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The Italian culture ministry is offering the €10 million project to the designer who can turn the clock back 2,000 years to when 35,000 Romans bayed for blood in the ancient stadium. — The Times
According to The Times, "Italy is looking for a brilliant engineer to reinstall the Colosseum arena floor, complete with trapdoors and the hidden lifts that allowed wild animals to leap out and menace gladiators." Previously on Archinect: Mayor-less Rome's logistical battle to invest in its... View full entry
The work of architect and designer Aldo Rossi, the first Italian winner of the Pritzker Prize in 1990, will be the star of the new major exhibition Aldo Rossi. The architect and the cities opening on March 10 at MAXXI, the National Museum of 21st Century Arts in Rome. The retrospective features a... View full entry
LEGO® presents the brick reproduction of one of the most fascinating monuments in the world. This is the largest LEGO product ever made, with great attention to detail to make it faithful to the original and to enhance its timeless beauty. — LEGO
According to The Brick Fan, the LEGO Colosseum (10276) would be LEGO's largest set, consisting of 9,035 pieces. LEGO Italy has suggested that the new set could be announced on November 13th. View full entry
Etherea, the installation created by Edoardo Tresoldi for the 2018 Coachella festival, has arrived in Rome for Back to Nature, an exhibition project curated by Constantino d'Orazio. The work is made from three translucent sculptures reminiscent of Neoclassical and Baroque architecture... View full entry
Authorities in the Italian capital have now enforced a slew of rules, updated from legislation drafted in 1946, as they seek to clamp down on uncouth behavior that has long been a source of frustration. — The Guardian
With a slew of visitors and tourists filling the streets of historic cities across the globe, it is no wonder authorities in the Italian capital are enforcing measures to help preserve Rome's cityscape. From "messy eating" and foot bathing near the Trevi Fountain to preserving historic staircases... View full entry
Italy’s cultural heritage ministry announced on Friday (May 31) that it would revoke a lease granted to Bannon after reports of fraud in the competitive tender process. The former Breitbart chief and aide to US president Donald Trump was reportedly paying €100,000 ($110,000) per year to rent the 13th Century Carthusian monastery, but now will have to search for another spot. — QZ
What was once the potential site for a training academy for the far-right, the Italian state evicts the conservative Catholic organization Dignitatis Humanae Institute (DHI) due to reports of fraud. According to a recent report from The Economist, institute director Benjamin Harnwell was shocked... View full entry
"Along with their monumental role in Rome's urban fabric, the architectural status of fountains has long been uncertain. It can be hard to determine when they ceased to be viewed as public water utilities, and came to be regarded as purely artistic objects." — Places Journal
In the same week in 2016, a group of tourists were denounced as trespassers for splashing around in one of Rome's historic fountains, while Fendi was praised for its tribute to Italy's artistic legacy by staging a fashion show across another. Anatole Tchikine is prompted by these contrasting... View full entry
After winning the Municipality of Rome's invite-only competition in 2007, architects Maria Claudia Clemente and Francesco Isidori of Labics revitalized a former bus depot at the edge of town into a mixed-use complex called the Città del Sole, or “City of Sun”. Working with local public... View full entry
A multidisciplinary team of researchers from University of Oregon, Stanford and Dartmouth have co-developed a new digital archive. The collection contains nearly 4,000 drawings, prints, paintings and photographs of historic Rome from the 16th to 20th centuries that are now available online to... View full entry
Modern, steel-embedded concrete seawalls tend to need repair after a few decades of erosion from the endless procession of waves, but the Roman pier at Portus Cosanus in Orbetello, Italy has remained solid for almost two thousand years. Scientists have finally figured out the missing ingredient... View full entry
With layered narration from writers and the input of a climate scientist, the 40-foot long table installation known as "Indoor City" designed by Founder Rome Prize Fellows Phu Hoang and Rachely Rotem (MODU) with Jonathan Berger, Hussein Fancy, Christoph Meinrenken, Jack Livings and Matthew... View full entry
Virginia Raggi, who was elected in June and has faced a tumultuous start to her tenure, said in a highly anticipated press conference that it would be irresponsible to move forward with the bid, given the debts that it would accrue and the burdens it would place on Roman taxpayers. [...]
The 38-year-old lawyer said the city was still paying debts it had accrued for the Games in 1960, and would not stand for more “cathedrals in the desert” – abandoned stadiums – that the city could ill afford.
— theguardian.com
Take the Olympics, please!Wilkinson Eyre, designers of Rio's biggest Olympic stadium, reflect on the Games' architectural legacyHow are London's Olympic grounds being used 4 years later?Boston backs out of 2024 Olympics bidJapanese slam highly unpopular Tokyo Olympic Stadium design with hilarious... View full entry
Most Americans know MoMA’s Young Architect’s Program (YAP) through its annual summer festival in the MoMA PS1 courtyard in Long Island City, but they also have an impressive international program. For the Roman edition of the program, this year’s winner, studio Parasite 2.0, installed a... View full entry
...Mussolini, at least for his first decade in power, wasn’t quite as interested in architecture as his fellow dictators. While enthusiastically censoring film-makers, writers, academics and journalists, he let architects do as they please [...]
The resulting architectural output, between Mussolini’s rise to power in 1922 and the late 1930s, when he began to exert more control, embodies an accidentally healthy pluralism.
— The Guardian
"While Hitler rejoiced in the traditional völkisch kitsch of his imaginary master race, and Stalin revelled in over-iced baroque confections, Mussolini sat back and let historicist revivalism compete with the crisp forms of forward-looking modernism."For more on the architecture of... View full entry
Rome has issued a €500m (£380m) SOS to companies, wealthy philanthropists and its own citizens to help restore many of the Italian capital’s historic sites and prevent others from falling into ruin.
The Roman Forum, the Circus Maximus and the walls, aqueducts and sewerage system of what was once the most powerful city on Earth have all been earmarked as needing help ranging from a relatively minor clean up to full-blown structural works.
— the Guardian
"Saddled with debts of some €12bn, Rome cannot afford to do it on its own."Or: in search of noblesse oblige during the age of austerity politics.Of course, Rome isn't the only European city struggling under the weight of debt. Check out these related articles:Tensions build... View full entry
