Ninfeo Bramante / Theatre & Public Garden

Designing an intervention for a work by a master such as Bramante, or offering a view on it, is a significant and worthwhile challenge for any architect. This subject was chosen for a master’s thesis in Landscape Architecture to emphasise the continuous connection between architecture and landscape, intertwined with time as an essential element of architecture.

This valuable building in a small town has fallen into disrepair and needs restoration and new life. Technology can provide it with durability and stability, but people must bring it to life. These priorities established the main aims of the proposal and made the role of landscape architecture more prominent and important. Transforming the abandoned site into a garden dedicated to the building, and providing the facilities needed for collective social events, aimed to restore its spirit and life. The considerable differences in level across the site were not an obstacle. They became an exciting driving force for defining spaces and continually changing visitors’ perspectives.

The thesis proposes a theatre and public garden around the Ninfeo Bramante in Genazzano. The existing terrain, historic structure and trees establish the starting point. A level difference of 6.5 metres is resolved through terraces, making access easier and avoiding high retaining walls. Existing trees are retained.

A timber walkway opens the nymphaeum to visitors. The proposal places administrative space, a bar and toilets partly within the ground, providing the facilities required for one hundred users. Rough tree trunks form the spectators’ seats, and a shallow reflecting pool lies in front of the historic structure.

A lightweight structure with a fabric roof protects the nymphaeum within a rectangular span of 21 by 47 metres. Paths occupy 977 square metres, or fifteen per cent of the site, below the twenty-per-cent paving limit stated on the boards. Planting, the retaining edges, terraces and canopy are developed in separate plans, sections and construction studies, keeping the new work legible alongside the historic fabric.

Landscape architecture thesis, Sapienza and Università della Tuscia. Supervisor: Fabio Di Carlo; co-supervisor: Maurizio Caperna. Precedent studies in the boards are distinct from the proposed design.