La nuova piazza del Colosseo

“Piazza del Colosseo” is a toponym to which does not correspond a clear and immediately recognizable area. The Valley that historically represented a distinct spot against the Fora, presently appears undetectable as such, mainly due to the strong urban transformations that occurred over the last century of the city history, and that produced considerable staving and tear, besides activating a heavy city traffic around the Amphitheater. This takes away from the monument and its context the possibility to be fully understood in the system of complex relations that over the time have characterized the entire area. The monument, therefore, clearly overwhelms the surrounding areas that represent nowadays the product of occasional and uncoordinated actions dooming the entire area to negligence not to say decay. The project of the Piazza means therefore rethinking the relations between not only the monument and its surroundings, but also between the valley and the city around it, retrieving – rather than the forms – its general meaning and essence allowing to relaunch and entire system from both the cultural and functional point of view. The project involves two main actions, each one serving the other: the former, of a morphological nature, aims to the clear identification of the space and the role of the Colosseum; the latter, of a functional nature, lays the infrastructural conditions for the full tourist enjoyment of the area and its re-inclusion in the urban framework with a more sustainable approach. Far from representing reconstructive actions, morphological interventions aim to unveil the several episodes that became stratified, without imposing a unitary formal design. It is however necessary to introduce essential criteria entailing choices, without however selecting one single presumably consistent approach. The clear identification of the square as a single urban area entails the removal of sidewalks, roadsides, lanes and flowerbeds, which are replaced by an even, neutral and seamless paving, from which significant elements emerge such as the metae and the ring of large travertines. This will leave the possibility, over the time, to include further layers suggested by the progress of researches and tudies. The edges of the area are arranged according to some specific characteristics. In the northern side, a light framework evokes arcades and terraces whose present remains are illegible witnesses, whereas the subway station is redesigned to favor the relationship between the different urban levels, therefore including in a more complex volumetric structure the background of Via dei Fori Imperiali and the flat peremptoriness of Muñoz. In the south-eastern side, by means of an open inclined plane, a direct relationship is retrieved between the Flavian and the urban levels towards San Giovanni, and the naturalistic level towards the Celio and its sides, by eliminating the present tank-like effect. The plane heads to the Arch of Constantine, in order to allow a sharp distinction between the spatial framework and the valley of St. regorio. In the north-west side, the interventions only include the evocation of the volume of the base of the Colosseum, to narrow the perspective from the Imperial Fora and clearly express their spatial role in the square. The infrastructural interventions involve the urban framework, by taking the vehicle traffic away especially in the southern side, through the elimination of Via Celio Vibenna and the pedestrianization of via di S. Gregorio, in whose outer end the parking of tourist buses is reintroduced. Interventions also involve the local framework by identifying the network of services that are necessary to tourist flows by integrating them within the system of the widespread museum around the square, thus eliminating the possibility of superfetation and occasional services centers.