Piazza della Moschea

Piazza della Moschea

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Fall 2013 | Professor Caroline O’Donnell | Site analysis in collaboration with Thomas Tumelty

Assignment: from an analysis of Via Nomentana,  one of Rome’s consular roads, form an urban intervention in which to root a specific complex of buildings 

Solution: a piazza for Rome’s quickly-growing Muslim population to host programs relating to Muslim life. At one end of the pizza stands the 4th century AD Sant’Agnese fuori le Mure church, and at the other, a new mosque complex. 

Discussion: aside from Via Nomentana’s idiosyncratic curves which serve to divide it up into discrete neighborhoods, Via Nomentana is also unique among the consular roads in that it is devoid of piazzi, with one exception.

Referencing the twin-church typology prevalent across Italy, and noting the important and predominantly Middle Eastern diplomatic function of the area, a mosque became the clear choice for twin-church to the Sant’Agnese church.  

After an analysis of canonical mosque program, it became clear that the extended mosque program could not just occupy one terminus of the proposed piazza, but instead, the entirety of the new urban space.