PANTHEON – MICROARCHITECTURES FOR ARCHAEOLOGY

The project by STARTT makes the archaeological spaces behind the Rotunda of the Pantheon accessible through a new entrance to the monument, enhancing their relationship with the forma Urbis of Rome.

Pantheon – Micro-Architectures for Archaeology is the project designed by STARTT for the recovery and the opening to the public of the spaces located behind the Rotunda of the Pantheon in Rome.

These rooms, distributed over two floors, testify to how the monument was the head of a longitudinal urban system extending across the city block up to what is now Largo Argentina, prior to the demolitions undertaken during the Kingdom of Italy, which removed part of the Basilica of Neptune and made the monument autonomous, with the specific purpose of transforming it into the mausoleum of King Vittorio Emanuele II. The archaeological spaces host the Chapel of Santa Maria ad Martyres, which preserves Rome’s earliest Byzantine icon, alongside the architectural fragments representing the various historical phases of the Pantheon and the Basilica of Neptune.

The project enables the opening of these spaces to the public under the principles of social inclusion and universal accessibility. The project operates through subtraction, seeking to emphasize the Roman spatiality compressed between the perimeter cylinder of the Rotunda and that of the apse of the Basilica of Neptune, that is still perceivable as a ruin from Via della Palombella. In the new layout, everything becomes exhibition-focused; circulation spaces and ancillary rooms become the locus for exploring the relationship between the historical spaces and the visitor’s body. Every room is bounded and reorganized as a visitable space through site-specific architectural elements. These devices respond to technical requirements and simultaneously act as standalone installation-machines within the route – they are micro-architectures that engage with the archaeological space while emphasizing its historical traces through the finishing of materials.

The intervention makes the ancient space legible to the visitor through material contrast (ancient-brickwork versus contemporary-metal). Where the historical space tightens or expands along the brick curves of the Pantheon and the apse of the Basilica of Neptune, the path unfolds horizontally and vertically along, above, and within the metal panels used for its finishing. Through an intentionally non-uniform surface treatment, these panels engage with the patina of the time that marks the Monument.