The courtyard typology is ubiquitous around Rome. It suits the city – negotiating between the public street edge and the semi-private, enclosed space. Although developed opportunistically, over time, the courtyards, appearing as oculli from above, conform to the city’s two-dimensional grid… 

Whereas an enclosed courtyard situated on the ground floor of Palazzo creates a disconnection between the space and the city, both with its regular rectangular form within the confines of the irregular city block, and it’s screening of the outside city - this proposal celebrates the form of the city block and reveals the city and street below.

The Urban context of the site is renegotiated,­ two sites are made into one, traffic is pushed underground and a street is made exclusive to pedestrians. From the street, the building is an oculus for viewing the sky, but to the visitors above, a frame of the street life happening below...