination of existing built form weredenigrated as anti-methodological.

But the Bauhaus and Romantic rejection of historvwas based on a misunderstanding of the relationshipof history to practice.

Architecture without history has the unchangingquality of a craft tradition, as when the oldcartwright would say, "That was the way my dadmade a cart and m.v grandad before him andthat's the right way to make a cart:' At the risk ofenormous oversimplification, there is the essence ofancient architecture. and history appears on thescene. not as afetter to the past but as a u·ay ofescaping from it."

It is in recognition of the value of historv thatstudents are now again offered these studies. andone can again talk about going to Rome forimportant pedagogical reasons. What is beingadvocated, in effect, is the reexamination if not thereacceptance of the role of historical precedent inthe design process, or

envisaging all centuries and countries as areservoir of motifs of composition. (the architect) isable to deduce certain broad conclusions. todiscover in all periods the presence of a commondenominator which is conceived as transcendingstyle?

To use the past in this way requires an ability toabstract concepts as analogies for dealing with newproblems, to see a certain independence of formal

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l a Ideal city plan as described by Vitruvius in De,Architectura, translated and drawn bv Ciseriano.1.~21

Ib Sforzinda, Antonio Filarete's ideal citv of two rotatedsquares with designed buildings in Trattatod:-lrchittura;'1.J.57 -6.J.

l c Vincenzo Scarnozzis ideal citv with grid organizationof a radial plan and water in El dea dell ArchuetturaCniL'ersate, 1615

Id Palmonova. a Venetian frontier garrison town bvScamozzi. 1593

signs from cultural symbols. and to look at builtform in terms of ideas, or formal and culturaltypology and structure, as well as style, I

Twentieth-century theories of architecturalproblem-solving have looked to scientific method,philosophical pragmatism. and materialism asmethodological models. Problem-solving has beenseen as an inductive process of observationconducted to ascertain all the facts relating to aproblem. Cybernetics and computers are now toolsof this approach,

A number of critics, principally Karl Popper inwritings beginning with the Logic of ScientificDiscovery in 1934. have argued for a differentheuristic methodology, Popper challenges theobjectivity of the inductive process bv arguing thatth~ task of deciding what facts are relevant involvesjudgments which are intuitive. prejudice thesolution, and in fact involve deductive reasoning."Popper argues that hypotheses or conjecture ortheories precede observation, "Onlv when one hassome conjecture about the solution can one begin toconsider the problem of criticizing that conjecture.of evaluating it. and possibly rejecting it."? In orderto become acquainted with a problem one mustspeculate and criticize until, through successiveattempts at testing to disprove the hypothesis, withthe aid of relevant facts, the hypothesis is changedor refined to become a more tenable solution,

l Robert Venturi has written. "As an Architect I try to be guided

not by habit but by a conscious sense of the past-byprecedent. thoughtfully considered:' and has quoted Aldo vanEvck who criticized modern architects who. "have been

harping continually on what is different in time to such an

extent that they have lost touch with what is not different. with

what is essentially the same:' pp. 18 and It). CompiexuvandContradiction in Architecture. Robert Venturi t~ew York:\luseum of \lodern Art, 19661

0; "How is the House of Science Built." "'illiam Bartley Ill.

Popper is quoted as saying in Conjectures and Refutations."observations are themselve theorv-irnpregrtated , \"'\~obser-vewith something in mind. some theories: we never observe inthe abstract. as it were. I Jbservuucn is selective. and depends

on our problems. tasks. points of vie w. theories:'

" Bartley. from Karl Popper's. The Logic ofScieminc Discocervand Conjectures und Refutations,

, G, Polva. How to Soh. Itl:'lew York: Doubledav AnchorBooks, 19571 p, 9

H Pclva. pp. xvi-exvii

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1a

How is the idea of architectural precedent. whichseems to have plaved a major role in the designprocess in the past. related to the thesis of Popper'sConjectures and Refutation and other modernheuristic theories? One can look to arguments suchas that of G Polya, a mathematics theorist involvedin heuristic theory. Poiva suggests that. "Good Ideasare based on past experience and formerly acquiredknowledge," implving that precedent. as revealedthrough analogy, metaphor. parable. and allegorv. isa primary source for devising hypotheses. Incategorizing the basic mental questions that occurwhen one is searching for an idea. Polva implies therole of precedent with such questions as: "Have vouseen the problem before, , , or have vou seen theproblem with the same or similar unknown? Given asimilar problem could yOU use its results, , , itsmethods?"

The precedent called for in these terms, whether itbe physical form or of a socio-economic-politicalnature. comes from history: it comes from problemsone has previously solved. problems one'scontemporaries have solved. the canonical solutionsof modern architecture. or from all stvles andperiods of built form. Precedent comes not from thehistorv of events or stvles. but rather from thehistory of ideas as abstracted from events (unlessone is involved in cultural resurrection I,

From such an argument, a return to Rome has beenreconstituted.

b c

The relation between our mind and things consists inthat we think about the things. that we form ideasabout them ... In other words thinking is theendeavor to capture reality bv means of ideas; thespontaneous movement of the mind goes from theconcepts to the world.

But an absolute distance always separates the ideafrom the thing. The real thingalioavs overflows theconcept that is supposed to hold it. An object is moreand other than what is implied in the idea of it. Theidea remains a bare pattern. a sort of scaffold withwhich we try to get at realitv. let a tendency residentin human nature prompts us to assume that reality iswhat we think of it and thus to confound realitv andidea by taking in good faitli the latter for the thingitself. Our yearning for realitv leads lIS to aningenuous idealization of realitv. iuch is the dnnatepredisposition of mall .-Ortei<a v Cassel'

Order may be defined as the degree and kind orlawfulness governing the relations among theparts of an entitv. Such laufulness, or obedience to

controlling principles. derives from the overall themeor structure. to which the behacior of all the partsmust conform: italso applies to the makeup ofeaclipart within itself. Without order. the organs of thehuman body work at logger heads icitb. each other.and the various functions and strirings of the mindwould fight each other chaoticallv. Without order. oursenses would not function: the risible shape of anobject must be clearly organized if we are torecognize, remember. and compare it with others.Furthermore. if there were no order in nature. wecould not profit from experience since ichat lee havelearned serves us onlv so long as like things lookalike and similar consequences folloicfrom similarcauses. If the world were not orderlv: the mindunable to perceive and create order. man could notsurtiue, Therefore. man strices for order.-RudolfArnheirn to

Much of the history of architecture and planning canbe viewed in terms of a dialectic between the ideal

? Ortega y Casset, The Dehumanization. of Art and UtherWritings on .-trt and Culture. t~ew York: Doubleday and Co ..Inc.I, pp. 3~-35

10 Rudolf Amheim. "Order and Complexity in LandscapeDesign." Towards A Psychology of Art. p, 123

II Lewis .\Iumford. The Story of Ctopias. (~e\'" York: Compass

Books Edition. 1962l. p. :2

d

and the real, between utopian formulation andempirical conditions. On the one hand. fundamentalto a general historv of design or planning, is thehistory of ideal schemes and utopian proposals.Inherent in any definition of design or planning isthe idea of a model or a concept. and the historv ofutopian planning has often served as such. Platoand Vitruvius were models for Renaissance idealcities: these in turn served as formal models formany proposals in different historical periods andcultures. including Ebenezer Howard's twentieth-century garden city diagram and its legacy ofEnglish new towns and national capitals (New Delhi.Brasilia. Chandigarhi, etc. (I a-fl. On the otherhand. there are theories particularly withintwentieth-century Modernism. concerned with theVitruvian idea of commodity. These demand solutionto more immediate or "real." physical problems asopposed to metaphysical speculation.

