Why Rome is an enduring model of Urbanism

Why Rome is an enduring model of urbanism

Wednesday, November 8, 2006

This photograph underlines some of the many reasons why Rome is Rome. Rome is more its classical architecture. It is its great diversity of its architecture. It is the many colors and the different building materials. But what really makes Rome's urbanism universal is the rhythm of projecting windows, arches, doorways, columns, and cornices that direct the eye along a building wall from one piazza to the next.

This is the fifth time that I have been in Rome. Like most photographers/city planners I was overwhelmed by the beauty, its historic sites of many millinea, the faultless food, the traffic, the dust and dirt, and the incessant noise of Vespas on every street and pedestrian way. My wife and I are wanderers with cameras walking endlessly and without a plan; and, of course, we missed some of the important things that not only make Rome unique but a universal model of urbanism applicable in any time and place. On our previous trip 4 years ago, on the last day of our time in Rome, we stumbled into the Piazza Colonna and followed the pedestrian paths from one piazza to another stopping to have lunch with a wedding party, ending up at the Tiber River. I wanted to see more of the parts of Rome hidden behind its major streets.

The following is a list of characteristics that I think summarizes Rome's urbanism. All of them, I strongly believe, are transferrable to cities in the United States.

Paving Stones: Most of the paving stones are approximately 4 inches square. They connect all buildings and "pull" Rome together. But is more than their connection. It is also the eye making the connection, because it follows not only the pattern and direction of the stones, but also the lines of mortar between them.

Parking on Paving Stones: So strong is the pattern of paving stones that even when a car is parked on them the eye does not perceive it as a parking lot.

 

 

 
When parking spaces are striped in a piazza, it becomes a parking lot.

 

 

 

As a comparison, though there are many cars parked in this piazza, it seems less of a parking lot than was the case in the previous photograph. Because there is still so much paved space without cars, the feeling of a piazza is maintained.

Piazzas: Lead to

shopping streets that both pedestrians and the occasional small, and sometimes large, cars share. These lead to:   

 

         .

other piazzas that have restaurants and shops in them.

Churches in street wall: They give a relief to the continuous shops. And they mark a special place just by the church architecture itself: the columns, color, and flat steps leading up to the entrance. More prevalent is a church with a piazza of some size in front of it.

St. Peter's Church is the most important church in Rome, the seat of the Vatacin and where the Pope, world leader of the Catholic Church, resides. To mark its importance is St. Peter's Square.The space, though very wide is within the peripheral vision of the observer and is contained by:

 

the Bernini Columns. If you stand on the outside of the columns you will see the same column on the other side of the square. This is the brilliance of the columns' symetrical siting.

Terminus of a street: At the end of most narrow, pedestrian streets is a terminus building. In this case it is a church. This terminus aids the observer in determining not only the length of the street, but also its end. In most cases, the terminus is a very interesting, different color, heavily articulated building.

Great and perfect squares: The Captoline Hill, designed by Michelangelo, is considered one of the most perfect squares in the world. It is the model for public squares, university quadrangles, and campus medical facilities.

Here is another view of the square. Note how the pattern in the paving stones directs the eye from one building to the other.

There many other examples of the urbanism of Rome. From my observations of the city over a period of 5 visits, I believe the urban design principles of Rome are one of the most important models of true urbansim. I disagree strongly with critics and design professionals that these are not transferrable to the United States and contemporary times. I have driven around Washington, DC since I returned and to the rural areas on the outskirts of Syracuse, NY; and I see all of the missed opportunities to arrange buildings and spaces that follow the urban design model and principles found in Rome. I do not subsribe that we can't do this. I do believe that reference to the principles of the urban design of Rome can provide inspiration to change the current model US cities and suburbs have persistently, and with great failure, followed over the last 50 years. However, it is not merely enough of following or being inspired by these principles. It is a case of truly understanding them and appreciating the result on the ground at the level of the observer and pedestrian.

Comments

[contemporary rugs]

Rome is the eternal city. I wonder if some of our modern cities will endure as well, even with earthquake proof engineering. Rome is on my list of 5 places I would like to see before I die.

[Al Sanders]

My wife and I have just returned from Italy and our first trip to Roma. We were, of course, greatly impressed by this indescribably splendid city, which, in my mind at least, is one of the most interesting places on the face of this earth. As we strolled through the narrow streets I noticed the interesting pattern in which the paving stones are laid. As you noted in your article, they are about 4" square and remarkably uniform in both size and shape. Each time that I walked over them I wondered when they had been laid down. Do you have any information about that? As you may know, the streets of Napoli are paved with the same types of stones and in the same pattern as well. Strange. I wonder if the streets of these two cities were paved with those types of stones at or about the same time.
Al Sanders
Charleston, S.C.