Description
Given the sensitive context, the design choice was not to overpower the architectural elements already in place by imposing new self-referential out-of-scale additions, but, rather, to recover the original dimension of the Roman monument—marked by the only standing fragment called “Ala” and by the mapping, on the pavement around the amphitheater, of the original position of the destroyed walls.
The requirement for the potential future removal of the new covering structures motivated the search for historically relevant forms of temporary and movable architecture. Among these, the circus is undoubtedly the most evocative, with its tent indisputably linked to a perception of impermanence. Accordingly, the large mobile veil, itself a deliberate reference to Roman amphitheaters’ elaborate covering technology, with the wooden structure of the struts supporting it and the complex intertwining web of steel tie rods conjure up the image of the circus, a temporary structure by definition, yet a space capable of suspending the audience into a magical and surreal atmosphere. The lightness of the structure stands in total contrast with the material consistency of Roman ruins and for this very reason it can successfully integrate with them without establishing jarring hierarchies.
The coverage has an area of approximately 15,500 square meters that can entirely cover the amphitheater. It consists of an outer elliptical steel ring, which, in addition to being the rigid structure to which all the tie rods of the mobile cover are connected, also contains the handling systems and the extendable PVC membrane when wrapped. The design calls for all the segments of the roofing membrane to move simultaneously inwards from the outer ring until the area between the outer ring and the inner ring is completely covered. The three-dimensional shape of the PVC membrane that constitutes the outer crown of the roof is intended to ensure water runoff and to increase the stiffness of the membrane, but also to compensate for the inevitable variation in width between the external and internal sides of each segment.
The design allows for the installation of roll-up screens that can independently activated by the event organizers, including through programmed scenarios, and used as screening surfaces onto which, a set of projectors installed on the same roof structure, can back-project dynamic or static images linked to the event in progress. In practice, the structure works as a support for the illuminated (or unlit) panels to promote the events held in the Arena and to establish a more direct connection between the activities of the Arena and the entire city,
Finally, considering that the screens practically coincide with the original perimeter of the amphitheater, it may be possible to reconstruct in a virtual way, again through the rear projection system set up, the entire structure of the Arena, thus allowing the perception of the monument in its original dimension.
Thechnical Data
- Type: Competitions and contests
- Location: Verona (VR), Italy
- Project: 2017
- Built: –
- Area: 14.700,00 sqm
- Client: Verona City
- Manufacturers: –
- Production cost: 1.250.040,00 euro
- Status: Competition boards