Offener Wettbewerb | 02/2017
International contest of ideas for roofing the Roman Amphitheater "Verona Arena"
3. Preis
Preisgeld: 10.000 EUR
Architektur
Erläuterungstext
The Arena de Verona is an ancient amphitheatre built by Romans around the 30 aC. Nowadays it has an international architectural value and it's the most important icon of the city. Moreover the Summer festival prompts the Arena one the most renowned theatre in the operatic and contemporary music circuit.
Due to the climate factors, the arena is deteriorating, mainly by rain effect, and needs a new roof to protect it and to achieve a good preservation.
Our proposal pretends to reduce the intervention over the Arena to the tiniest architectural expression. The boundary of the design must be well defined and relationship between ancient and new architecture should be clear and easy to understand.
Historically Amphitheatre used to have a "Velarium". A structure made of wooden beams placed on the top of Cavea which provided sun protection to the spectators. Fabrics were extended or removed by rotes and had drawings decoration.
The project is based on the idea of recovering the Velarium to the Arena but with contemporary materials. The proposal replaces the wooden structure for precast steel columns and beams, uses stainless steel wires instead of ropes and achieves waterproofing covering with membranes instead of fabrics. All the elements are composed according the roman rules and proportions of the monument .
The new structures is lightly separated of the monument, avoiding any contact. The order and precision makes a harmonious relationship between two architecture which are separate by time.
We had the inspiration from the structures of Buckminster Fuller and Frei Otto. We conceived the structure as Tensigrity systems, composed by bars in compression which are suspended by wires in traction.
The concept of structure is the same as a bike wheel, where inner rings are in traction and exterior ring is in compression . The final shape is a dome which protect the arena against climate and let light pass through.
The roof is convertible. All the membrane is folded in the inner ring leaving the arena in the original condition, and fabric is extended by wires from the centre to the outside covering all the monument.
In conclusion the project is A step back to the beginning of the Arena with the current building technologies
Due to the climate factors, the arena is deteriorating, mainly by rain effect, and needs a new roof to protect it and to achieve a good preservation.
Our proposal pretends to reduce the intervention over the Arena to the tiniest architectural expression. The boundary of the design must be well defined and relationship between ancient and new architecture should be clear and easy to understand.
Historically Amphitheatre used to have a "Velarium". A structure made of wooden beams placed on the top of Cavea which provided sun protection to the spectators. Fabrics were extended or removed by rotes and had drawings decoration.
The project is based on the idea of recovering the Velarium to the Arena but with contemporary materials. The proposal replaces the wooden structure for precast steel columns and beams, uses stainless steel wires instead of ropes and achieves waterproofing covering with membranes instead of fabrics. All the elements are composed according the roman rules and proportions of the monument .
The new structures is lightly separated of the monument, avoiding any contact. The order and precision makes a harmonious relationship between two architecture which are separate by time.
We had the inspiration from the structures of Buckminster Fuller and Frei Otto. We conceived the structure as Tensigrity systems, composed by bars in compression which are suspended by wires in traction.
The concept of structure is the same as a bike wheel, where inner rings are in traction and exterior ring is in compression . The final shape is a dome which protect the arena against climate and let light pass through.
The roof is convertible. All the membrane is folded in the inner ring leaving the arena in the original condition, and fabric is extended by wires from the centre to the outside covering all the monument.
In conclusion the project is A step back to the beginning of the Arena with the current building technologies