Outopia. in Greek. meaning no place. and Eutopia,meaning the good place. have been used sinceThomas More to employ the imaginary to project theideal. As ideal projections of the good life. utopiasare statements of fundamental political principlesand often are pleas for major reform. Plato'sRepublic and Laws. Aristotle's Politics. VloresUtopia. Campanella's The City of the Sun. Saint-Simon. Fourier, Marx. and others present analvsesof social institutions in an attempt to identifv majorelements of societv, demonstrate how they act on oneanother. and suggest how they may be adjusted toeach other or changed to create a better world.

Almost every utopia is an implicit criticism of thecivilization that served as its background: likewiseit is an attempt to uncover potentialities that theexisting institutions either ignored or buriedbeneath the ancient crust of custom and habit. 11

The framework for the good society. the condition ofharmony in any utopian speculation. must be social.and it must be organized and institutionallvarticulated. The recurring discussion of the need fororganized human settlement opens the way for

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Ie Ebenezer Howard's Garden City, 1899If Letchworth, Unwin & Parker, 1904Ig Savannah, Georgia, 1734, view of Oglethorpe planIh L'Enfant plan for Washington, 1791Ii New Delhi capitol by Edwin Lutyens, 1911

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architecture and planning. Architecture isfundamentally involved in the issue of order. Itcannot be taken lightly that the terms which areclosest to describing the architectural process - plan,design, scheme, project. proposal. or program - allhave intimations of social organization throughformal organization. Social organizing or ordering isa political act. This act with commensuratephilosophical and psychological issues has oftensought representation in a visual form order orstructure.

From Plato and Aristotle, who sought understandingin form, to Freud who argued that when physicalevents stimulate unpleasant tension they take adirection leading to a reduction of that tension. one

. can deduce arguments for the beneficial effects oforder in the human mind, for a kind of biologicaland psvchological entropv implying that all phvsicalactivity strives for balance and equilibrium. IZ Theprinciples of Gestalt psychology made the relation ofthese ideas to architectural principles obvious. Withpostulates that the mind struggles for an orderlvconception of reality, that "vision is not amechanical recording of elements but the graspingof significant structural patterns," the argumentdelivered to architecture was that "all creation ofform involves a coping with the world of experience"and concommitantly "visual form must beconsidered as a basic means of understanding theenvironment." 13

From arguments such as these, it would be quitesimple to postulate an important value forarchitectural utopian proposals as analyticalhypotheses which investigate the relationship ofphysical-formal structures to their political.philosophical, and psychological meaning andconsequences in respect to the issue of social andformal order or organization.

This discussion has dealt with only one of theelements of the proposed dialogue between idealand real in the design process. If the first term ofthe dialectic would be characterized asphilosophical idealism, rationalism. or utopianism.then the antithesis would be realism. empiricism.pragmatism or materialism. Whereas the formerseeks to derive knowledge in general from certainprimary axioms by means of deductive procedures.the latter seeks to build up or construct knowledgefrom basic material elements. It relies on inductive

h

inferences that matters of fact may be ascertainedthrough observation. The strictest materialisticargument would be that architecture as a materialthing is made up of parts possessing many physicalproperties and no other properties, such as ideas.Position in space and time, size, shape, mass, etc.,and relationships of these are of ultimateconsequence. For the architect-planner this wouldmean that existing political. social and physicalconditions or realities must be analyzed as thecontext for a design. The building site hasoperational and phvsical systems. complete or latent,explicit or implicit, which constitute it, and whichinform and become part of the problem requiringresolution. A building program in a materialistformulation is not a plan in terms of an idealproposal, but" ... a description of the spatialdimensions, spatial relationships and other physicalconditions required for the convenient performanceof specific functions." II

The synthesis of these two opposite tendenciesmight be the suggestions that. "It is possible to be ametaphysical idealist and an epistemologicalrealist." 15

Architecture serves practical ends; it is subjected touse; but it is also shaped by ideas and fantasies;... its rationale is cosmic and metaphysical andhere of course lies its peculiar ability to imposeitself on the mind. I.

On the other hand the utopian architectural proposalcannot be built, yet

it may instruct, civilize, and even edify thepolitical society which is exposed to it. It may doall this, but for all that it cannot, any more thanthe work of art, become alive. It cannot, that is,

12 Rudolf Arnheim •. -Irt and Visual Perception. IBerkeley:University of California Press. 19651, p. 25

13 Rudolf Arnheim, "Gestalt Psychology and Artistic Form."Aspects of Form. L. L. Whyte. ed. (Bloomington: IndianaUniversity Press. 1951). pp, 204-208

14 John Summerson. "The Case for a Theory of ModernArchitecture:' R.I.B.A. }ournaIILondon. June 19571. p. 309

15 H. B. Acton. "Idealism:' The Encyclopedia ofPhiiosophv. vol.31-4. [USA: ~adlillon. 19721. p. 110

16 Colin Rowe. "The Architecture of Utopia." Crania. CambridgeUniversity, p. 20

17 Rowe. p. 21

18 Karl Mannheim. Ideology and Utopia. Chapter IV. "TheUtopian )Ientality:' "(New York: Harcourt Brace & World. Inc.J

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become the society which it changes; and it cannottherefore change itself."

But if the utopian proposal is viewed in a dialecticalrelationship with reality, if it is opposed bv anequally assertable and apparentlv contradictorvproposition, a reconciliation on a higher level oftruth can occur through synthesis. Then one canappreciate Karl Mannheims notion of the nature ofUtopia as a proposition transcending realitv. whichwhen it enters into reality, tends to transform it andby doing so, is itself transformed. 18

This rather protracted discourse has been made topropose that the design and planning process couldbe interpreted as a give and take between ideal andreal, between concept and context. and that manyhistoricallv significant architectural and urbanisticachievements might be seen as a result of such aninterplay or dialectic.

The Renaissance and Baroque planning of Romepresents a verv demonstrative example of thesynthesis evolved from the dialectic of ideal andreal, concept and context. Interest in antiquitv, inPlato and Vitruvius and their particular descriptionsof the ideal city. led many Renaissance architects todescribe or draw ideal schemes. Verbal descriptionsby Alberti and Filarete discuss or implv the societywhich is to inhabit these cities. Filaretes Sforzinda.Francesco di Giorgio Martini's and Scamozzisfortified cities for differing topographies. schemes byVasari and the street scenes of Peruzzi. Serlio andVignola. etc., created a body of theoreticalproposals that reflected a new conception of space.

