NOLLI MAP OF ROME

The Nolli map of Rome “The Great Plan of Rome” (1748) is composed of 12 engraved copper plates that combined conformed a unitary image. It represents a breaking point in the cartography representation. Nolli developed an intuitive and extraordinary representation technique based on solids versus voids: solids were rendered as dark gray while voids as white or light shades of gray, they represented the open and public spaces. This effective graphic method gives public and private spaces the same importance. For example, the void of the Piazza Navona, in opposite with the solid of the buildings that surrounds it, pop up as an easily identified element in the city.

Nolli’s plan is also important for being the first accurate map of Rome. Nolli does not use the perspective technique typical during the Renaissance. Although the perspective-elevated viewpoint used at that time in plan representation was successful in generating a sense of infinite space that followed the harmony laws of the universe, it distorted the real image of the city with the diminution of objects of the same size with the aim of creating depth. In contrast, Nolli’s method provided exact and accurate information that allowed comparing size, position and shape of the spaces due to avoiding the perspective distortion of the old method.

The map shows figures, buildings and public spaces each one rendered to be intuitively easy to understand. It lists ancient monuments as well as representative buildings. Ancient monuments are rendered indicating extant ruins and new monuments with their floor plan. Gardens are carefully rendered with the different plants, paving and materials. Nolli also developed a cartographic symbol system used to feature elements like cemeteries or river flows.

The result is a document with precise technical and accurate information that would change cartography representation.

PLUG IN CITY by Archigram

Archigram appeared at the beginning of the 1960s in the UK in a time of great social and cultural change. Their members soon developed an interest in the city of tomorrow and from the 1960s and 70s they realized a series of experimental urban projects based on the city as a megastructure: Walking City, Inflatable City or Plug in City. In any moment the final idea of these projects was their realization but to show a critical opinion of the town planning of that time. Archigram understood the city as a living organism adaptable and flexible in architecture and social interactions. In addition, and as Le Corbusier, the city was understood as a machine that depends on the technological complexity of the mass production.

Plug in City (1964) is an urban megastructure that incorporates all basic needs that inhabitants may need, such as theaters, residential towers, and office structures. Each module is crowned by a crane which allows movement and exchanges through them. Like in any city proposal from Archigram the aim is to obtain a flexible and dynamic form that would represent the changing collectivity of its inhabitants.

The collage, as a mean of representation, became a sign of identity in Archigram’s work. The use of this technique allows them to obtain two purposes: (1) to ease the representation of abstract ideas and concepts thanks to the possibility of fracturing the illusion of real space and of overlapping multiples view, and (2) to blend architecture technical drawings with iconography from popular cultures such as comics. The result is radical and exuberant compositions where color, text and architectural drawings have the same importance, and where the final aim was transmitting their message most effectively.

ROME OF SIXTUS V

During the short reign of Sixtus V (1585-1590), Rome underwent a significant transformation. The city had shrunk during the Middle Ages and the result was a small urban core surrounded by the ruins of the classical Rome as well as by seven churches that received annual pilgrimages. Under this situation, the Catholic Church started to think about the important position of Rome as a cultural and religious center in the world representing the Catholic Church and the Pope and how the city should be a clear representative of it. Several popes started to create and broad streets (like the Via Pia) and to build new gathering spaces like The Piazza Campidoglio by Michelangelo. However, it was Sixtus V who developed a unified vision for Rome instead of uncoordinated single actions. He organized a new circulation scheme based on a coherent network of straight long axis that connected and allowed the creation of new urban spaces. The main works were the creation of new streets, the seven churches of Rome and the Palaces were for the 1st time connected through new streets, the design of squares in front of important buildings like de Quirinal Palace, something new at that time, and the built of four obelisks as focal points in squares to catch the eye at the end of axes in front of the Basilica de San Prieto, in front of the church Sta Maria Maggiori and San Giovanni in Laterano, and in the Piazza del Popolo.

The importance of linking these seven churches is crucial to understand Pope Sixtus V’s design. They were the representation of the Catholic Church power and the interest in connecting them not only followed aesthetic criteria but also it will give order to the chaos of Rome represented for the random placement of these nodal points.

Edmund Bacon (1967:131) argues that this schema of articulating spaces is due to the discovery of perspective drawing during the fifteenth century and which consists on recreating the depth and the relative position of the objects in the space. This new technique allows creating new experiences through a processional movement along the axis of the streets that connect the seven churches of Rome.

The realization of this plan was not finished during Pope Sixtus V reign, and most of the work was done after his papacy. However, his legacy is perfectly visible in Rome today.

    Rome of Sixtus V 1585                           Obelisk in the Piazza del Popolo

Interpretation of the plan of Rome during Pope Sixtus V by Edmund Bacon         Connection between Piazza de Espagna et Sta Maria La
                                                                                                               Maggiori by Edmund Bacon