Restauro e valorizzazione del Complesso delle Sette Sale a Colle Oppio

The project interprets the grandeur of the Sette Sale complex and its exemplary role in Roman water architecture. Its location, set between the Colle Oppio, the remains of the great Trajan baths, and via Mecenate, aligned on the remains of the Servian wall and the hall attributed to its auditorium – that of Mecenate – recalls the verses of Orazio “Nunc licet Esquiliis habitare salubribus” and, in the Domus vestiges, bears witness to one of the most original developments in the residential architecture of the suburban Horti, which, especially in the centrally planned hall, seem to anticipate the imperial Chrysotriklinos in Constantinople. Through an opening in the retaining wall, the visitor reaches the level of the domus, following a route that begins with the image of an impluvium and overlooking the basilical space of the cenatio. Slender metal pillars supporting the great canopy follow the ancient wall grid; diaphanous vertical diaphragms refer to the curved forms of the great halls, suggesting the course of the original masses. Once you have descended into the cistern hypogean spatialities through an opening on a vault, the new footings are complemented by slender metal basins that reflect light, as Phidias had already designed for his colossal statues of Athena Parthenos and Olympian Zeus.