2c .••• 2d ~

2a Roman Forum, reconstruction2b Pompeii. Forum as drawn by Camillo Sitte2c Carpi. Italy2d Faenza. Italv

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"The Renaissance artist-and-scientist had anabiding faith that space is strictly measurable andcan be formally arranged 'within a cosmos. that allthe constructions of art have a law and unitv.harmony and coherence .. ." 19 These ideal citydiagrams argued for an understanding of the whole.and the interrelation of the parts to themselves andto this whole. They are didactic polemics for order.It seems plausible to argue that this polemicalintent, rather than a desire for actual construction.was the motivation for creation of these ideal plans.(Thev were onlv built. as in the case of Scamozzi's. .Palmanova. on the Venetian Frontier. when the idealcity became ideal for other reasons. as in the"practical science" of fortification. )

It has been argued that despite this proliferation ofideal proposals. Renaissance cities continued to

19 W'vlie Sypher. Four :5lage.~uf Renaissance ity/e t ~ew York:Doubleday Anchor. 19,;51. p. 61

3a Vigevano. Italy3b Vigevano: the attempt to make a new central void as

well as create an articulated radial sequence aroundthe elevated Castello can be discerned.

3c Piazza Annunziata. formed with BrunelleschisOspedale. 142 •. Antonio de Sangallo the Elder'sloggia opposite in 1516. the 1600 portico to theSantissime Annunziata, and Ciabolognas equestrianstatue and fountains, is an urban room.

3d Around the binuclear center of Palazzo ~i~noria 1.-\1and the Duomo (HI of Florence. the Renaissanceadditions of Piazza Annunziata Ill. Piazza SanMarco (2), Palazzo Medici and S. Lorenzo 131. S. :\1.

Novella (41, Palazzo Pitti 151 off the Ponte Vecchio.the Uffizzi 161, and Santa Croce 171. create a large-scale conceptual radial organization in the medievaldevelopment around the old Roman grid.

:~e Palazzo Farnese: the double reading ,.f edg': to apositive urban space or ub;ed in a 'pace whichextends to the river and \'ia Giulia is discernible illthis engraving.

3f The radial focusing on the Ponte S .. Augelo tu St.Peter's is formed bv the Piazza Farnese t 11. Campodi Fiore (2). Piazza Cancelleria (:31. Palazzo \Iassilllo141. Piazza i'iavona 151. and Piazza S .. Apullinare 161and connects the ri ver.

grow in relation to ancient or medieval patterns.essentially unaffected by these ideas. However. ifone interprets these ideal proposals as diagramswhich are not to be built but are rather to "instruct:'"civilize;' and "edify" the normal growth. changeand transformation processes of cities. then theeffects of these proposals might be seen to produce acontrary argument. There are. for instance. manyRenaissance piazzi in Italy which are rectangular inthe manner of a Vitruvian forum. and occur in thecenter of the towns as in the ideal diagrams 12a-d\.

In a number of Italian cities a cortile-type space.similar tothe Renaissance palazzo cortile . emergedas a highly organized public space. The PiazzaDucale in Vigevano, the Piazza di S. Annunziata inFlorence with Bruneileschis loggia of the Ospedaledegli Innocenti, and the Piazzi Navona and Farnesein Rome (3a-f) are examples. An interesting inside-outside. public-private ambiguity allows the readingof the citv as a network of streets as corridors. andpiazzi as living rooms with attached private cells. or

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buildings. The Roman city made up of verv smallprivate cells for; sleeping, with baths and toilets.etc., as public edifice and forum as living room.connected bv streets and corridors had led Vitruvius(and Alberti following him) to Say the city was like ahouse. Like the Romans, the Renaissanceconceptual artist. as opposed to the medievalcraftsman. could conceive of the organization of acity in the same wav they could plan a house.Concomitantly the city could be conceived as asocial organism with commensurate spaces andactivities. This was fundamentallv a social orhumanistic idea. proposing cultural transformation.It was made into a physical and formal idea throughclassical interpretation or analogy and ideas (frompainting i about order and space.

It is instructive to look at the plans of these fourparticular spaces and their cities in relation to aprototypical Renaissance ideal city plan. It is notdifficult to see the Piazza Ducale as a radial centralpiazza. S.. Annunziata as a spoke and peripheral

4a

actual and virtual entries extending from the crvptto the Piazza di Ponte.

To conceptually relate the Forum Pontis or Piazza diPonte to the center of an ideal city. to create enoughreference to a radial system to make the metaphorread, existing streets were clarified and new onesadded. The new center was thus connected to the farreaches of the medieval city and to the old centersand significant structures of the ancient city. Withimprovements initiated by the planning legislation ofthe 1480 "Restauration Urbis' papal edict, thesestreets (Via Giulia, Via Borgo Nuovo, Via Triumtatis(Condotti)) led to the Forum Romanum, TeatroMarcello. the Piazza Navona, the Capitolum orCampidoglio. the Piazza Colonna and Piazza Veneziaon the ancient Via Lata or Corso (4a-c). Renaissancedevelopment continued the medieval streets asstraight lines to the new S. Trinita del Monte on thePincio Hill, S. Maria del Popolo at the northern

entry to the city, and the Via Giulia by Bramantewhich paralleled the river in the opposite direction.These streets also led to open. unbuilt areas for newRenaissance and Baroque development. and theradial system provided a structure for determiningthe location of new buildings and spaces (5.Giovanni dei Fiorentini, Piazza Farnese.Campidoglio, Piazza del Popolo. etc.)

Local resolutions and meaning thus acquiredadditional significance through their fundamentalrelation to large-scale structuring. The existing citv,restructured on the model of the ideal radial city.became an embodiment of the Renaissance notion ofthe citv as microcosm of the universe. Thusconceived. the citv represented man's capacitv tounderstand the universe as an ordered and rationalsystem. It could in turn enlighten man's abilitv torationally organize his physical world and socialinstitutions.

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-la The Piazza S. Pietro (I) and Piazza di Ponte 121. ascenter. with the Via Giulia 131. Via '\Ionserato IJ!.Via del Pellegrino (51. Via del CovemoVecchio 161.

Via dei Coronari {71. and Via Condotti lal as radials.connect s. \1. del Popolo 191. S. Trinita (101. the \'iaLata or Corso 1111. Piazza Colonna 1121. PiazzaVenezia tl:ll.':the Campidog:lio and Forum 11'+1. andthe Teatro Vlarcello 1151 .

-lb The Falda engraving demonstrating: the radial systemabout the Piazza di Ponte and Ponte 5. Angelo

piazza from the Duomo as Florence 's central piazza.and the Piazza Farnese and Piazza Navona asperipheral piazzi on a concentric ring around thePiazza di Ponte, center of the new Rome created bythe Vatican. Although it seems plausible tospeculate that these spaces were conceived asmetaphors of the ideal plans, at the same time theyare distortions of the ideal. They are responses tothe particular problems which occur at the scale ofthe space and adjacent buildings and surroundingfabric of streets and buildings. That is, thev aresensitive to their immediate existing context.However. they distort this context bv their relationto these other metaphors of an unadulterated city inthe mind.

The local and particular histories of these isolatedbuildings. spaces. clients, architects. etc., are allwell known. What is rarely discussed is that.because of the metaphor of ideal city organization. alarger-scale order is overlaid on the existing

medieval city. The city is conceived as a whole. isorganizable as such. and is simultaneously made upof local developments which not only resolve localconditions but also relate to this whole. Thedevelopment of these and other cities - particularlyRome - through the sixteenth centurv offers a mostcogent exploration of this argument.

