Domus Lictoria:competition entry for the Palazzo del Littorio in Via dell'Impero, Rome

Rome

Competitions, projects, proposals

The idea: not just another sort of ministry, not a monumental facade with clerks behind its windows, but a group of buildings, each with its own function. Almost «a small city, an island of buildings, separated from the city traffic by ramparts and grassy areas: within the island the two traffic systems, for pedestrians and automobiles, are independent... the high-rise office blocks are set on top of porticos, allowing the public free movement in all directions on the level. The idea Ponti used for this Palazzo del Littorio seems to anticipate some of his much later projects (Anton Bruckner Cultural Centre in Linz, 1961 Administrative Centre in Munich, 1970): break down the whole into its different constituent elements, make them into separate buildings, each of them immediately recognizable (each element is displayed in its true and unique form) and set them on a platform that isolates them from the conditions, dimensions and influences of the surroundings. In this project, the separate buildings are: the office block, the block of the Exhibition of the Revolution the block of the Domus Lictoria.) It was a solution that liberated Ponti from the influence of the site, the Forum an influence that hampered Pagano and inspired Terragni In spite of its theme, Ponti's was not a stately design, and was unconcerned with the intense ideological debate of that time.