DRAWING A SYNTAX OF SPACES
Rome’s transchronological urban implications
Polly Smith | M.Arch Candidate 2014
Proposal for Carlo Pelliccia Fellowship 2013
ITALIAN
PAPAL
ANCIENT
Abstract
Preconditions: Theoretical & Historical
Semiotics
Italian Rome
Papal Rome
Ancient Rome
Methodology
Selected Work
Itinerary and Budget
Bibliogrpahy
ABSTRACT
“The street is a room by agreement. A community room the walls of which belong to the donors. Its ceiling is
the sky.”
– Louis Kahn, visiting Chartres Cathedral, 1971
Semiotics, the study of relationships between signs, provides a way of reading architecture.
In three distinct eras, Italian Rome, Papal Rome, and Ancient Rome, leaders explicity projected
meaning onto the city through architecture as signs and symbols. I will continue my study of a
dialogue between semiotics, the lawn, and architecture history by drawing and analyzing transchronological civic spaces of Rome. Political patrons of architecture translated and shaped earlier civic
spaces in Rome to make streets, piazze, and nonacademical villages that influence its citizens by
way of spatial experience. Streets were built to provide connective tissues between places of significance for the citizens of Rome as well as visiting strangers; their planning was a conscious construction of how one viewed the city and its monuments.
I intend to use Rome as a laboratory to develop a drawing methodology that uncovers and
demonstrates meaning. This could be the basis of a new design process for me, working towards a
design thesis. Rome provides recurrent roots and a visible palimpsest of comparative case studies
in one city. My drawings will render visible the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in this
connective field of knowledge and experience. Through drawing, I will relate the evolution and
transformation of path and place to structuring ideas of syntax and signifying ideas of meaning.
Two analytical methods, syntactic as self-referential and semantic as contextual, will be
emphasized as a way of reading the city through dialogue between the two. Subsequent research in
this field will be included in my work for Peter Waldman as part of the Spring 2014 Lessons of the
Lawn curriculum, and published in a forthcoming book of the same title. I have chosen civic theaters
which formally link near and far, the Lawn and Rome, as laboratories for learning— longitudinal
spaces with secondary cross-axes are framed at one end by a central-plan element. I first explored visual signs and symbols in two undergraduate theses, an art historical
structuralist analysis of Richard Diebenkorn’s paintings, and in my own paintings, the Lake Martin
Series (bottom right). The simultaneous confrontation revealed meanings, both in the case of Diebenkorn, breaking down layers of abstracted representations, and in my own compositions, building
up views and scales into one composition. Meanings conveyed include sense of place as well as
geometric relationships.
As a junior at Washington and Lee University I spent a semester abroad in Rome, living in
Trastevere and attending John Cabot University for on-site art history courses on Ancient Roman
Portraiture, the Early Italian Renaissance, and Baroque Rome. These daily jaunts across the city
fostered an interest in links between architecture and urban planning for the first time. I also took
an Italian language course and landscape painting while in Rome. Relevant to this proposal, I am in
the midst of writing a twenty page research paper for Sheila Crane’s seminar Transnational Modernisms on urban planning in early 20th century Italian Rome, as it relates and responds to previous
interventions on the city fabric by Papal authority and antiquity.
In these paintings, part of the Lake Martin Series, 2008, I explored place-making by layering images at different scales: landscape views,
shoreline maps, and hammock knots. Meaning
is manipulated and specified by breaking apart
and recombining aspects of spatial experience.
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PRECONDITIONS: theory
“…the system of architechture as a system of cultural meaning; it attempts to explain the nature of form itself,
through viewing the generation of form as a specific manipulation of meaning within a culture.”
- Mario Gandelsonas, “On Reading Architecture,”1972
“[Architecture] could be read again and again, not only alone but in combination, in the endlessly shifting combinations of a nature that tells its own stories and colors ours.”
- Rebecca Solnit, A Field Guide to Getting Lost, 2005
Architecture is a form of communication; it is a form of language, framed by gravity and
orientation. So, how do we begin to understand architecture and apply the rules of language to help
us see architecture as a communicative vehicle? One way we can begin to read architecture is through
signs, which in this context are units within a larger system; for example, words are signs in the
system of grammar. Semiotics is the study of dialogues between signs, those individual units in a
system, and what these signs stand for. This revealing process is pedagogical- the consciousness of
exposing signs and their relationships gives the system new meaning. When studied through the lens
of semantics, architecture begins to frame the world around us.
