Continuing Rome

Abstract

Rome is a city that has always been described as an eternal city. This eternal character can be found through the many traces that Rome contains of former states within its physical environment. When researching these traces, an interesting conclusion can be drawn; almost all physical elements have either fallen into decay or have continuously moved with the city to meet the needs of new social structures. But nowadays with the declaration of the city centre of Rome as one large monument, this is no longer possible. While at the same time the current social structure is crumbling. This is particularly visible with all of the Roman churches. Christianity is losing relevance fast and these church become nothing but museumpieces in the city that are no longer contributing to the current social structure of Rome. That is why this thesis proposes a radical move; to provide space in the city center for new architectural experiments by moving 10 of the 400 churches to a new location outside the city center. With the collection of 10 churches also a grand experiment will be conducted, creating a gigantic second hand religious market, using the historical logistical character of the new location. Continuing Rome is about giving the city the impulse to restart the layering that makes Rome great and to give Rome back to its own citizens for a new eternity.