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A. If there has been any influence, it is from the way he wrestled with architecture, or his way of life, rather than his architecture itself. In the end, after repeated conflicts over his work, no doubt due to his passionate character, Borromini took his own life. This is very unusual among architects, who generally need to be fairly down-to-earth --- in this respect they probably differ from other types of artist. However, Borromini might have been a true creator in the sense that he tried to keep working until the very end, and that he was so devoted to his work that he finally had no other choice than to end his life. It is not certain, but Le Corbusier is said to have committed suicide while swimming off the coast of the Mediterranean in 1965, a few weeks before I arrived in Paris. Also, Louis Kahn's body was left unclaimed at the morgue for two days after he died in the public toilets at Pennsylvania Station, on his way home from a trip to India. Even Antonio Gaudi tragically lost his life after being struck by a tram on his way across town from the site of the Sagrada Familia. The last moments of the great masters, having survived their careers as architects, are all somehow uneasy. But what can still be said about them all is that they passed away suddenly while still fully involved in their creative and challenging work. I am not the type to worry about the manner of my death, but at least I want to be able to conclude my work in a satisfactory way. Q. What other buildings should we see around Rome or elsewhere in Italy? A. There is the Casa Malaparte by Adalberto Libera, the Casa del Fascio by Giuseppe Terragni, the Palazzo della Civiltà del Lavoro and the site of the Esposizione Universal di Roma --- the EUR --- that Mussolini constructed, and many other masterpieces of Italian rationalist architecture. Besides these, there are a number of ruins from the Roman era on the outskirts of Rome. One of the things I missed in ignorance during my early trips, and which caused me regret later, was the Italian gardens. Q. Specifically, what gardens are there? A. The Villa Adriana and the Villa d'Este at Tivoli are the gardens I recommend visiting. I think of gardens as representations of an imaginary dream world or as images of paradise, and the garden of the Villa Adriana is a highlight. In this country retreat, the Emperor Hadrian transformed his memories of the grand tours he made during his life into various gardens and structures. Of all the villas of the successive Roman Emperors, the Villa Adriana is the grandest. The excavated area alone covers some 500,000 square meters, which is comparable to the size of a small town. Although only a part of the whole villa is now visible as ruins, this captures the imagination of visitors all the more. The Villa d'Este, laid out on the western slopes of Tivoli, is one of the first gardens of the Renaissance Period. Its more than two hundred types of fountains are well known, yet they are not powered by pumps but solely by a gravity-driven hydraulic system. There are a number of Italian gardens that create similarly dynamic landscapes by making such sophisticated use of natural landforms. Indeed, there are also many remarkable gardens in Kyoto, Japan. Nonetheless, they're a kind of hakoniwa --- small, enclosed gardens --- in which the ever-changing natural environment is abstracted. Italian gardens are totally different, and reflect a culture in which people sought order or constancy in nature. In Italy, just by looking at the character of these gardens, you can discover the starting point of Western architecture. • photo_Ramak Fazel • translation_Shoko Yamashita, Andrew Barrie |
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