St. Peter's and Renaissance RomeWhen the popes returned to Rome, and decided tobuild St. Peter's as the symbol of the citv, and theVatican as the papal residence. they saw the need toreorient the medieval citv. with the Piazza Navona asits center. to this new complex. The Castello S.Angelo. Ponte S. Angelo. and the Forum Pontis InowPiazza di Ponte) served as connective pieces to putSr. Peter's effectively into the composition. Onecould interpret the continuous development of St.Peter's and the spaces in front of it. from Bramanteto Bernini, as an attempt to make a succession of

Sa Giuliano de Sangallo plan for a palazzo on thePiazza Navona , modeled on the Vitruviundescription of a Roman house

,)0 Palazzo Farnese with the \-itru,i~n forecountransformed into an urban piazza

6a The Palazzo Vlussuno osci llates between anorthogonal Ruman house and a radiuting schemebuilt upun the ruins uf the theater.

6b P. Portogeses diagram uf Palazzo \Iassimu as atheater tvpe helps connect the Piazza Farnese to thePiazza Navona.

7a Vlichelungelos Campidogliu. begun 1538. Thesplaved building creates a false perspectiveattenuating the climb to the Senatorio and opens the

••••••

Sa. 6aY

If the Piazza di Ponte "idea" generated a number ofradial connections to the city, the concentriccomponent of the diagram was also developed. ThePalazzo and Piazza farnese, Palazzo Massimi andPiazza Navona can be seen as examples ofRenaissance development which relate not onlv tospecific problems but also to this larger-scalescheme (30. These spaces create a system ofmovement and open space radiating around thePiazza di Ponte and connecting the looping river.

At the local level each of these spaces could also beseen to involve the ideal-real relationship. ThePalazzo Farnese makes a forecourt out of city textureISa-bl. Antonio Sangallo G. takes the forecourt ofthe Vitruvian Roman house and produces it withinthe fabric (in contrast to hi. uncle Giuliano'sproposal for Piazza .\Ia'-onal. The piazza can thus beinterpreted as a notion of dominance bvappropriation. or beneficence. in that privatebecomes public. The palazzo plan and the piazza

32

space to the Forum behind.7b The existing conditions show .vlichelunge lo's

contextural response to given conditions of angles.loggie. and stairs in which he kept the medievalcortile behind the Palazzo dei Conservatori. thetowers behind and on the sides of the Senutorio , andthe transformation of the hill behind the Palazzo\iuovu into a grotto.

7c The Campidoglio in context demonstrates thealignment of the loggia of the Palazzo deiConservatori with the Cesu and Renaissance fjfbric.and the Palazzo Nuevo loggia alignment with theBasilica of Constantine in the forum.

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were strongly enough tied to the metaphor of theantique type that there was no need to control theappearance of the surrounding buildings. ThePalazzo Massimi. in front of the Palazzo Farnese.relates to the Maesimi familvs ancient ancestry andthe fact that the site contained the foundations of anancient Roman theater. Peruzzi alluded to theprototypical theater form in image. as well as to theRoman house prototype in plan (6aL In an earlierproject Peruzzi had converted the Teatro Marcellointo a palazzo for the Orsini. The transformation ofthis earlier work and the resolution of the radialtheater with the orthogonal ancient house on anextremely irregular site produced in the PalazzoMassimi a masterful and dvnarnic sequence ofspaces. Bv continuing around this theater tvpe oneenters directly into the Piazza Navona, Bv goingfrom theater to circus the movement from PiazzaFarnese and the river continues in an open spacenetwork. radially back to the river near Peruzzi'sPalazzo Alternps (6bl.

7a

7 b.,. 7c .••

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CampidoglioThe Cafnpidoglio is the principai Renaissancepiazza in Rome, Its form appears on superficialreading to be an ideal space inserted into a context(7al. It can be discussed as an experimental studv ofperspective space, being the most complete whollyconceived and executed space in the Renaissance,Yet from another point of view it was created out of a"real" concern for what existed, and involved aminimum of physical adjustment to elaborate itsmeaning. The angles existed, the medieval5enatorio facade looms through its new grid, behindthe facade of the Palazzo dei Conservatori theoriginal medieval court is revealed, and through thePalazzo Nuovo a grotto represen • the cutting intothe hill. The existing context is subtly interpretedand honored. The space is symbolically loaded. withthe piazza and the equestrian statue. thought to beConstantine, turning their backs on the ForumRomanum and facing on axis the Forum Pontis and

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Castello 5t. Angelo (4c, IC). However. the piazzacloses on this axis rather than opening onto it. andfrom the bottom ihe perspective makes the trip upthe hill less attenuated. perhaps implying theintimacy of state to the people at the piazzas base.

The Basilica of Constantine is on axis with oneloggia while the Cesu (first designed byMichelangelo, a friend of Ignatius Loyola) is on theother. creating a shearing of the piazza. There isalso a vertical axis debating the longitudinal axes:the piazza seems to be a triangle with open cornersaccepting both the ancient and the modern churchand state rather than supporting either. One has tosvmbolicallv climb up from either to the Senateassembly. The Campidoglio begins with, a point. astar. an oval. and embodies a triangle. circle. andsquare - all ideal forms; its message depends onideal meaning and statement as well as realreference and resolution.

3J

Baroque Sixtus V Rome

The 1585-1590 Sixtus V plan to connect the sevenpilgrimage churches can likewise be seen as ,aninterpretation of fifteenth-centurv ideal radial plans(Ba-g). The Sistine plan is generically related to theSforzindas of the Renaissance. with these churchesand their accompanying external spatialdevelopment as the fine-scale adjustments whichallow the large-scale idea to fit into the existingphysical and cultural context. or reality. At the finescale these piazzi contain ideal formal solutions asmicrocosms reasserting the macrocosm, which aretransformed also to resolve. accommodate. andameliorate the context into which they are insertedand uitirnateiv become. The Baroque plannertransformed the utopian ideal plan into a conceptof set-pieces or ideal fragments inserted into anexisting city fabric as nodal points along, orterminating, lines of movement. These wereintended to clarify the organization of these linesand thus the areas related to them. The large scale

20 This is the idea of "tensioning" that Edmund Bacon develops inDesign Of Cities, tNew York: Viking Pre as, 19671

8e 8f

network derived from ideal-citv polemics and theset-pieces provided an organizational framework forthe arbitrarilv placed. separately conceived.dissonant forms of the existing medieval citv ofRome. ,'0

Christianity and thus the physical church buildingwere illegal until Constantine. Once institutionalized.churches were symbolically erected on the sites ofthe previous underground church activities. whichhad had as little to do with the center andorganization of the city as possible. The "real"problem for Sixtus was, as it had been with St.Peter's. to bring these fringe events into the centercitv. He accomplished this bv bringing the citv tothe fringes. using the developing Baroque notion ofaxes of movement as the vehicle for ci tv expansion.

Piazza del PopoloThe Piazza del Popolo is analogous to the space inan ideal city where a radial route tfrom the Piazza di

8g

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35

8a The Baroque Sixtus \. organization of Rome with theSt. Pietro 11) connection to the pilgrimage churches.S. \1. del Popolo UI. Piazza di Spagna and S. Trinita(;{I. Ouauro Fontana I.J.I. Piazza Quirinale (.31.