Using the metaphor of language, we may think of beams and columns as alphabetical characters because they are a unit that transmits meaning. An assemblage of column and beam can be
read as load and support, weight being distributed, and structural implications. The elements must
be assembled in a prescribed order, just grammar defines how letters and words may be put together
to form meaning through sentences. Classical architects developed a system of rules, first in Greece
and then expanded in Rome, and architecture became a specific way of organizing concepts by manipulating significant forms in the design and construction of buildings and cities. The system interrelates the units of a message and makes possible its understanding, as geometry is an abstraction to
measure the world.
For architects, painters, theorists, and many others, the linguistic methodology becomes a
teaching tool, with its main objective being to expose a system, a relationship, interrelationship, or
dialectic. We can relate this to both Jefferson’s Academical Village and urban spaces and their monuments in Rome, where multiple readings change over time as synthetic ideas are broken down and
reassembled with added meaning. The recurrent dialectic, conversation, debate, discourse, discussion, study is our lesson of the eternal city.
The paintings of Richard Diebenkorn, Interior
with View of the Ocean, 1957, and Ocean Park
No. 67, 1973, demonstrate how meaning may
be manipulated to generate form. By separating
formal elements and adding associations, notions from an outside system are referenced and
interrelationships are revealed.
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PRECONDITIONS: history
Rome was founded with certainty on specific topography, and over the subsequent nearly 3,000 years the city’s leaders
have shaped the territory to further their own agendas.
I propose to study the civic theater over three Roman time periods: the late 19th century- early 20th century Italian regime,
the Renaissance and Baroque Papal reign, and the Ancient era, to understand how political patrons of architecture intentionally
shaped public space, drawing on the past to further their goals. Viewing these urban planning and architecural moves through the
lens of semiotics will allow one to understand the meanings these works intend to evoke.
Streets, in Rome and elsewhere, were constructed as links between existing places, to draw attention to the accumulation
of important monuments. They subsequently serve as a place of desire for future building, thus reinforcing the importance of the
Ara Pacis, Richard Meier
street as both organizing infrastructure and destination.
ITALIAN ROME
context:
Rome became Italian on September 20, 1870 under King Vittorio Emanuele
II, uniting the peninsula into a new nation. The new government drew highly on imperial traditions from Ancient Rome and universal spirituality from Papal Rome. Urban
and architectural transformations were both fuelled and challenged by what came
before: the nation defaced symbols of papal power and elevated historical monuments
of ancient Rome to show the shift of power from papal to national control. National
leaders also thought it their duty to leave an imprint on the city for future generations.
St. Ivo alla Sapienza
St. Andrea della Valle
urban planning:
King Emanuele’s sudden death on January 9, 1879, provided a catalyst for Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, Via dei Fori
urban planning and nationalist architectural symbolism. His funeral was held at the Imperiali, Via della Conciliazione, 1940
Pantheon, and the massive Vittoriano monument was built in the Piazza Venezia, taking cues from the positioning of Michelangelo’s Campidoglio, facing away from the
former Rome and over the expanding city. Urban planner Alessandro Vivani designed
a new street, the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, which carved out a connecting passage
through the historic center. Its curving path creates view and access to important historic and artistic sites along the route, culminating at the Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II
which unites the two sides of the river and brings the Vatican into the reconfigured
Italian Rome. The street traces over part of the Via Papale, the traditional route of the
Pope from St. Peter’s to St. John Lateran, Rome’s cathedral.
In the 1920’s and ‘30’s, Mussolini’s fascist rule drew upon these efforts of
separation from the church and elevation of antiquity, but also included ideas of grandeur and accentuating Rome as an image of centralized control and renewed imperialist aspiration. Two major roads within the historical centre were built, both as wide,
straight visual connections to monuments of the past. The Via dell’Impero, today called
Via dei Fori Imperiali, connected the Piazza Venezia to the Colosseum; the Via della Conciliazione bulldozed through the Borga neighborhood from the Ponte Vittorio
Emanuele II to Bernini’s St. Peter’s piazza. Both projects necessitated large-scale
demolition and displaced thousands of families. These efforts to supposedly reunite
the eras of Rome topographically were, in reality, framing the city’s most significant
monuments in Fascist visual and political ideals. Architecturally and politically rooted
in antiquity, the EUR was constructed outside of Rome as a forum of the future.
The creation of these streets relative to earlier monuments demonstrates the
political intentions guiding the transformation, which clearly shifts authority from ecSt. Peter’s
Ponte Vittorio Emanuele II
clesiastical to secular rule by establishing an urban relationship with the church.
