Bibliotheca Hertziana – In 2014 I was asked by “Casabella” magazine to photograph the various stages – from building site to re-arrangement of the library – of Spanish architect Juan Navarro Baldeweg’s elegant and understated project which offers an interesting example of a modern building in Rome’s historic centre.The library building was completely demolished and rebuilt (1995-2011); Baldeweg designed an imposing, large window – a technologically advanced structure – that allows natural light to come streaming into the inner courtyard of the 16th-century Palazzo Zuccari, radiating it through the new building with its white brick walls, pale-coloured wooden flooring and travertine staircase. Baldeweg also restored the historic and scenic entrance to the library on Via Gregoriana dominated by the “Mascherone” (mask), an anthropomorphic portal that has now become the new library’s icon. In Baldeweweg's words: “Through the Mascherone’s mouth you are entering the mind".
