Lecture
Location
Cornell in Rome
Palazzo Santacroce
Piazza Benedetto Cairoli 6, 00186 Rome, Italy
Contact
Cornell in Rome
+39 06 689 7070
Abstract
Rome is a city made of the juxtaposition of objects: circuses, theatres, forums, villas, aqueducts, and all sorts of structures placed side by side without a predefined and universal order. Like in still life, forms establish relationships one with the other and with the landscape, exposing a tension between the cosmological and universal dimension of the land and the becoming of human life. At the same time, each element forms a collective ritual, materializing the city’s social, political, and economic structure.
Rome, a city where projects always happened in parts, in fragments, often as the result of failures, is quite well represented by city plans. In their inevitable ambiguity between the parade of documents of historical value and the collection of site-specific design solutions (for the most ambitious eyes), all together, the maps of Rome present the city as a powerful case study for the possibility of a “project of the city” as a whole.
This lecture is part of the Cornell in Rome Spring 2025 Lecture Series.
Biography
Matteo Costanzo is an architect, founding partner of 2A+P/A Associates, and the cocoordinator of the research group Laboratorio Roma050. He has collaborated with the magazine Domus and wrote several texts and essays for international magazines and books. He is a cofounded of the magazine San Rocco and cofounded of the space Campo in Rome. He has exhibited research, works, and installations, including the 1st Orleans Biennial, the 2nd Seoul Biennial, the 5th Lisbon Triennial, the 14th, 12th, and 11th Venice Biennials, the FRAC Center in Orleans, the CIVA foundation in Brussels, the NAI in Rotterdam, the V&A in London, the Architectural Association in London, and the MAXXI in Rome. He has been a visiting critic and runs workshops in many schools in Europe, including IED, Rome; Naba, Milan; Domus Academy, Milan; Syracuse University, London; Cornell University, Rome; University of Miami, Rome; TU Munich; Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam; Academy of Architecture, Mendrisio; TU Wien. Since 2017, he has taught in the studio ADS10 at the Royal College of Art in London and, from 2022, in the unit Diploma 20 at the Architectural Association in London.
