ABANDONED SUMMER SPACES ⋆ Riccardo Budini

Palazzo dei Congressi, architecture by Adalberto Libera 1938-43
INFPS building 1938-43. Architecture by Basaldella, Marzullo
INA building, the exedra. 1938-43. Architecture by Aliventi, Ruggieri [L] Intesa San Paolo new facade detail, Via dell’Architettura.
Palazzo dei Congressi, architecture by Adalberto Libera 1938-43.
A desert Civiltà del Lavoro street. At the bottom: Palazzo deli Congressi, 1938-43. Architecture by Adalberto Libera.
Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana also known as ‘Colosseo Quadrato’. Architecture by G. Guerrini, E. B. La padula, M. Romano 1938-43.
Entrance colonnadeof the Museo della Civiltà Romana, architecture by Piero Aschieri, Cesare Pascoletti, Gino Peressutti, Domenico Bernardini 1939-52.
A desert Civiltà del Lavoro street. At the bottom: Palazzo della Civiltà Italiana also known as Colosseo Quadrato, 1938-43. Architecture by G. Guerrini, E. B. La padula; M. Romano. View from piazzale dei Congressi.
Intesa San Paolo new facade, Via dell’Architettura.
Palazzo dello Sport (presently grossly renamed Palalottomatica) , architecture by Pier Luigi Nervi, 1958-60.
A desert via Cristoforo Colombo, close to Palazzo dello Sport intersection. Eur district.
Abandoned office rooms at Palazzo ENI, architecture by Bacilugo, Finzi, Nova, Ratti, 1962.

During the month of August the congested Eur district in Rome is completely left abandoned by workers and inhabitants. Even parked cars disappear, allowing the viewer to rediscover the metaphysical principle that the planners, in the late 30’s, brought into play to complete this neighborhood. Originally inspired by the architecture of rationalism, the Eur represents classicism imposed by the fascist dictatorship.
The ambitious project resulted in an urbanization experiment with a unique hybrid personality. It evolved later into a business area, which required a departure from the original planning principles.

Statement:

Abandoned Summer Spaces is a photographic project initially started in order to document the flow of inhabitants and movers of a specific urban area. As the project unfolds I have been observing a gradual emptying of the streets due to the mass summer holiday exodus. It was even better to investigate the absence and stasis as counterparts of presence and dynamicity: this process helped me to understand the linearity of the monumental spaces as they were originally conceived by their planners, resembling the scale models in which they used to share their visions.

The objective of the project is to seamlessly merge a documentary on social predictability within the exploration of an urban context: how space, time and identity acquire a new value when represented in a unique circumstance. The work has been completed across two different summers.

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