Inverso Urbano:

From The City to The River

This project reimagines the stretch of the Tiber River between Ponte Sant’Angelo and Ponte Cavour—one of the most symbolically charged yet neglected sections of Rome’s urban fabric—by transforming the embankment walls and adjacent Lungotevere into a civic and cultural landscape. Drawing from the area’s rich Renaissance and Baroque heritage, including the nodal network of Madonelle shrines, the design proposes a new linear piazza that reconnects city and river through carved terraces, ramps, and integrated public programs. The intervention introduces green spaces, rest areas, and embedded institutions—such as a museum, studio, amphitheater, boathouse, and markets—within the existing infrastructure, fostering both ritual and recreation. Rather than reconstructing the past, the project builds upon Rome’s layered history to re-establish the riverfront as a place of spiritual pause, cultural expression, and urban vitality.

January-May 2025 - Pratt Rome UA Program

Professor Anthony Buccellato

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Throughout Ancient Rome, the Ponte Rione belonged to the Field of Mars and was void of much activity until the medieval and renaissance periods when the area became populated with residential buildings extending flush to the rivers edge. Due to the proximity of the district to the Ponte Sant’Angelo and its connection to the Vatican, all the main streets of Rome lead through the area, leading to a rapid increase in population in the medieval period.

Ponte became very famous in the 16th century not only due to its proximity of Vatican, but also due to the fact that many noble Roman families started to build their palaces in the area. It became a meeting point for bishops, rich merchants, politicians and businessmen, and is the richest in evidence of the Renaissance and Baroque periods in Rome, contributing to the architecture, culture, and theatricality of the neighborhood. When examining these structures closer, it’s unavoidable to not notice the Madonnelle’s spread all throughout the neighborhood, which was a tradition began in ancient Rome with the veneration of Etruscan Lares which symbolized protection. These artworks can be read, as shown in the second map, as a node based network that serve as an offering to the city. Religious or not, they are a symbol of the culture and spirituality of Rome, and served as a moment of pause in a rapidly industrializing city.

The approach to the project was less of a destructive one, rather one that focuses predominately on integration and addition. It started by identifying key potential for open spaces (green), as well as areas where connection to the lungotevere is direct, either via stairways or level roadways, for the most efficient planning of the final project. This then allocated two zones to primarily work in. This new linear park and its ramp system aren’t just circulation elements. They’re moments that frame views, define gathering spaces, and embed programs into the previously inaccessible embankment walls. Within these extrusions and carvings are institutions: a museum and studio space, permanent market spaces, a boathouse, and a river amphitheater—all rooted in the social and spiritual traditions of the Roman urbanism I have come to understand, yet designed for contemporary use.

At the river’s edge, sculpted boat docks were introduced for tourism and rowing, angled to reduce the force of the Tiber's currents. These continue the project’s material language—organic and embedded—while signaling that the river is again a space of destination and ritual.

Ultimately, this project is not a singular object but a re-writing of the relationship between Rome and its river. It draws from the past, but builds for the future. It offers a re-inhabited urban edge that invites the city back to its own water.