Victor Emanuel II Monument
Il Gesu
EUR
Colosseum
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PRECONDITIONS: history
PAPAL ROME
context:
Under control of the Catholic church, much building and city planning
took place, most notably in the Renaissance under Popes Sixtus V, Alexander
VII and Clement IX, and then in an explosion of papal authority during the
Baroque era beginning in the late 16th century. New visual rhetorics of communicating church beliefs to the faithful were part of the Counter-Reformation after
the Protestant Reformation, the 1519 northern European breakaway from the
Holy Catholic church. Architects such as Pietro da Cortona and Francesco Borromini enhanced the vocabulary of Renaissance architecture, adding grandeur
and emotion without forgetting ancient Roman and early Christian predecessors.
urban planning:
New pilgrimage routes through Rome were lined with dramatic Baroque facades, characterized by light, shadow, and curvature of form- as expressions of the triumph of the Catholic Church. These pieces represent Rome as
the city reborn and rebaptised as Christian, while demonstrating Papal grandeur,
beauty, luxury, and spiritual significance.
The Via del Corso runs in a straight trajectory from the Piazza Venezia
at the base of the Capitoline Hill, just behind the ancient Forum, north to the
Porta del Popolo and its piazza.The Corso was an ancient Roman road, a zone
that was commandeered as papal territory with Sixtus V’s 16th century placement of vertical monuments at its north and south end. A bronze statue of Peter
was mounted atop the Column of Trajan in the Roman Forum at the south end of
the Via del Corso, and an Egyptian obeslisk at the North end, in the Piazza del
Popolo (moved from Circus Maximus where the emperor Augustus displayed
it).
Piazza del Popolo reflects the period of Catholic restoration, characterized by late Baroque/ Rococo planning, and demonstrates financial, military,
and spiritual success of the church in its Counter-Reformation efforts. The piazza presents Rome as the world capital, with the Pope as emperor of religion.
Catholic pilgrims enter Rome through the adjacent ancient Roman triumphal
arch. Pope Alexander VII (1655-1667) commissioned two churches by Bernini
to mark the entry to the city and frame grand views down the three main roads
extending from the open space. The piazza took on the idea of a stage set to draw
in visitors, tie together the ancient and early Christian signs, and emphasize the
renewal of the city of Rome.
Porta del Popolo
Santa Maria del Popolo
Santa Maria di Montesanto
& dei Miracoli
San Marcello
Via del Corso 1668
Mausoleum of Augustus
Palazzo Chigi
Santa Maria in
Via Lata
Santi Apostoli
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PRECONDITIONS: history
ANCIENT ROME
context:
The Roman Forum was the center of public life during the Roman
Republic (5th century BC- 1st century BC) and Empire (1st century BC- 6th
century AD). Rome’s senators and emperors erected buildings for public services and amenities, as well as monuments commemorating conquests.
urban planning:
The Forum’s judicial, political, religious, and social spaces were arranged axially from the modern day Piazza del Campidoglio to the Colosseum as a collection of repeated, recurrent elements. The Forum reflects ancient
Rome’s advanced technologies, rationality, republican values, and subsequent
far-reaching power of the emperors. It also provided a venue for military processions and other displays of authority which attracted celebrating citizens.
Recurrent elements brought the emphasis of political conquest over 1,000 years
into the daily life of citizens. Buildings along this ancient road form a linear
open space for gathering, conversing, and governing within the framework of
monuments to the state and its leaders.
Arch of Septimius Severus
Santi Luca e Martina
Basilica of Constantine
Roman Forum c. 500 AD
Campidoglio as Gate
Temple of Castor
Colosseum
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METHODOLOGY: SEEING, READING, AND REPRESENTING CIVIC SPACE
Reading connective spaces through the lens of semiotics will allow me to analyze and understand how specific architectural and planning projects and their associated signs and meanings influence citizens through spatial experience. Both line drawings
and composite paintings will demonstrate a dialogue between the syntactic and semantic dimensions of as a way to see and understand architecture in my own graphical
language. I will expand on a language of drawing practiced in previous research in the
Veneto.
Analytical drawings such as plans, sections, and sectional axons will comprise
the syntactic branch, demonstrating interrelationships between the street and the monuments it connects. This includes positioning of each monument in relation to the street,
pedestrian access, and structural comparisons. Experiential drawings, specifically a
series of perspectives along the street, will illustrate the semantic, that is the context
and larger repository of ideas that adds meaning. These drawings will show the relative
orientation of the streets, visual links along the open space, and convey emotions enhanced by the street’s position and spatial qualities (such as Baroque facades intended
to delight and involve pilgrims).
These drawings will form the basis for further studies of the composite
condition. A hybrid plan/ elevation drawing of the street will include notes, dates, and
historical information to show evolution over time and the street as an accumulation of
pre-existing monuments and subsequent building. Finally, I plan to execute paintings,
perhaps after the field research, combining specific perspective views with analytical
fragments to emphasize how the structure of the street and its built sides creates a spatial experience of specific meaning.
