MUSEUM OF THE ARA PACIS

The new Museum of the Ara Pacis of Richard Meier implies a net distinction between the museum as container and supplier of services, and the external or, better to say , urban image, of the building in which these two factors are in conflict. Without doubt the interior has an avant guard museum structure, as far as the illumination of the works is concerned, the technology used,and the contiguous spaces which offer various services to visitors. But an interior imposes, obviously, less limits than its relationship with its context which represents the real nub of controversy arising from this enterprise. Meyer can boast of great experience in the building of museums all over the world. This has made it possible for him to erect here a welcoming and well organised building, planimetrical, with three distinct, independent functional blocks. The first block houses the Altar, bathed in both natural and articial light. In this room there are in fact installed 1500 square metres of tempered glass tiles, measuring up to three metres by five. The extensive use of glass surfaces means that walking round the outside we can see everything equally well, with no disorientation, constriction or extraneity because what is seen is familiar and almost assumes the deading role.

The artificial lighting, employs anti-dazzle reflectors, and filters for the rendering of colours and lenses that direct and modulate the luminous beams playing on the actual characteristics of the Altar. So, in the interior mellow forms prevail, made evanescent by the light that enters and defines the spaces. Worthy of far less attention, is the arrangement of works by two Italian architects on behalf of the Sopraintendenza. We see, in the entrance, their copies in plaster of the faces of the Roman emperors! On the slope between Via Ripeta and the Lungotevere, there will be a library, offices for the Direction and two large halls artificially lit. Here it will be possible to see fragments not exhibited on the Altar itself. These spaces, that will be used also for temporary exhibitions, have separate exits and entrances. The third block, finally, hosts an auditorium for conferences and lectures,on two levels. Here we also find a restaurant and a large terrace which faces the Mausaleum of Augustus. On the outside, we see a compact complex, long and narrow, filling the triangular project area; The building, one of five in Piazza Augusto Imperatore on its fourth side, is situated between the lower street level of Via Ripeta, and the Lungotevere higher up, with a flight of steps which leads towards the entrance. This is emphasised by an imposing travertine wall "a spacco" (with vents), which faces the Muro delle Res Gestae, the only surviving element of the old building.

The flight of steps evokes two memories of the past: a fountain recalling the ancient Porto di Ripetta, and a column which is the same distance from the Altar which, in the age of Augustus, stood between it and the obelisk of the great sun dial. But any attempts to link the building to the context or on the other hand to justify project choices by connecting them to the surrounding ambience, are fanciful, if we consider that there are no links at all in this work with the much more complex stratifications in the area. The problem is not one of gathering and re-interpreting the specific characteristics of a place. Given the choice of the project, these may not actually exist the problem is that the architect, rather than change his characteristic style, proposes for the historic centre spotless smooth surfaces completely alien to the logic not only of the surrioundings, but of all Rome. Apart from the white stereometry of the whole, what is displeasing is above all a gaucheness of mere size. The building stands out, on its own, in an authoritarian way in a piazza that, even if rich in stratifications, was till now still quite "temperate". In particular, the raised up piazza and the grand flight of steps partially screen out the base of the Church of St Rocco of Valadier, preventing us from seeing all of it. The city itself, with time and due improvements, will have to accommodate the museum, to absorb it and make it her own, to render visibly acceptable many of the elements which now are dissonant.