Douglas Darden's Temple Forgetful, Part 2 - In-Formed

 

Temple Forgetful Section

In a newspaper clipping found in the project file for Temple Forgetful, published on June 9, 1988 by the New York Times, is an article on an old Roman wall that was uncovered in the Roman Forum. One line in the article is boxed by Darden: "Not just a wall but a wall with some specific peculiarity." Darden had recently been accepted into the American Academy in Rome, so clearly he was already diving into what he wanted to produce based on his travels to Rome. This is the starting point of Temple Forgetful. Darden probably saw this excavation firsthand, though I have found no evidence of that. There are peculiar details of his design that are not included in the original newspaper article, but are published much later, such as the old well.

In my previous post on this project, I discussed the axis from the corner of the Danteum through the Basilica and into Temple Forgetful that forms the centerline of the two semi-circles. Of course the most obvious axis is that of this the old wall, which cuts right down the middle and has to be crossed over via bridges. This wall acts, not just an axis, but as a hinge. It is not the central focus of the project, but rather an integral part of the project itself. Some archaeologists propose that this was Romulus's wall, as the wall dates to the time circa Rome's founding. Darden did not seem to care whether or not it truly was the "originary wall," but it was such an inspiring discovery that he just went with it.

Darden plays with oppositions in this design. Just we looked at the oppositions, or rather counterparts, he indicates in his site plan between the Colosseum and the Capitoline, as well as Temple Roma-Amor. So too in Temple Forgetful do we find various counterparts. He primarily plays with remembering and forgetting via the myth of Romulus and Remus. Namely, Romulus is remembered, as the city he founded bears his name, while Remus is forgotten.

In the myth of Romulus of Remus, at least the most notable versions written by Livy and Plutarch, tell us that the twins used ornithomancy to determine where to build the city, in which they observe the number of birds on the hill of their choice. Remus observes six vultures on the Aventine Hill, while Romulus observes twelve on the Palatine. Thus their city would be founded on the Palatine Hill. Remus either gets angry at his brother or simply forgets the sacredness of the wall, but while Romulus is building the wall, Remus steps over the wall. This is taboo, as the city wall is sacred, for it protects the city within. Thus, to cross over the wall anywhere outside the gates was forbidden. Darden describes this story in his own lighthearted way in a lecture presented to the American Academy in Rome to present his final design. Darden represents these two twins as a cistern (Remus) and a theater (Romulus).

In a note scribbled onto a photocopied page of the building section, Darden gives us a great deal of insight. In this note he in-forms us that the depth of the cistern is equal in height to the Palatine Hill, using the approximate ground level of when the wall was built. The Theater of Memory sinks down to this ground level, while the Cistern of Oblivion starts at the current ground level. So we see an oppositions in heights.

Handwritten note by Darden on section of Temple Forgetful

He speaks of the wall as a hinge for the vertical and horizontal aspects of the design, but we can think of this hinge in other ways. For instance, we can think of the wall as the hinge over which Remus crosses over from one side to the other. This is symbolically represented by the tower and "periodic cistern," which dumps water into the cistern. Darden refers to the Remus aspects as water, as water floods and washes away, while Romulus is remembered as dry earth. Thus, the Remus tower arises from Romulus's side (dry earth), crosses over the wall, and dumps the water into the Cistern of Oblivion. It should be noted that there was a dry well discovered in the excavations of this wall, which is indicated on the building plan, and it is directly opposite of the tower on the side of the Theater of Memory. Further, he uses the metaphor of aqua fortis, a highly corrosive acid, to describe the dissolving of history and memory of Remus.

We can keep playing with these ideas, but the next significant aspect to look at is the theater. It is quite literally a Theater of Memory. That is, he literally copies the layout of Giulio Camillo's Theater of Memory, or Solomon's House of Wisdom. Camillo's Theater is not a real theater, but rather a memory palace of sorts. Memory palaces are a mnemonic technique of visualizing a space or a building to learn, store memories, and recall them. It is actually a really old concept, dating back to at least Cicero, but seems to have fallen out of favor in the Middle Ages, which is curious, as this is the time in which the Ars Notoria, a grimoire for rapid learning and better memory, is being developed. By the early Renaissance, the memory palace regains popularity. Camillo writes about his theater in the 16th century, and divides it into seven divisions with seven levels. These are based on the planets, as is obvious by the names of the divisions. Darden quite literally copies Camillo's theater, but instead of seven pillars, he erects four columns on each level of each division — in other words 28 x 7 columns. This is in contrast to the 28 water jets feeding water into the Cistern.

Copy of Camillo's Theater of Memory from project file

The final inspiration for Darden that in-forms this project to look at is a novel, namely, Victor Hugo's Notre Dame of Paris (commonly known as The Hunchback of Notre Dame). Mounted on the side of the cistern is a marble monument, over which the water from the tower pours down upon. Upon this stone block are the words: CECI TUERA CELA or "This will kill that." This is motto of Claude Frollo in Hugo's novel, in which he declares the printed Bible will destroy Notre Dame. In other words, the printed scripture will kill the essence of the church. Darden actually provides an excerpt of this chapter at the end of Condemned Building.

This/That Shrine

This shrine plays further into Darden's concepts of counterparts. This and that, Romulus and Remus. This will kill that. Romulus will kill Remus. The point is obvious. Yet, Darden still toys with the concept. The waters of dissolution will pour down upon this shrine, and as he illustrates, that water will separate the words "ceci" and "cela."

In a way, Darden not only sets counterparts against each other, he is creating a "balancing act." In Issue 37 of Daidalos (1990), Darden publishes two projects that he calls "balancing acts": Saloon for Jesse James and Temple Forgetful. This brings us back to the notion of hinges. Everything in Temple Forgetful hinges and balances between everything else. The Murus Romana, the "originary" wall hinges and balances the cistern and the theater, as well as the depth of cistern with the height of the Palatine. The theater is a hinge between which balances the dry well and the water tower. The water tower literally hinges and balances, until it tips and pours water onto the shrine. The shrine commemorates the moment where the balance between life and death for Remus hinges. The wall was the place where Remus hinged himself from one side to the other, and where the life of Remus would tip and his brother would kill him. The Sacra Via is a hinge between which balances the Basilica Maxentius and Temple Forgetful. The Basilica hinges and balances between two visionary unrealized projects: the Danteum and Temple Forgetful. Temple Forgetful hinges and balances between the elliptical form and space of the Colosseum and the Capitoline. Through and through, Temple Forgetful is a balancing act between this and that, from the outermost reaches of Roman Forum to the minutest details of the Temple.