Intimate Immensity

Description

The Greek and Roman Library at Hadrian Villa is a site of mixed compositional arrangements that are characteristic of the layered mysteries created by the emperor. In accommodating “The House for Piranesi”, the project takes into account the elusive nature of history and program by accommodating a program of ‘Otium’ and ‘Negotium’. This is explored by developing an architectural language using a variety of impulses and devices. It begins by proposing an inversion and multiplication of the found condition of coved poche contrasted with the more honed edges, characterizing the external faces and building tectonics. Having in mind that both the internal and external qualities are slaves to the passage of time. The result is the decentralization of the constituent elements of the libraries into formal miniatures that can be seen at various stages; giving evidence of their place in time only to have them regather as an oscillating aggregation of individual forms.