115 EUR 3

Massimilano Fuksas' new Centro Congressi building has not broken ground yet, but the site has been fenced off, and a model of the building is displayed. The building concept is an enormous glass box with steel trusses that suspend a cloud-like morphous building from cables.


Structurally, and from the viewpoint of future conservation of this unique structure, intentionally endowing a building with so much potential energy makes me nervous. And on the architecture side, siting a convention center, which has the highest possible occupancy loads for egress, in the air is counter-intuitive at best.

It will be a challenge to engineers in 50 and 100 years to assess the corrosion of the steel cables. But it's still a neat concept, albeit one that every 2nd year architecture student has had at some point. It would work better in an temperate climate in respect to heat gain, of course. I look forward to coming back to Rome and seeing the completed building one day.