My goal is to utilize the Roman street as a prototype for formulating a drawing
method to uncover signs and meanings. The method could then be applied to infinite
other spaces in Rome and elsewhere as a design tool. This project is large in its scope,
so I intend to begin with the Italian era (the Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, Via dei Fori
Imperiali, and Via della Conciliazione) and move on to the Papal and Ancient streets
previously outlined when there is time, perhaps this summer or at a later date. Beginning with the immediate present provides a ground full of multiple histories.
San Giorgio Maggiore
Florence
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SELECTED WORK
civic space: vicenza’s piazza
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SELECTED WORK
civic space: multiple views
Schonbrunn Palace: Vienna
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SELECTED WORK
villa capra: multiple views
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SELECTED WORK
comparison study
Renaissance Type|San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice
Medieval Type | San Lorenzo, Vicenza
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SELECTED WORK
Querini Stampalia Entrance
Bassano del Grappa
Querini Stampalia Bridge
Castelvecchio
Ford Studio Cape Cod National Seashore Pavillion
Sant’ Antonio: Padova
Medieval Tower: Vicenza
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SELECTED WORK
cucina romana: waldman studio
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SELECTED WORK
philadelphia arts space: clark studio (in progress)
The idea of exploring a linear civic space is manifest in my current design.
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ITINERARY and BUDGET
Itinerary
For four weeks, May 20 to June 16, I will draw in and around the streets outlined previously:
Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, Via dei Fori Imperiali, Via della Conciliazione; Via del Corso; Via
Sacra. I will devote the first two weeks to the Italian era streets, the third week to Via del Corso
and Via Sacra, and the last week on comparative and layered drawings and paintings. I will
produce additional paintings upon my return from travel.
Budget
1 USD = 0.7773 Euros
Plane Ticket:
Housing:
City Transit:
Entry Fees:
Food+ Misc:
Supplies:
Communication:
$1500
$1800
$100
$200
$1500
$300 $80
Total:
$5480
Apartment Rental 1400 Euro/month
2 Euro/day + misc
Roma Pass + misc
drawing, painting, external hard drive
Italian SIM card, internet access
Note: Exchange rates are currently low. If this remains
the case I could stay an additional week and complete
more of my drawing goals.
Please see letter of recommendation from Peter Waldman.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Berger, John. The Shape of a Pocket. New York: Pantheon Books, 2001.
Ciucci, Giorgio. Gli Architetti e il Fascismo: Architettura e Città 1922-1944. Torino: Giulio Einaudi Editore, 1989.
Ciucci, Giorgio. La Piazza del Popolo: Storia Architettura Urbanistica. Rome: Officina Edizioni, 1974.
de Saussure, Ferdinand. Course in General Linguistics. Edited by C. Bally and A. Sechehaye. London: Duckworth, 1983.
Gandelsonas, Mario. “On Reading Architecture,” in Signs, Symbols, and Architecture, edited by G. Broadbent, R. Bunt, C. Jencks,
124-142. New York: Wiley, 1980.
Habel, Dorothy Metzger. The Urban Development of Rome in the Age of Alexander VII. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
2002.
Hildner, Jef7rey. “Remembering the Mathematics of the Ideal Villa,” “Drawing as Contemplation,” www.thepainterarchitect.com.
Kallis, Aristotle. “ ‘Reconciliation’ or ‘Conquest’? The Opening of the Via della Conciliazione and the Fascist Vision for the ‘Third
Rome,’ ” in Rome : Continuing Encounters between Past and Present, edited by D. Sophie Caldwell and L. Caldwell, 129151. Farnham, Surrey, England: Ashgate, 2011.
Kirk, Terry. “The Political Topography of Modern Rome, 1870-1936: Via XX Settembre to Via dell’Impero,” in Rome: Continuing
Encounters between Past and Present, edited by D. Sophie Caldwell and L. Caldwell, 101-128. Farnham, Surrey, England:
Ashgate, 2011.
Peirce, Charles Sanders. “Icon, Index, Symbol,” in The Essential Peirce, edited by N. Hauser and C. Kloesel. Indianapolis: Indiana
University Press, 1992.
Solnit, Rebecca. A Field Guide to Getting Lost. New York: Viking, 2005.
Waldman, Peter. “A Primer of Easy Pieces: Teaching Through Typological Narrative,” Journal of Architectural Education 35 (1982):
10-13.
Westfall, Carroll William. In This Most Perfect Paradise: Alberti, Nicholas V, and the Invention of Conscious Urban Planning in
Rome, 1447-55. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press, 1974.
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