Porta Pia 161. S.. \1. .\[aggiore III. S. Croce inCerusalemme 181. and S, Ciovanni in Laterano I'))overlav a larker scale orgunizatiou and expansion onthe Renaissance city,

8b Rome. Taddeo di Bartolu's 14U painting uf the "set-pieces" of the city

8c Rome: Giovanni Francesco Bordino s IS8.3 engravingof the ordered connection of the set-pieces appears

as a deformed ideal city diagram,8d Rome: Antoine Lafrervs ISiS engraving indicates

the svmbolic program of the pilgrimage,8e Diagram of the Renaissance and Baroque

organization of Rome 1)\, Sigfried Giediun.sr Brocchis 18:20 map illustrates the tupographic

cunditiun uf Rome and the Sixtus \" organizations ,"they extend from the river through the hills "f thecity, providing a neutral measure of their condition,

8g The Sixtus V organization, Bacon map ,8h Sistine Library fresco indicating the n,:w

organization of Rome

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34

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9a The 1660 Rainaldi organization of the Piazza delPopolo with S. Maria del Popolo both in. the piaizaand at the edge because of the ainbiguousreading ofthe oblique side. Via Ripetta III ends in the church, ,the Corso 121. in the gate and the third street. ViaBabuino 131 continues the pilgrimage.

9b The 1813 Valadier organization rejected theeccentric organizational recognition of Via diRipetta 11), connecting Vatican to S. Maria delPopolo (2), but expands the piazza connection fromhill to river.

10 The Spanish Steps III connects S. Pietro 12) and S.Maria del Popolo (3) to S. Trinitv, the shift to theS. M. Maggiore etc. (41 and resolves an orthogonaland diagonal geometry.

lla S.:V1. Maggiore (ll connects its back - bv way of anobelisk, a set of stairs. and aisle entries - to thecitv, and its front connects both S. Croce inGerusalemme (21 and S. Giovanni in Laterano (31.

llb The back, entry facade of S. M. Maggiorellc Front facade, S. M. Maggiore, transparent to the

medieval mosaics and towerua The regular nave of S. M. Maggiorelle Plan which indicates the nave as a neutral form

like a Roman Forum with an array of 'free'-formedattached chapels

llb

36

9

Ponte) intersects with the outer wall making an entryto, and exit from, the city. This space is complicatedby the fact that it is also a piazza to a major earlvRenaissance church, S. Maria del Popolo. With anobelisk, Sixtus marked the intersection of the ViaFlaminia, the major Roman road north, with theRoman wall and gate and the church, and projecteda symmetrical trident of streets from the piazza intothe city. Sixtus's trident could be seen as an attemptto organize the major natural and artificial elementsof early Rome. The Via Flaminia. the middle streetrunning to the ancient center of Rome, was theancient Via Lata (and became the Corso); the ViaBabuino runs east through five of Rome's sevenhills, and the Via Ripetta runs west to the TiberRiver. Rainaldi's twin churches of the 1660sreinforced this intersection of events. Despite thesymmetry of Sixtuss projected trident. the Piazzadel Popolo as developed in the sixteenth centuryacknowledged the eccentricitv of the placement ofS, Maria del Popolo.

The 1813 plan of Giuseppe Valadier, in linking thePiazza with the Pincio Gardens and hill on one sideand the Tiber River on the other. extends the effectof the single set-piece on the surrounding fabric.However, Valadiers exedral scheme perhapsoverstates the idealization of the space in that S.Maria del Popolo is matched on the other side of thegate with identical "poche," possibly oversimplifyingthe real complexity of the intersection of events. Thechurch and Via Ripetta from the Vatican finally losetheir place in the scheme.

Piazza di SpagnaThe eastern arm of the trident which goes throughthe hills was intended to be straight, seeminglyproposing to measure the hills in height and

distance by the way they interact with the ideal line.Rather than complete the arduous task set out bySixtus of connecting the Piazza del Popolo directlyto S. Maria Maggiore, the Spanish Steps and Piazzadi Spagna (10) act as a set-piece which recognizesthe land forms and creates the intended connectionusing the existing streets and topography. As avirtually symmetrical form the steps are, in essence,ideal. In one sense, because of their purity of form,the steps can be seen, like the Campidoglio, as aforeign element collaged onto an existing situation;yet in another, they work as an elaborate context uraldesign. When the steps, which as an image andform suggest the hill that caused their being, linkedS. Trinita and Piazza Trinita dei Monti at the topwith Piazza di Spagna and Via Condotti at thebottom, the ideal set-piece began to extend itsinfluence, to react, respond, and organize a muchlarger territory. •

The Piazza di Spagna has a form which could becalled a "bow tie:' with the Fontana della Barcacciaas the knot, on axis with the steps and the ViaCondotti. The bow tie is made up of two angles. Oneis the Corso, or orthogonal grid, which much ofancient and modern Rome in this area is made upof. The other angle is produced by the Via Babuinoarm of the Piazza del Popolo trident. The Piazza diSpagna not only orients one to the trident street, butalso conceptually to the major Corso system somedistance away.

The Piazza Trinita dei Monti with the church is onthe Corso system but the Villa Medici at the end ofthe widened boulevard which runs north out of thepiazza is on the trident system. This upper sequencewas extended by Valadier to connect with the PincioGardens and thus the Piazza del Popolo. The

11a

promenade, long used as a place to catch thebreezes and view the city, was formalized into aspatial and ordered sequence.

The bow tie at the bottom produces, in essence, twopiaszi, breaking down the scale as well as causingthe space to look stretched and thus activated bvmovement forces and activities. The Palazzo diSpagna and Bernini's facade of the PropagandaFide, and the Column of the Immacolata Concezionevisible from Piazza del Popolo, are on one minorpiazza while a group of trees gives a differentcharacter to the other. The Via Condotti. previouslydiscussed as one of the Renaissance radial streets,can now be seen in reverse linking the piaszi,church. and the Pincio Hill to the Corso, the riverand the Renaissance hub at the Piazza di Ponte.

Thus what at a cursory review might have appearedto be an idealized formal design or at best merely aconnector in the Sistine scheme can be seen as ablesimultaneously to do more. The Piazza di Spagnaexists at the level of a metaphorical connector, ofhill. in which it is embedded and represents, withwater, towards which it faces. Or it can be seen as alocal connection of four significant buildings whichprovides an open space orientation for a densesurrounding urban fabric.

Piazza S. Maria Maggiore

Most of the other Sistine nodes were developed inopen contexts and do not provide the opportunitiesfor analysis thai the Piazzas del Popolo and diSpagna afford. S. Maria Maggiore was adjusted witha double facade to accept multi-directional entrythrough spaces surrounding it (Ll a-e). Its idealcharacteristics are its facades and basilical internalconfiguration. These pure ;·~.·.ynsare strong enough to

37

nr Plan. j. Giovanni in Laterano also has a formednave and aisles which act as a neutral container ofspecial events: the Palazzo Laterano.: a cloister. '.and baptistry.

