Dal contesto geomorfologico all’edificio: il caso della Villa dei Centroni

The Villa dei Centroni is a huge ancient building in Rome’s Suburb, realized between the end of the Republican Age and the beginning of the Imperial Age in a very strategic site: it stands on a volcanic plateau (about 132 m a.s.l.) near the via Latina, between the VIII and the IX mile, providing a privileged point of view over the surroundings and a perfect source for building materials. In fact, the Villa was built using volcanic stone caved directly on site, with interesting consequences on the architectural project and the building techniques. The paper outlines the close bonding between the building and its geographical and topographical context starting from the site’s geomorphological elements, which leads to the comprehension of the architectonic features of the Villa and, at last, of the landscape’s evolution over the centuries.