Old Versus New

I can't believe I've been in Rome for three weeks already! Time is really flying here.

For history class on Monday, we visited the Roman Fora. On my first trip to Rome, we didn't have enough time to see the main Roman Forum, so I was especially excited to walk through it this week. I haven't yet felt the presence of history in Rome as intensely as when I was standing there in the midst of the ruins, gazing towards the rostra, or speaking platform. All of the myths, stories, and speeches I had learned about in Latin class were coming back to me as I realized how many things had happened in that one spot. I started thinking about what the National Mall in DC might look like in a couple thousand years, when students hear stories so old that they may as well be legends about a man who had a dream (and countless others) and realize they're standing on a sacred piece of land rooted deep in history.

The Roman Forum, Looking towards the Rostra

Can you even picture the Lincoln Memorial in ruins? It's hard to imagine the U.S. as old as Rome. It's amazing how much my perception of "old" has changed since living here for just a few weeks. Even the oldest buildings in America seem brand-new compared to most of Europe.

However, as we saw yesterday, Rome does have a few contemporary architectural treasures. For our field sketching class, we visited Richard Meier's Ara Pacis Augustae Museum, which opened in 2006 to house Augustus's Ara Pacis (Altar of Peace). Although I was never particularly impressed by the pictures of Meier's work that we saw in history class (granted, we only saw a very small sample of his buildings) I thought the Ara Pacis Museum was really beautiful and very well designed for the functions it needed to serve. The space was entirely and gorgeously daylit (no electric lighting was on), and Meier's use of different textures and materials (depending on whether a wall was bearing, freestanding, etc.) was exquisite.



Richard Meier's Ara Pacis Augustae Museum Exterior



The Ara Pacis Augustae (Augustus's Altar of Peace)

 

Richard Meier's Ara Pacis Augustae Museum Interior Detail

 
I also thought the museum tied quite well into its historic surroundings, though, as we learned, quite a few Romans (and others) would disagree. In fact, as I was sketching, an English-speaking couple walked by, and all the woman kept repeating was, "This is gas station architecture," and then, somewhat more angrily, "Who is the architect?" She was so caught up in criticism that she just couldn't see the beauty I saw. What a shame.

My Sketch - Ara Pacis Museum Structure Diagram and Perspective