11g "Ia,"e. j. Giovanni: Borrorninis rigorous five-aisleplan provides-the neutral structure for diverse"plug ons." !:

11h facade. S. Giovanni. Galilei. 17:,5: in the scale ofthe space towards S. Croce

11i Side facade: fontana 118861 turns the side into afront with a piazza accepting movement from thecity.

12a S. Maria della Pace. Pietro Cortona. 1686. withexisting conditions illustrating how littleadjustment was necessary to allow the existingcontext to pass through an idealized space

12b The portico and facade were ambiguously both aback drop and the actors.

12c Piazza Ignazio. Raguzzini. 1727. continues thespace of the inside through the facade to theoutside by continuation of the rhythms andorganization.

12d The "stage" is defined by surfaces which also readas objects. allowing the space to move back intothe context.

lIf

receive and order an odd series of "plug-on" chapelsand an oddly configured surrounding external space.Like a hazelnut. it has a geometric center and anirregular surround. The street was widened. creatingirregular spaces connecting a series of radiatingstreets (one of which was to connect the Colosseumor Sixtuss multi-use wool factory proposal).

Piazza S. Giovanni in LateranoThe problem of S. Giovanni in Laterano is similar toS. Maria Maggiore. Through the addition of thePalazzo Lateranense and a new entrance into thetransept of the church, which made the church aright-angled double-nave plan. a large amorphoussurrounding area was transformed into a group ofsmaller spaces better related in scale to thebuildings which defined them and better ordered asa perceptible spatial sequence (Llf-i). As atS. Maria Maggiore. the church faced the wrong wayfor the Sistine scheme. so an obelisk, new facadeand entry, and transformed spaces were used to

12a

:38

11g

reorient the building. The church was large enoughto convert the transepts into another nave for lessermasses. keeping the main nave for high masses.Though this program related to the large city-scale.the spatial and social complexity of the church wasenriched through the external changes. Large-scaleco'ncerns and local complexity and richness of spaceand place were brought into concert with one another.

Local FocusThe Sistine strategy was to organize vast areas ofRome. It left large areas conceptually untouched bythe scheme. The High Renaissance and Baroquedevelopment of Rome which could be consideredoutside the large-scale Sistine structure, however,also used the ideal set-piece concept by insertinglocal spaces, places, and organized focuses asreferences in local-scale areas. The Piazza dellaPace, Piazza Ignazio and the Fontana di Trevi. thePorta di Ripetta. Piazza della Rotunda (Pantheon), orPiazza Navona and numerous others, make use of

12b

llh

the existing context and adjust it in a minimal wayso as to carve out an ideal formal space. Theyexemplify subtle relationships between regular andirregular. by testing how far an ideal form can beadjusted or distorted and still maintain its intendedreading. These Baroque spaces tend to give order tothe random street patterns around them. becomingreferences. places and local centers.

The Piazza delia Pace is a minor adjustment to astreet to allow recognition and stopping at a oncepopular church (Iza.bl, The space is idealized, akind of proscenium on which the churchambiguously plays a leading and minor role bysimultaneously projecting into the space andreceding as a backdrop wall. The street and vistaare oblique to the central axis of the church. Whatfirst appears as an eccentricity is a clue to thecondition of the pre-existing street which stillcontinues to the side through the facade of the

12c,~

space. The continuation is as strong a reading as thearresting space. Thus the idealization and realitvwork together in an interesting debate and enrichedaccord.

In S. Ignazio. the tripartite division of space isshaped to conform to the internal modulation of thechurch (12c,d). Thus the nave and aisles passthrough the facade which acts as a screen rwhitewith three large doors), into the forecourt Isiennabrown) which is the city. Inside public institutionand outside public space are merged. The movementsequences around the piazza are not interrupted, butmerge into and flow through it. In fact. the Piazzaitself is very open and porous to the citv. Haguzz ini'sPiazza Ignazio, like Cortonas Piazza delia Pace.subtly converts existing buildings by re-facadingand minor addition or subtraction in such a wav asto produce a good environment adjacent to the spaceas well as within it.

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The Campo Marzo Orthogonal OrganizationThe piazza and the linkage of piazzi are the mainorganizers of the texture of Rome. There is verylittle grid. The Corso, the ancient spine to thenorth, probably made straight because thetopography was Rat, organizes a large area betweenthe hills to the east and the river to the west (l3al.This area appears to have been orthogonallyorganized in ancient Rome. Many Italian towns andcities are gridded today because during the MiddleAges it was simpler to use the Roman foundationsand street systems which existed. There are a numberof parallel connections from the Corso through theCampo Marzo to the Piazza Navona which is nearlyparallel with the Corso. The Renaissance andBaroque church, piazza, and street reinforced thisorder, by being perpendicular or parallel to theCorso (13b). From the portico of the Pantheon, forinstance, one can see the white screen facade of S.Ignazio, and from the Piazza Ignazio one canlikewise see the Pantheon columns in one direction

13b

and the Corso in the other. The orthogonal ordergives a clarity to this large area. It becomes anothermorphology binding the hills to the river.

As the Sixtus V plan can be argued to oscillatebetween ideal radial city conception and realcontextural execution, so too the small-scaleBaroque piazza and system of linkages can be seenas moving between the same dialectical opposites.Thus in each there is to be found a synthesis whichprovides a physical demonstration of Mannheimsnotion of a Utopia transcending realitv which, whenit enters reality, transforms both the reality anditself.

Building-Piazaa RelationshipsThis large-scale planning methodology in factreflects a similar means of solving smaller-scalearchitectural problems. Many Roman Renaissanceand Baroque buildings provide interesting

14a

40

13c

illustration of this. The Renaissance polemic forideal forms produced examples of the ideal palazzoand ideal church as well as the ideal city. Thesewritings and diagrams can be contrasted witlt actualRenaissance and Baroque built forms which indicatean involvement with inserting the ideal into a realcontext by using the implicit or latent structure of'the context to restructure and enrich the idealbuilding tvpe and vice versa.

Piazza Navona-sS. AgneseBorromini'sS. Agnese in Piazza Navona is animportant example (l4b,c). The centralized plan byRainaldi is wider than it is long and appearssquashed. the flattening enhanced by falseperspectives in the side chapels. Borromini carriesthe theme through on the facade by pushing it back,which conversely pushes the dome forward so it canbe seen in the narrow piazza. The push and pulltheme on the facade activates a frame whichsimultaneously ties into the existing facades of the

14b

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13a Campo Marzo. Imperial Romeub Campo Marzo. Baroque Rome: the orthogonal

Roman condition is still organizing through thereuse of its foundations.

Uc Lateral striations connect the Piazza "Iavona.center of the medieval Campo Marzo. to the Corsoas edge of Baroque Rome,

Ud The churches as interior public space obev theancient orthogonal system.

14a "Baltimore" painting, bv Laurana or Piero deliaFrancesco. illustrating the Renaissance ideal citywith the ideal distilled in the central object"temple"

14b S. Agnesi in Piazza Navona of Borromini illustratesthe "ideal' pushed into the "real" context; theideal piazza becomes a reuse of an existing circus.Borromini illustrates the dvnamic-pulsating, vetneutral-stretching result of this condition,

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41

I 15a Borrornini's S. Carlino plan "parti" seems to be aresult of a reaction to the corner. with D. Fontana'sQuattro Fontane impacting one corner causing thedeformation of an ideal. centralized church intothe oval. expanding and contracting versions. Inthe facade. t~e impact of the corner appears tohave caused 'the front plane to "wrinkle" aroundthe columns - a reaction similar to that of the plan.

