Il Portico Urbano

Il Portico Urbano (The Urban Porch) The site selected after studying T.S. Eliot’s critique of modernity, “The Wasteland” is La Caserma Piave, a vacant wasting 1930's military barracks located in the Umbrian hilltop town of Orvieto, Italy. The once pedestrian oriented Italian public spaces are being strangled by the presence of the automobile. Most of Orvieto’s piazzas have been degraded to parking lots and medieval streets are arteries clogged by vehicular traffic. The new architecture of the barracks will be an edifice promoting the positive aspects of tourism: "the slow movement." The program of the building is designed for indoor and outdoor public spaces that slow people down.