A Living Open-Air Laboratory for Culture and Nature
In the center of Rome, suspended between sky and water, hidden within the Tiber’s serpentine meander, a ready-made river arena beckons. It is a contemplative place: the current is an intangible constant, while the serene silence of the water is magnified by the chaotic noise of the city. Between Ponte Sisto and Ponte Mazzini, the dramatic site is the only straight segment of the river, a perfect rectangle remarkably equal in dimension and parallel to the ancient public arena, the Circus Maximus. Immersed in history yet isolated from the city, the site has the potential to become an open-air forum, a creative laboratory beyond the traditional confines of a museum, gallery, or concert hall; a commons – a piazza for the Tiber.
Piazza Tevere is a rectangular stretch of the Tiber River between Ponte Sisto and Ponte Mazzini. Measuring 560m by 100m, it is equal in both size and proportion to the ancient Circus Maximus. The travertine embankment walls that separate the site from the surrounding city are 13m high. Along the river’s edge, on each side, there is a 9m wide walkway slightly higher than the river and subject to seasonal flooding. Steep stone stairs descend from the four corners of the site. The right bank includes a paved bicycle path, while the left bank has a central double staircase.
The embankment walls are the palimpsest for ever-evolving artistic interventions. Piazza Tevere is a powerful place – a site for the potential of the unknown, for collaboration and for the ephemeral present tense in the heart of eternity.
Rome is a city of water, a city of fountains. Water is the dramatic focal element celebrated throughout Rome’s public piazzas. The Tiber is the spine of the city that influenced the location, formation and evolution of Rome, it is the source.
The history of the city is marked again and again by its devastating floods. Prior to the construction of the river’s embankment walls in the late 19th century, the Tiber was the major artery for commerce and transport of Rome. Since the construction of the high embankments at the end of the 1800s, the Tiber now flows isolated and apart from the thriving city. For most Romans today, the Tiber does not exist.
Piazza Tevere – the perfect rectangular section of the Tiber River between Ponte Sisto and Ponte Mazzini, has the potential to become a vital center for public life in the heart of historic Rome.
This proposal is a synthesis of ideas distilled by Kristin Jones from multiple sources, including the current City Plan of Rome that incorporates her vision for Piazza Tevere. Jones has worked across 20 years with dedicated teams of volunteers to lay the grassroots groundwork so as to engage the citizens of Rome and challenge the multiple river authorities to devise a Master Plan for a future Tiber River Park. Drawing from and inspired by the fabric of the city of Rome, architects Ballman and Khapalova build on the vision, bringing their experience of design and construction to improve access, expand the public space and provide opportunities for a wide range of cultural and recreational programming. The phased project shows what is in fact achievable through collective efforts and commitment to the revival of Rome’s river. The Tiber, which currently divides the Eternal City physically and experientially, controlled by multiple bureaucracies, can indeed become a place where management and public come together.
Since 2001, Jones and the Tevereterno team have dedicated their time to working with the Rome City Planning Office towards research and planning of Piazza Tevere.
In 2003, the New City Plan of Rome (PRG) directed by architect Carlo Gasparrini, including Jones’s concept for Piazza Tevere as a cornerstone for the revival of the river, was adopted and then approved in 2008 by Mayor Walter Veltroni.
The proposed plan includes the following elements:
