5+1AA / Rome, Italy

Alfonso Femia, Gianluca Peluffo, Simonetta Cenci

An outskirt that somebody calls Centrality. No urbanity. Huge prefab objects.

A project composed of simple, black volumes with different brightness, opacity, put one next to the other in an apparent balance. The moment before setting in motion. Or the exact suspension and pause moment during their movement. The theme of the project is the search for equilibrium.

A formal equilibrium based on dissociation.

A building formed by different functions, a series of different bodies, needs to be built through a composing process involving the bodies themselves and the interstitial spaces, shaping the circulation system and the connections. The search for Synthesis, proper to the creative-projecting process, has to face this dilemma and solve it. Maybe thanks to a metaphor. The absence of gravity is the metaphor of this project: a joyful floating which suddenly founds a momentary balance. It is a dissociated balance, not based on symmetry, nor on weight balancing. It is based on masses suspension, representing a perceiving system of movement and connection. The black of the buildings, of different materials, but uniform, increases the feeling of not-belonging and the perception of a mysterious balance. A few unexpected, almost magic elements - such as a series of conic skylights, a path ending in the water, a forest of coloured pillars, inspired by Daniel Buren, the reflecting effect of geometrically perfect but interrupted bodies… - generate a sense of disorientation, increasing the effect of surprise of this complex and paradoxical balance. A building that catalyzes the centripetal power of self-revelation of the landscape through its fragments blacks, existing.

A suburban area that some call central. No urban landscape. Giant prefabricated objects. A project composed of simple black structures of varying degrees of shininess and opacity, set alongside each other in an apparent state of balance. That moment before setting into motion. Or that exact moment of suspension and rest during their motion. The project theme is the search for balance. Formal balance based on dissociation. A building composed of different functions, of a set of separate factory buildings, must be constructed around a compositional process involving the constructions themselves and the interstitial spaces, working along the lines of a system of circulation and links. The search for Synthesis associated with the creative-design process must tackle this dilemma and solve it. Possibly in the casual manner of a Metaphor. In this case the Metaphor is the absence of gravity, joyful floating, which suddenly finds a moment's balance. Dissociated balance, because it is not based on symmetry, on the balancing of weights along one or more axes, but on a suspension of masses corresponding to a perceptual system of motion and connection. The all-black colour of the buildings and different materials is uniform, enhancing this feeling of unfamiliarity and mysterious balance . The A.S.I. is a public research body coming under the direct jurisdiction of the Ministry of University Education and Research (M.I.U.R.) and hence is related to the world of universities and scientific research. In January 2004, the ASI came to an arrangement with the University of Tor Vergata allowing them to use an area falling within the university campus for constructing its new headquarters. At the same time it entrusted the Local Council for Public Works to organise the tender - for the final project – assign the works and actually construct the headquarters themselves. The Tor Vergata university campus is located on an approximately 600 hectare plot of land to the east of the main ring road, between Prenestina and Tuscolana, within the borders of the Borough of Rome. It is at the centre of a settlement of approximately 123,000 inhabitants incorporating some important public services (CNR, INFN National Nuclear Physics Institute, ESA, ESRIN, and other research facilities). The area is involved in developing programs, which will result in a further rise in population and furbishing of new services. Within this basic framework, the university campus is expected to carry out a strategic service role that ought to provide the system with high-level functions (managerial, cultural, recreational) that will enhance it and integrate it into the overall urban structure. This role is confirmed by the PRG (General Planning Scheme) in force, which describes the Tor Vergata university area as a central metropolitan location. The area around the new headquarters of the A.S.I. still includes a number of buildings of quite different, self-referential quality and design style. There is no concept of public space and public place, and the only means of perception - other than a bird's eye view - are moving cars, speed and distraction. The project's first practical sentimental re-action derives from this peripheral territorial state of suburban chaos and lack of urban form: creating the possible accumulation of all this chaotic energy into a mysterious but catalysing form.

