Rome Concrete Poetry Hall

The second place entry for the Rome Concrete Poetry Hall stood apart in the competition for its interrogation of concrete beyond material and mass. The project exploits the monolithicity of concrete to reexamine the archetypical forms of the sphere and the spiral. Through a subversive topology, the project proposes an architecture that is radically interior.

In the isotropic vaulting of the underground sphere, a double-sided spiral twists continuously through the space, serving as both processional ramp and as a spatial structuring system. The labyrinthine path allows the users to fully occupy the volume of the sphere. The spiral striates the sphere into interlocking coils of space. There is a constant presence of each adjacent coil; its surface hangs heavily to form the vaults of each subsequent spiral, suggesting a continuous unfolding of hidden worlds as the user descends. Referencing the underworld of Dante, the project uses the procession of architectural space to evoke the obscured, the secret, and the inward.