Piazza dei Cinquecento

Piazza dei Cinquecento is currently one of the main mobility hubs in Italy with about 480,000 visitors a day and about 150 million a year.
The square is the interface between the city and the integrated mobility system that is located on the Roma Termini station, a privileged arrival directly in the heart of the city.

A space so powerful in terms of number of users is not equally capable of representing the city of Rome and of becoming a machine capable of directing pedestrian flows in the multiplicity of routes that the city offers.
Currently we can say that the square does not exist.
It is a large space inhabited by a multitude of flows that over time have stratified and self-organized, thanks to a good availability of public space following the demolition of the nineteenth-century station, station that occupied grenades of the current reservoir of Piazza dei Cinquecento.

The project has two main lines of investigation:

the first is to build the identity of Piazza dei Cinquecento, a square in the sense of defined, identifying and relational space, enhance the relationships between Termini Station, the Servian Walls, the Baths of Diocletian and the Palazzo Massimo Museum.
The reorganization of Piazza dei Cinquecento must guarantee pedestrian connection with the Roma Termini hub and guarantee a high level of safety and usability.

The second is to organize and make efficient the multitude of mobility flows by integrating them with the evolution of the transport system, also orienting an ecological transition in the management of transport flows.

The project idea is to give shape to these two main programmatic aspects by building the two systems of public spaces: one completely pedestrian, the Piazza dei Cinquecento, and another, that one of the square / hub of mobility and transport.

The strategic choice was to empty the heart of the square from vehicle crossings and to concentrate (and rationalize) the latter in the perimeter of the square adjacent to the existing via Giolitti and Via De Nicola, defining a real intermodal pier.
It’s a choice that shortens and compacts the vehicular routes and defines in a clear and functional way the areas of the different modes of transport (taxi, city bus, tourist bus, tram, kiss & ride, etc.).

Piazza dei Cinquecento taking up the measurement of the imposing nineteen-meter overhang of the canopy of the head building of Termini station, the new Piazza dei Cinquecento is built.
The ribs of the nave of the “dinosaur” define the measure that marks the travertine pavement of the square. A measure that relates to piazza del Popolo and the main squares of the urban fabric of Rome.

The invasion of the square is based on a perfect square of 120 ml x 120 ml, a geometric element typical of Roman culture that is at the hinge between the complex hub of mobility and the heart of the city.
It’s a completely pedestrian area from which you can rediscover the view towards the scenic backdrop of the Servian walls, the Terme of Diocleziano and the Museum of Palazzo Massimo and across the axis of Via Cavour towards the Fori Imperiali and the heart of the city.

CREDITS

• Architectural Design: Giovanni Vaccarini Architetti

• Project Team:
  Giovanni Vaccarini
  Herman Cabonetti
  Matteo Preite
  Stefano Mont Girbes
  Matteo Mazzamurro
  Ilaria Marano
  Chiara Di Quinzio
  Landscape Design: Antonio Stignani (Studio Paisà)

• Transportation Engineering: Go-Mobility

• Archaeology:
Antonio Insalalaco
Andrea Ricchioni

• Client: Grandi Stazioni Rail

• Location: Rome, Italy – Piazza dei Cinquecento