Scaena Nymphaeum
Typology Cultural, Heritage
Location Genazzano, Italy
Location Genazzano, Italy
Site Area 6,591 sqm [70,945 sq ft]
Building Area 946 sqm [10,185 sq ft]
Date January 2023
Date January 2023
🏆 EARNED A SPECIAL MENTION IN COMPETITION
Scaena Nymphaeum seeks to reuse the site of Bramante’s Nymphaeum. The site of the impressive fifteenth-century structure constructed on Roman ruins has been reconfigured to serve as a theatre and a park. Using similar geometric principles that guided Bramante, the new Scaena Nymphaeum adds a path rippling through the lush Genazzano landscape. Along this ramped path visitors may traverse the site, as it connects its eastern and western ends to adjacent streets. The path wraps around and is suspended above an existing stream—which has been expanded and deepened—offering new and exciting moments of rest, contemplation, and admiration.
Inside this park, Bramante’s Nymphaeum has been repurposed as a multiuse theatre venue. Twelve arched concrete pavilions complement the existing structure, adding amenities such as a box office, restrooms, a backstage for performers and crew members, as well as a new footbridge entrance to the theatre via a staircase in the existing octagonal chamber. The original staircase on the southern end of the Nymphaeum remains in use as a secondary entrance leading directly to the park, bypassing the theatre.
The added concrete pavilions echo the harmony and rhythm of the existing construction, while contrasting it in their simplicity and modernity. Mirroring the grandeur of Bramante’s structure, they are contained within the Nymphaeum, and through their sweeping arches it remains visible—history hidden and revealed at once.
