The urban context in which the complex is located features a concentration of historical and stratified presences — Ospedale San Giovanni, Pontifical University, Basilica di San Giovanni in Laterano, as well as the archaeological remains and Hadrian’s walls, and the open spaces of Parco del Celio and Villa Celimontana — which led the team to develop a proposal aimed at the reshaping the building in functional, spatial and environmental terms, renewing its architectural configuration and its urban presence in the city.
For the building’s body intended for the main function, the choice was made to enhance the office spaces, improving their flexibility and transformability, and providing for the creation of shared work spaces, producing innovative spatial arrangements. A variation of the entire basement has been imagined, which will be reactivated by a series of functions open to the city that are now absent in the district, through a sequence of double heights — and of the outdoor spaces, where an archaeological garden is planned in direct connection with the Roman ruins of the Domus Fauste that is currently still hidden underground.
The project also affects the outdoor spaces: an excavation of Roman remains makes it possible to envisage an archaeological garden, in direct contact with the ruins; a series of terraces make the remaining part habitable.
The large parking area becomes a potential parking/park with a view to increasing sustainable forms of mobility and reducing the need for parking spaces.
The project envisages extensive reuse of existing materials to be employed in a contemporary way in both interior and exterior spaces, introducing a circular vision into the building’s life cycle.