sebastian sacco
Architecture, design, and photography in Brooklyn, NY.
Ghosts of the River’s Edge: A Museum of the Tiber
Critic: Lori Gibbs
Class: Advanced Design Studio 402
Program: Museum
Location: Tiber River in Rome, Italy
Ghosts of the River’s Edge proposes a distributed, open-air museum along the Tiber River in Rome that engages with the site’s layered history of demolition, transformation, and infrastructural control. Rather than housing artifacts in a traditional building, the museum consists of a constellation of architectural interventions that highlight forgotten or erased histories while prompting new experiences of the urban landscape.
Informed by flows of earth, water, and pedestrian movement over centuries, especially the axial pilgrimage route to St. Peter’s, the project contrasts this rigid spatial logic with a decentralized and experiential network of "soft infrastructure." These interventions draw on Rome’s existing urban devices (crosswalks, obelisks, scaffolding) and reframe them to reveal hidden narratives, material traces, and new perspectives of the city.
Constructed primarily from light metal scaffolding and minimal structure, each intervention maintains a non-invasive presence, encouraging exploration without monumentalizing. Examples include a camera obscura projecting river views, benches that trace the Aurelian Wall, and suspended walkways offering altered vantage points of monuments and the river.
Inspired by Situationist thought and Shklovsky’s concept of defamiliarization, the museum invites visitors to slow down, discover, and reimagine the city through a shifting itinerary, transforming passive circulation into active interpretation and engagement with place.
Above: Research Maps + Diagrams