The paper aims to illustrate a project, developed by a group of professors and doctoral students of the Department of Architecture and Design of the La Sapienza University of Rome, located in the archaeological area of Rome, precisely at the entrance to the Roman-Palatine forum, near the temple of Antoninus and Faustina (today the church of San Lorenzo in Miranda), a place called Largo della Salara Vecchia, currently defined by an irregular plan and by the presence of some small service volumes. Given the peculiarities of
the context, which induce interesting reflections on the theme of the coexistence of different historical eras in the city, in April 2019 the “Colosseum Archaeological Park Authority” entrusted Sapienza with a study for the reorganization of the entrance to the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill, from Largo della Salara Vecchia. The request was to redevelop this important access point, providing a new polarity equipped with facilities for visitors: a real gateway to the Archaeological Park system, with the aim of overcoming the
current condition, characterized by scattered volumes that do not interact with each other. It was immediately clear that a new intervention had to be designed with a unitary architectural feature, capable of bringing together the various traces and morphologies accumulated over the centuries in this very peculiar place.
The work is a spin-off of a broader university research on the forum area, coordinated by Orazio Carpenzano, in which the idea of restablishing an overall unity in the forum prevails, while today is very difficult to recognize. The new visitor center is part of the programmatic framework of this research.
Keywords: Roman forum, visitor center, historical heritage, archeology, contemporary project.
