Raumgestaltung RWTH - B4, Vuoti di Roma

Along the nineteenth-century axis of Corso Vittorio Emanuele II, which cuts through the Renaissance and Baroque urban fabric and extends from the blocks around Piazza Venezia to the banks of the Tiber, the regularity of the street boundaries is interrupted by numerous hollow spaces. In their current configuration, these spatial situations, with their irregular boundaries, seem to have little meaning beyond that of mere infrastructure and traffic. They are still tangible witnesses of the targeted demolition and redevelopment interventions of the late 19th century.

The task of the Bachelor thesis is to develop designs capable of restoring meaning and spatial identity to these 'voids' by making them an integral part of the space of the street. Through the students´ projects, these currently undervalued, almost neglected, voids will be transformed into places for the city that are distinct from, but connected to, the space of the street: Places for public encounters, such as exhibition spaces, small theaters, markets or terraces.

The dedication and the vocabulary of the place will be developed from the analysis of the place and of the given task. Throughout the design process, the students will work with references, analogies and quotations. Careful consideration of topos and typus – thus, respectively, of the exogenous and endogenous influences on design – will be an important aspect both in the preliminary analysis and in the development of the design during the semester.

On Friday, October 18, 2024, the general presentation of the Bachelorthesis offered at the faculty will place digitally via Zoom at 9 a.m.:

https://rwth.zoom-x.de/j/68976757014?pwd=wiKE8j3D0aeaqIH6zgnTU7qVOGzJpN.1

Meeting-ID: 689 7675 7014
Kenncode: 330251

The presentation of the design course B4 (Raumgestaltung) will then take place on Friday, October 25, 2024, at 10 a.m. in the seminar room R209 of the Department of Spatial Design. During this appointment, we will explain the task and you will have the opportunity to ask questions.

Please note that a site visit to Rome is foreseen among the teaching activities of the course. Travel and accommodation for this trip are to be organised by the students themselves. The on-site events are expected to take place from Friday 1 November 2024 at noon until Sunday 3 November 2024 in the evening. Please organise your travel so that you can attend the sessions. We strongly recommend that you attend the teaching activities in Rome, as an analysis of the place can only meaningfully be done on site. Further information will follow with the presentation of the courses on September 25th, 2024.

If you are interested in attending the course but did not get a place through the selection process, please come to the "kick off" meeting on October 25, 2024, where any places left by students who have cancelled will be allocated.