15b The more pure Quattro fontane space looks as if itdeformed the church plan. squashing and pushingthe cortile back to a more diagonal location.

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15b

16a Palazzo Borghese in context where the externalpiazzi are more positive as figures than thesurrounding masses. The internal staticorganization and figure of the cortile allows thesolid of the plan freedom to go its own way as aninternal organization as well as to define theexternal spaces.

16b One side of the cortile is fragmented visuallv into ascreen to offer the garden as antithesis of the u-rbanspace and to create a linear sequence.

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lia Sacred wav, procession to the Acropolis .. Athenslib Palazzo Barberini appearing like the Parthenon

from the Piazza Barberini,17c The procession up through urban space Ill. the

fragment of a Palazzo cortile 121. and through thebuilding and garden to the piano nubile l:lJ. is alateral lavered movement up a hill.

lid Diagonal and orthogonal components of bllildini!and context.

piazza in terms vf scale and rhythm. This seems tobe arguing that the ideal- pure object (15al - hasbeen pushed into a wall- the context (15bl. The axisof S. Agnese and the axis of the Palazzo Madarna (inthe Piazza Madarna paralleling the Piazza Navonawith an important entry into the piazzas shear pastthe center of the piazza marked by Bernini's Fontanadi Quattri Fiumi. Building and space outside thepiazza and building inside the piazza are related byand to the piazza itself (l5c,dl.

Quattro Fontane-S. CarlinoBorromini's S. Carlino is another provocativeideal! real solution. It is attached to the side of animportant city intersection and space. the QuattroFontane. which marks the top of a hill between thehills of S. Trinita and S. Maria :l-Iaggiore. and isbisected bv a major connection of VlichelangelosPorta Pia with the obelisk in the Piazza Quirinaleoverlooking central Rome. It seems that Borrominisearliest experiment with the expanding andcontracting wall membrane comes from the majordiagonal implosion of the external fountain ( lea.b}.A dialogue is established between the external andinternal space. The internal space. deformed bv theexternal force, reasserts itself as a pure form ofgeometric perfection which then allows a monasteryto be organized by it (like the chapels at S. :VlariaMaggiore and S. Giovanni in Laterano).

Piazza Borghese-Palazzo BorgheseThe Palazzo Borghese, like S. :Vlaria Maggiore andS. Giovanni in Laterano, uses the idealized form ofthe court or nave as an ordering device to provideconceptual structure for the surrounding fabric of

lic lid

the building itself as well as external spaces andbuildings. Bv providing order in the center theperiphery is freed to respond to both programmaticneeds as well as site pressures. The PalazzoBorghese is stretched to make a facade and visualconnection with the river, the rooms strung out inenfilade. each getting light and air. The formalcortile, because of its strong visual and conceptualidentity. allows the building to take its ownpragmatic or programmatic course without creatingchaos. A garden on the inside and a sequence ofpiazzi on the outside are formed on the Cartesiancoordinates of this cortile. On the outside thebuilding functions as surface, forming urban space.Even at a large scale the spaces and the buildingform a web between the Via Condotti. the connectorof the Piazza di Ponte to the Spanish Steps. .md theVia Tomacelli. which connects the Spanish ::'tepsand Corso to the open-stepped. and forrnallv similarPorta di Ripetta in an angle equal to the Condotti-Corso relationship.

Piazza Barberini-Palazzo Barberini

The Palazzo Barberini is another important Baroquepalazzo manifestation related to a civic space. thePiazza Barberini. The Il-shape plan can be read asa fragment of a courtyard which has been eroded bythe site. or as an expanding building with wingsstretching out and engaging the landscape. Thisvirtual court exists onlv midway in a sequence ofspaces and movement which begins in the piazza(l7b-d) and winds its way up to the obliquelypresented palazzo (TernpleP) like the Athenianor Delphic sacred wav, It passes an implied frontfacade. which fronts the piazza, into the cortile

\.

18

through the building, up a ramp to the garden andback to the entry, at the piano nobile. The twogeometries which make up the piazza infuse thewhole site plan and building to reinforce the ideathat it is a palazzohnlla intimately wedded to itscontext. It derives its richness as well as its partifrom the relation to urban texture and topography.The site destroys the palazzo; the cortile is onlypartially intact, the piano rustica is eroded. with itscenter on "piloti:" and the section is sheared.Although the building appears at first free like atemple facing St. Peter's, it is in fact, like alltemples, rooted in the structure of its landscapewhich it accentuates and from which it derivessupport.

The Renaissance and Baroque architect in Romewas a product of a particular humanist culture. Onthe one hand he was involved in the intellectualsearch for order, the attempt to bring conceptualunderstanding of the citv to evervone who used it.However, the problem was not posed so simply. Thecity existed; there was no desire to destroy it butrather a desire to transform it into an orderlysystem. These architects did not simply impose anideal form on a situation; they also perceived andresponded to a structure in the existing context. Theformalization which they developed was adequateand appropriate to both the problem of large-scaleorganization and to small-scale connection. Thelesson of Rome opposes the imposition of irrelevantideas, and thus forms, upon a given situation.Rather it involves the discovery of forms whichcontain notions of order through idealization,transformed in relation to notions of contexturalism,

44

18 Ville Radieuse. Le Corbusier, objects inundifferentiated space

19 Mies van der Rohes presentation of I. I. T. shows arejection of the context as usable spatial andultimatelv social structure.

20 New York in 19:~Osand New York in 19.')05. Thepolemics of revolutionarv change of the cities wereignored in America but the spatial imagery ofdislocation was accepted.

so that a certain perfection of appropriateness andconsequence to existing formal and social realitv isachieved.

In relation to the notion of ideal and realpostulates, a significant number of today's planningproposals can be seen as misinterpretations ormisappropriations of early twentieth-centurvplanning schemes. The proposals formulated bySoria y Mata, Ebenezer Howard, Sant'Elia, TonvGarnier, Le Corbusier. and others were presented interms of new cities and were not involved with thecontext of the existing city. Most of these utopianplans solved urban problems by abandoning theexisting city for new counterproposals, althoughothers, such as those suggested by Le Corbusier.proposed the replacement of the city by planneddisplacement or phase-out. Ideas about therelationship of old and n~w were discarded for thenotion of a departure and separation from the fabricof the decaying citv inherited from the tenth throughn'ineteenth centuries. The new was to be a completeand self-sufficient organism replacing the old which.it was said, could no longer function. "

Since their inception. Le Corbusier's Radiant Cityand other utopian or ideal schemes have beendistorted. Even when it was recognized that existingcities could not be completely replaced, the utopianschemes have been literally interpreted as solutionsto present problems. The need for analysis ofexisting conditions. of both physical and socialstructure', has not been sufficiently recognized. andthus planning has not responded to the existingfabric where the problems occur. Plans divorcedfrom their utopian or ideal intent and simplyimposed on the urban fabric have created even more

tl)

deleterious effects on the existing city structure,without effectively creating a new structure,Presented as a progressive or revolutionary polemic,by the end of World War II, modern architecture wasaccepted, and what was originally proposed asutopian in both formal and social terms wasultimately appropriated for the display of capitalisticsymbols of progress. Both the forms and the contentlost their original meaning .. Although the industrialrevolution had made the argument for starting overplausible, what was not understood in the fight forthe Modern polemic was that the desire to renewthe existing city was not merelv a conservativeargument. It might also have had something to dowith fundamental social, cultural. and psychologicalcontinuity, equilibrium, or even regeneration. Thatchange can perhaps only come about throughtransformation was never considered. The traditionalcity is now being reevaluated in these terms. evenby those interested in socio-political change. We canno longer be insensitive to the complex problem ofcultural and physical continuity, and its relation tothe creation of the new. Theory is needed in whichthe existing fabric is no longer rejected but is toshare in the process of renovation. The new and theold must relate to the reorganized physical andoperational systems upon which both depend. Thenew must transform the old into a new functioningsystem. In these terms, it seems relevant to involvetheory which discusses the interplay of concept andcontext.

