The photography reportage on the new building Richard Meier designed for the purpose of housing the Museum of the Ara Pacis was guided not only by the idea of capturing the features of excellence of this work, but also to help frame it within the ongoing architectural, debate among professionals in Rome, and in Italy more widely. Meier’s building was the first example of contemporary architecture, since the fall of Fascism, that dared to breach the “inner sanctum” of the Aurelian Walls, proposing itself as a link connecting the ancient and modern, a meeting ground of classical and contemporary culture. But the images also focus on documenting the relationship between the interior of the building and its exterior, and between the contemporary architecture of Meier’s building and its urban context characterised by the buildings on Piazza Augusto Imperatore, all of which designed and built during the Fascist era.