First action: creating a Critical Mass

On the outside, the building of the new headquarters of the Italian space agency is composed - in geometric and architectural terms - like a tightly-knit unit in a state of what might be described as unstable balance, allowing the surrounding land to be perceived at a threshold such as to bring about a positive change in perception itself, a critical mass: the composition has a main axis formed by the buildings belonging to the Faculty of Engineering accommodating the Monumental Lobby system (also designed to be a display facility for Italian space agency operations and as a Conference Centre), set asymmetrically in relation to the weight of the other structures forming the complex; the main structure of this complex is the Crescent, a semicircular figure taking up most of the offices; its radius of curvature and position in relation to the Lobby-Auditorium structure running through it assert, even more powerfully, a state of interrupted disequilibrium; the other structures, mainly serving service purposes, are located to the east in relation to the rear of the Crescent: the Canteen-Bar System, the Sickbay/Fitness Room, Kindergarten, Library, Laboratory (which will be converted into an office building during the works) and rest of the offices. All these buildings feature simple geometric forms (parallelepipeds, annulus, semi-annulus) with points of contact between them corresponding to the pathway systems, both inside and outside the structures, and they all have an absolutely all-black colour scheme. The structures, which look as if they have been soaked in black paint and are alternately opaque or shiny (plaster, metal and glass), are constructed in a state of asymmetric geometric balance, creating a perceptual state of disorientation and energy, until ultimately generating an idea of mysterious territorial order.

Second action: creating Connection Spaces

These elementary structures, alternately opaque and shiny black in colour and set alongside each other, incorporate a system of pathways connecting all the workspaces, at different heights, to the service spaces, canteen, bar, fitness room, kindergarten and conference centre, taking the lobby as the linchpin for all these different pathways. This results in a semi-continuous set of ramps and stairways connecting all the different structures belonging to the A.S.I. complex at constantly different heights; this semi-interrupted sequence of pathways features different stylistic choices in terms of the use of materials and interaction with the exterior (exposed concrete and zenith light, glass and transparency towards the outside, darkness and pathways through the water). Contacts between the structures form a network of perceptual pathways and a sequence of architectural experiences, an authentic intricate architectural promenade.

Third action: characterising the internal organs of a building-body

The incorporating of the promenade embodies the idea that the building is composed of a sequence of internal organs-spaces, different in terms of form and function, which are included in this elaborate building-body. Due to its purpose of opening up towards the outside, the Monumental Lobby is the only space-organ which is the same black colour as the outside; this is, after all, an authentic urban space featuring long stairways and ramps indicating the different heights of the building and resting/adapting to the natural contours of the land through its different levels. The Canteen is a double-height hypostyle space featuring direct interaction between the numerous structural columns and system of natural zenith light: the cones on the roof have different colour schemes on the inside, contrasting with the black of the double-ceiling. Colour is the distinctive and most pleasurable feature of this space, combating the inevitable monotony and predictability of spaces like this. The Canteen faces onto a pool of water, which, like an internal island, encompasses the ring-shaped circular space of the bar that is set at a lower level than the surface of the water.  All the office buildings have individual spaces or double-stations in the west section, while there are open spaces and service zones in the east wall of the Crescent. The interiors of the offices feature different colours on the walls, ceiling and floors, drawing on four different shades of grey and orange. The Library is an all-white double-height space connected to the smaller office block along a pink-violet coloured ramp.

The Fitness Room has a yellow coloured connection ramp and is paved with industrial wood.

The Conference Centre, which has a large 400-seat hall, medium-sized hall with seating for 99, and three small 30-seat rooms, is incorporated in the rectangular lobby structure and rests across the sloping land through its own internal angle of inclination; its interiors are the same black colour as the main structure, drawing on sound-absorbing wooden panels(topacustick). All the communal circulation spaces are paved in slate, while the workspaces are covered with rubber and linoleum. The black and mysterious building structure, composed of elaborate internal organs distinct in terms of their quality of space, materials and colour, offers itself and is viewed across a dispersed and almost desperate plot of land, changing how it is perceived and attempting to make its non rule-governed development as acceptable as possible, both by incorporating research facilities and activities and through the idea of quality architecture as an act of generosity and redemption.