If, as Arnheim says, "Art has always been used, andthought of, as a means of interpreting the nature ofthe world and life to human eyes and ears.":" thenart does not always have to state or describe what is,but can also be involved with what could be. Custom

21 For a discussion of these ideas in relation to housing. see "TheForm of Housing." Neave Brown. Architectural Designs(September 19671.pp. 432-~33

22 Arnheim. Toward. a Psychology of Art

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and habit. wants and needs no doubt provideplanning criteria. If the city which is made up of oldand new components is conceived as transcendingas well as accommodating the customs and habitspresentlv established. schemata involving ideal andreal consciousness are essential.

The image of the city thus seeks the universalansu'ers to temporal problems, and by sodoing reflects as icell as challenges its socialbackground. At any rate, the consistent strivingfor perfection is a clear indication of recurrenthuman desire to attain a state in whichconditioned necessity is replaced by liberty andh.armonv."

A plan. an image of the political society in which itexists, can propose as well as represent: and it is notinherentlv authoritarian in 50 doing.

Like most historical development. the proposalsof Renaissance and Baroque Rome were amanifestation of the acquisi tion and representationof power- the power of the church to acquire a citvto represent its might to the world. Thev alsorepresent the power of individual families whocontrolled or were related to the church. whosebuildings and spaces were part of the systemorganized by the church. Because thev weredirected to the attainment and displav of power, thevalue of these proposals as analogies is oftenquestioned. It might be argued that Julius II. inrelating his name and ambitions to Julius Caesar.and Mussolini. having not too dissimilar thoughts.made the development of Rome a lesson of warning.

church and seventeenth- and eighteenth-centurvmonarchies found thev could not afford for theirsurvival. This system of power in the hands ofprivate interest prevents any public resolution ofproblems for fear it will unbalance or ruin theestablished svstem.

The alternative to private power-a public controlof power and thus of the planning of cities-isobviously a socio-political problem. For architectureand urban design it has two significant implications.One is the conversion of a stock of qualitv privatebuildings into public (as has occurred in the Louvre.Palazzo Pitti. Leningrad. etc. I. The other. implicit inCorbusier's statement. OOunemaison, un palais," isthat public planning cannot mean just something foreveryone. but must aim at providing the highestachievements of the arts. What was oncecommissioned to ag"randize private power. toeducate. comfort. and edify the elite few. must havea~ its goal the aggrandizement of public power andthe provision of commensurate amenities foreveryone.

The 1748 map of Rome bv Giambattista Nelli allowsa double reading which makes an interestingcommentary on the relationship of public andprivate conditions. This map of black and white caneasilv be read as a code for private and publicdomain. All of the anonymous buildings of the cityare rendered black. while streets. piazzi: a-id otheropen spaces are white. However. churches and othersignificant buildings are drawn with their groundfloor plan rather than as black "poche." Thev read aswhite. and spatially participate with the streets andpiazzi, and other open spaces. Are these meant to bepublic? The churches are public institutions of asort but why are the ground floor plans revealed ofimportant familv palasze? At the time it no doubthonored the owners to be speciallv depicted. but thealternative meaning, revealed bv a more literalreading, is undeniablv present. In fact. as thechurch and major families have lost their power andwith the growing strength of socialism in Italv. thissecond interpretation of the Noll i map is indeedoccurring. Vlanv once private buildings are beingconverted into public institutions.

But power has many possible manifestations."Power to the people" and "the dictatorship for theproletariat" are also statements of this issue. It isnot a question of power or no power, but rather howit is used. bv whom, whv, and for what. The strugglefor power continues today between private andpublic forces. In this centurv we find a svstern basedon philanthropv that has become too self-centeredand confident to provide substantial public amenitybeyond self-advertisement and maintenanceithrough displavi of power. Private enterprise isperhaps too much removed from public problems. asituation that the fifteenth- and sixteenth-century

.!J Helen Rosenau. The Ideal City t l.ondon: Routledge and Ke-gunPaul. 19591. p, s

:.! I \lannheim. p. 200

cJ.6

23 Le Ccrbusicr. Towards a Sell: Architecture, "The Lesson ofRome:' r'The Architectural Pree». 1')591. p. 161

:21a.b Le Corbusier's 19:33 scheme for Stockholm withproposed planning extending beyond the city

limits22a.b Gunnar Asplund's 19:2:2scheme for the Hoval

Chancellery proposes non-revolutionarv change.attempting to revise ur transform the existi nzcontext to accept new development.

Rome provides a valuable lesson which criticallvaddresses a concern for making economic. social,and political reality consonant with the planningprocess. As specific precedent. the set-piece orideal fragment as a point along a line, terminating orconnecting operational systems. has a continuingrelevance todav. Politicallv, economicallv. andsociallv the Roman development of the pointprovided the impetus for. rather than requiring, thedevelopment of the line. In economic as well associal terms. the partial development implicit in theset-piece. as opposed to planning schemes requiringtotal development. would alleviate the problems ofdemolition. conservation. disruption. relocation,etc .. that we face todav,

A lesson derived from Renaissance and BaroqueRome is certain to be complex. The lessonsadvanced here are verv general as they pertain to abelief in a primary archetype; man's elemental andpersistent aspiration toward order. If social changeis important then the history of utopian social andformal proposals f.>royide precedent. The lesson isalso specific in terms of the way the actual plans forRome can be analyzed as representing particularrelationships of idealistic and realistic thoughtprocess which attempted to organize and structurethe city to satisfy philosophical and psychological.as well as practical and political. criteria. If acontextural approach to planning is relevant. then astudy of Roman planning and similar involvementsin history is valuable in terms of developing a theorybased on the synthesis of real conditions andproblems with ideal formulation. "The mostimmediate problem of [architectural] research is tobring the conceptual system and the empiricalreality into closer contact with one another.":" Thelesson thus implicitly offers suggestions about theuse of architectural precedent. The particularhistorical solutions to particular problems becomeavailable for abstraction through analogy. metaphor.etc., into ideas which exist as catalvsts for. orsuggestions to. the discovery and invention of newsolutions for new problems. "The lesson of Romeis for wise men. for those who know and canappreciate, who can resist and can verifv":"

:22 a

.~..

22 b