The ancient Roman Caracalla bath house was built between AD 212 and 216/217; nearly 1800 years later architectural design and construction has drastically changed. However, the functional necessities of life in correlation to architecture remain the same. Rome has had an extremely long and complex relationship with water. Bath houses, such as Caracalla, were a primary aspect of Rome’s communal and interconnected urban fabric. Social interactions mediated through architecture continues to be essential aspect of the human condition and thus the need for a 21st century bath house, and urban generator, is validated.
Framing antiquity was the premise by which I designed my project. The site of the new bath house is directly adjacent to the ancient Caracalla bath house, therefore I found the relationship between the new and the old to be a critical point of continuity. The design consists of a series of frames that support the primary thermal bath house, secondary hotel and retail center, as well as an elevated walkway which threads these various programs together. The placement of the walkway is in semiotic relationship with an ancient road that lead to the bath house. The design intends to create an architectural system that directs the viewer through a systematic and axial narrative, similar to a timeline, that culminates in a monumental view of the ancient, framed by the modern.
