The emphasis of the week in Rome with the Northern Bridge Consortium was to explore ideas around cross-disciplinary research, considering the possibilities and challenges that cross-disciplinary research can present.
The first building in this video is the Colosseo Quadrato, or Square Colosseum, which is an example of Italian Rationalism and fascist architecture with neoclassical design. The building was designed to be the Museum of Italian Civilization at the 1942 Worlds Fair, demonstrating the superiority of Italian architecture, however the world's fair was cancelled on June 3, 1941, while the building was being finished. By 1942, the EUR was declared a dead-end project, and the fall of the Fascist regime followed in 1943.
The second building in the tour is the MAXXI, the national museum of 21st-century arts, designed by Zaha Hadid, following an international design competition. Inside, the spaces are interlinked with ramps at different heights and often seem suspended in a vacuum, with gallery spaces off the ramps.
The Palazzetto dello Sport (known literally as “the Small Sport Palace”), constructed for the 1960 summer Olympics in Rome, by Pier Luigi Nervi is shown as is the Parco della Musica, by Renzo Piano, which is three concert halls with an outdoor theatre.