Fall 2010 Studio - A Museum for the Tiber River in Rome

Below is part of my first exercise for this term's studio (click here for PDF description):

Rome is a place of visitors, thriving on her recaptured, relived glory. The time has passed but superficially remains through the preservation of relics, monuments, lifestyles and traditions. What once defined the relationship of Rome to her Tiber - interaction, awareness, integration - was altered by popular aesthetics in the 19th century. We have witnessed a similar alteration in the growth of modern cities, a separation and harnessing to adapt our waters to our needs and aspirations only to see these interventions fuel our diverging relationship. Today water is feared. It is held over us as a threat, a reminder of our dependence on its figurative stagnation. A museum on the Tiber is an opportunity to embrace the ever changing relationships we have with our surroundings, to be aware of ourselves in a given moment, to realize the river, just as our relationship to it, is never the same. To experience the river for certain is to touch, smell, hear, see and taste our own impermanence in its presence. It is our current ability to interpret and perceive our relationship to water that we can honor the history of The Tiber River in Rome.