Week 3: Rain...but then, it's Rome!

Monday, we had a wonderful visit to Trastevere and the Jewish Ghetto for our Neighborhoods class. I love our walks because I learn so much on them! By the end, I literally feel like my brain has a 'pump' and I need a rest day to recover. I hardly even noticed how cold I was because I was so interested in what Antonella was saying. This week we focused on vernacular architecture. I am now an expert (well, almost) at identifying vernacular buildings. Here are some of there characteristics, in case you were dying to know: they are additive, they usually have uneven roof lines, irregularly shaped and sized windows, they often have exposed wooden rafter tails and terra cotta roof tiles, and they are typically made from brick, tufa (anial and pepperino), travertine, and sometimes marble. They are based in local traditions, built with local materials, and designed to suit local needs. These buildings were everywhere in Trastevere, and to think I've been walking by them everyday without a clue!

Tuesday we had Communications with Sean, and he took us to the Church of San Clemente. What a trip! These walking tours never cease to amaze. We couldn't take pictures inside, but I'll say a little about what I learned. I ramble a bit, so feel free to skip this part!

The Church of San Clemente was full of surprises and intriguing history. The church, originally from the 12^th century, was reconstructed in the 1600s by Irish who, after coming over from Ireland to restore the structure, were given sanctuary there. They were called the Dominican priests, and they have continued to live there to this very day! I find it spectacular that generation after generation of these monks continue to live and find solace in this place that has been standing for almost a thousand years. It exemplifies the power of history, belief and architecture to form deep-rooted ties that stem across geographical and temporal dimensions.
In the 12^th century, when the church was built, people were being lynched and burned alive for heresy, the greatest crime. Inside, however, was a sanctuary. Anyone fleeing abusive husbands, war or violence, etc. could find protection in this church. Death and safety: two opposite sides of the spectrum, yet only a few short paces apart, and both stemming from the power of belief.
Pope Clemente had an interesting history. He was basically taken far out to sea, tied to an anchor and drowned, which reminds me a lot of pirates. His death wasn’t the most brutal, though. St. (John?) was grilled alive. In any case, the death of Pope Clemente prompted many stories, one of which was about a boy who drowned. The distressed mother went down to the beach in her sorrow, and the ocean opened for her. Within, she found herself in the underwater realm of Clemente who was caring for her little boy. I find it interesting how these disciples and popes and other religious figures all die brutal deaths, and that in their deaths they bring about life to others (or at least are thought to do so). Religion, for me, is a marriage of opposites. Death and life, old and young, violence and peace. I only wish that there wasn’t so much clashing among the similar. For example, people who follow very similar religions who are willing to kill one another over the miniscule discrepancies.
In the 1900s a Dominican priest was hoeing his potato garden in the church courtyard when the earth gave way and he found himself in the halls of another church dating back to 4^th century. Remnants of relics found in those halls were embedded in the walls—a tactile museum; a way of displaying memories from the past and interacting with them.
Two coffins were embedded in these walls. They must have been very expensive because they were made out of marble, and they had portraits carved into their sides depicting the deceased. The faces were rubbed away, suggesting that the coffins were reused many times to depict different people. Although this may seem somewhat repulsive, I honestly think it was clever. Bodies disintegrate; coffins don’t. Some people were buried together. Lovers were depicted together, one with an arm over the other, hands clasped together. Love and affection are unchanging. They are part of what make us human, and the fact that we can still recognize those emotions from a coffin thousands of years old is like a portal into the past. It unites us as human beings, and it exemplifies the importance of architecture, that it has the ability to preserve those connections and to allow us to communicate with the past.
The Mithras secret order was an order comprised of men who rivaled Christianity, but lost. Memories of this order lead down into the 1^st century church even further below ground, which dates back to ancient Rome and the time of Emperor Hadrian. There’s a room shaped like a cave or a womb, where elites from the Mithras order would gather, eat, and talk. Right across the road was the room where the boys used to go to school.
My favorite room was the bathroom. It was huge. Going to the bathroom used to be a social act, not private. There was food, wine and conversation in the same room where people would take care of their business. I’ve always wondered how much time, on average, humans spend going to the bathroom. Well, it must have been a lot more back then!
The walls and the floors are still original, and the water flowing just beneath has been flowing for thousands and thousands of years. On one hand, drinking the water was sensational because I couldn’t help thinking that I was drinking the very same water than Ancient Romans might have drunk. On the other, it reminded me that if we lose our appreciation for fresh water sources like this one, as we have been over the last hundred years, there may come a time when fresh water is hard to come by. It’s not only frightening, but it makes me feel guilty that as human beings we are forgetting about our history and failing to preserve it for the future.
The walls are arranged so that a diamond-shaped brick pattern is sandwiched by regular brick patterns to accommodate for seismic action. Isn’t it crazy that even in the modern era with all our technology and scientific advances, we still look to the ancient Roman Empire for ideas on how to build in areas with earthquakes? We truly have so much to learn from the past.

Internship class on Wednesday was interesting. We are learning about the Italian job market, and it is a lot more dismal than I had thought. Unemployment rates in Italy are among the highest in the world, and they are especially high for young people: 41.2 %! That's almost half of the population from 18-25 years old. On top of that, the average salary for those who do work is only 1240 Euros and the starting salary is as low as 800 Euros per month. With the cost of rent as high as 800-1000 (not including utilities), that makes it very hard for people to remain in Rome. More and more people resort to squatting in unused buildings or moving away to places with better opportunities. 75% of young people plan to go abroad for work. It's sad to hear this because I feel like Italy has so much potential, but the skills of the Italian people aren't being appreciated or used to their full potential.

We're diving head-first into our architecture competition for redesigning the Porta Portese neighborhood, and I'm getting excited. I have so many visions for this area; I just wish winning proposals would actually be implemented. It could really use a change. Now that I work in this area, I get to experience the issues first-hand: no cross-walks, large open spaces just for cars, parking on the sidewalks, not much green space, a wall separating the neighborhood from the river, bad traffic circulation, dead-ends, and more. Even the way it is, it's a nice area, but with a few changes, it could be so much more. I'd really love to win this competition, but I'm mostly just enjoying the experience.

I decided I am joining a gym! One of the women who works for ACCENT goes there, and she introduced Dan and I to it. It's really small, but it's fantastic. Not many speak English, but that's good because it will force me to learn Italian faster. They are only open Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, but I think it will be worth it for 40 Euros a month. I got a trial run on Wednesday night, and I had a blast! The "Maestro" watched my form intently on everything, mostly to make sure I don't injure myself, but also to give me good tips. Already, he fixed up my squat and row positions so that I will target more muscle groups. On Friday, a few of the other guys at the gym gave my dead-lift a hard-core make-over. I love that the gym is small because everyone knows one another, it is a very safe and comfortable environment, and it's fun!

I got a lot of work done on Friday at my Internship. I finished modeling the Flaminio neighborhood in Rhino. Next week, we get to start re-designing it! They've already had a lot of meetings addressing the design, but I think they do want my input as well. I visited the site on Saturday and took some pictures. It's an interesting area, very housing-dense, but then it also has the Maxxi Museum, a church, and the old Olympic stadium buildings. As always, there are too many cars. I'm really excited for this project because it will open up the space for pedestrians, push parking underground, add green space, and reconnect the two sides of the street. The idea for the new Museum of Science Complex, which is going in across from the Maxxi Museum, is to make it a green hill made up of multiple layers supported by trees and other foliage. It would be a completely natural building structure and help transition from public green space to the semi-private green space of new inner courtyards. Here are some pictures of the site: