Roma Termini Station
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Introduction
Roma Termini Station is located in the Roman quarter Termini and is situated directly opposite the Baths of Diocletian. The first station building dates from 1890. However, it was demolished in 1937 to make way for a new station on the occasion of the World Fair of 1942 (E42) in Rome. Following World War II the World Fair was cancelled and the works were halted after the fall of Mussolini in 1943. At that time, architect Angiolo Mazzoni del Grande completed two wings of one kilometer long. After the war, in 1947, the Italian government made up a contest for the further completion of station.
Two teams of architects won the competition: Leo Calini and Eugenio Montuori on the one hand, and Massimo Castellazzi, Vasco Fadigati, Achille Pintonello and Annibale Vitellozzi on the other. As an expert in concrete construction, they drew on engineer Pier Luigi Nervi. Around 1950 the new building is ready in its current form. It consists of a long wall that runs counter to the two wings of Mazzoni. Between the old and the new wing a covered gallery was introduced. Located behind it, there is a building as high as the two wings. Here are offices. Eccentrically placed in this building is a large transparent hall with ticket counters. Typical of the hall is the curved roof. The restaurant is located north of the hall and is abruptly separated of it by the remnants of an Etruscan wall.
Architecture
The first architect, Mazzoni, fares in its various construction styles. His designs ranged from overtly bombastic, neoclassical, radically modern to futuristic. The two wings designed for the station have been conducted in an austere, neoclassical style. Both have high walls with perforations in the form of arcades or rectangular windows that are covered with travertine. Inside, the walls and floors covered with mosaic tiles and marble from all over Italy. Also sandblasted brick is prominent. The impressive brick arches remind you of old Roman structures.
After nearly half a century of decay, the wings were thoroughly restored in 2000. The later 'modernist' end wall is clad with precious travertine. The facade looks austere and monumental, but is countered by the organic hall with ticket counters. This transparent building has an undulating, cantilevering roof. 33 curved ribs of reinforced concrete makes up the roof of the hall. Inspired by the curvature of the arch of the adjacent Roman wall. The building fits in the story of the modernist, organic architecture of the '50s, but also in modernism and futurism during Mussolini. The organic architecture was primarily an alternative to the earlier monumental architecture. In Visions of Utopia by Terry Kirk, we can read: "Organic architecture is at once a social, technical and artistic activity directed to create the setting for a new democratic society". The location of the station is remarkable. Both the older and newer complex deal in its own way with the urban context. Thus, the remnants of the Serbian wall 80 meters long (6th century BC.) were integrated in the new part. Since 1955 the station has a connection to the underground network and an underground shopping center Forum Termini.
Historiography
The never-built monumental frontal façade and the built wings of Mazzoni were soon after the war heavily criticized. Kidder Smith tells us in Italy Builds: 'This increasing pressure of the war forced a stop further to the monumental work and with frontal part was fortunately never constructed. With the clearer, more democratic post-war atmosphere it was soon realized thats the station should not be completed as designed ... " He even refers to Mazzoni's project as "this monstrosity". The new part, however, was described in the post-war literature as a transparent and modern building that symbolizes the new democratic values of the Italian Republic.
But recent research re-evaluates the work of Mazzoni, after years of harsh criticism. Moreover contemporary architecture critics ask themselves whether the new building really is a break-up with the past or just the continuation of tradition. Unlike Nazi Germany, futurism and modernism in Italy was not associated with communism and modernism, moreover it was even used for state representation. This is completely contrary to what the media tells us in the early fifties. William Curtis in Architecture since 1900: "In reality, Several of the pre-war ideas and personalities continued to operate. Some of the best work extended the premises of the Italian 'rationalism' of the 1930s. The Termini Station in Rome was a clean-cut, modern structural idea integrated with a restrained classical rectangular exterior containing subliminal echoes. " The whole station is also a rather interesting compound in its whole, different ideas that were circulating before and after fascism come together in it. We find both analogies and contrasts in the comparison of the architecture of Mazzoni and the team-Vitelozzi Montuori. Mazzoni chose as a lateral organization of the station and Montuori Vitelozzi an almost-futuristic flow through the end building. Both also have clear classical references. An example of the quality and diversity in the station part of Mazzoni, can be found in one - the public - unknown courtyard near a conference room. The way the columns were handled , is reminiscent of the architecture of postmodernism. The travertine stones were turned 45 degrees and staggered above each other to make a sculptural facade.
The contrast between the work of Mazzoni and team-Montuori Vitelozzi plays an important role in the history of the Roma Termini station. We see how this contrast is magnified and is affiliated to a political, ideological context. Largely based on that specific context the different parts of the complex were being criticised. Mazzoni's work is so consciously forgotten, although both parts of the building show a quality that rivals the ancient ruins and together they present a strong and inseparable whole. Marco Ferrero in La stazione dei Grandi Eventi teaches us: "Stazione Termini, in spite of it being the result of the combination of heterogeneous elements, is an organic whole in which the different targets and designs have create counter-positions rather than contrast". By reading the history of Roma Termini, we see the complexity of architectural production during and shortly after fascism in Italy and how continuity rather than a radical break-up occurs.
Drawings
Top View Piazza dei Cinquecento.
Plan
Section
Side views Mazzonian Wings
Photos
Sources
- ‘Angiolo Mazzoni 1894-1979’, Domus, n°654, Okt. 1984, p.31
- ‘Der neue Hauptbahnhof Roma Termini’, Das Werk, vol. 39, 1952, p. 206-210
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- CURTIS, W, Modern Architecture since 1900, London: Phaidon, 2004
- DAL CO, F, ‘Angiolo Mazzoni (1894-1979): architetto ingeniere del Ministero delle communicazioni ‘, Casabella, n° 719,: vol. 68, Feb. 2004, p. 80-83
- FERRERO, M, ‘La stazione dei grandi eventi - Roma ermini: una lunga storia di interventi per le grandi occasioni’, Marmo per l'architettura, n° 2, 1998
- FERRERO, M, ‘La stazione Termini a Roma’, Travertino Romano, n° 3, 1993
- GRUNDMANN, S; FÜRST, U, The Architecture of Rome, New York: The Haworth Information Press, 1998
- KIRK, T, The Architecture of Modern Italy - Volume 2: Visions of Utopia, 1900-present, New York: Princeton Architectural Press, 2005
- MILLER, N, ‘Angiolo Mazzoni (1894-1979). Architetto nell' Italia tra le due guerre’, Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, n° 1: vol. 45, Mar. 1986, p. 74-76
- MULAZZANI, M, ‘Stazione Termini (1950)’, Casabella, n° 695-696: vol. 65, Dec. 2002, p. 88-101
- SEVERATI, C, ‘Angiolo Mazzoni’, L’Architettura, n° 9: vol.20, 1975, p. 588-600
- SMITH, K, Italy builds: its modern architecture and native inheritance, London : Architectural press, 1955
