Hospital Infecting Rome

The urban center of Rome, a preserved UNESCO site, has witnessed many pandemics throughout its history and COVID-19 will presumably not be its last. The project’s site is Villa della Conciliazione, a vast boulevard established by demolishing an entire neighborhood of working class people, furthering the grandiose urban aims of Benito Mussolini’s fascist administration. Appropriating this site and marking the boundaries of its demolished buildings, the project proposes a modular emergency hospital for a future epidemic. In times between health emergencies, the site would remain as an “infrastructural surface” with power, water, gas and data connections allowing for community programs such as support for political protests, art center, markets and workshops.