Exploring the transnational-heritage assemblage: the Ara Pacis Museum and the historic city centre of Rome

This paper explores the case of the Ara Pacis Museum in Rome, the first entirely new building to be built in the historic city centre of Rome since WW2. Designed by Richard Meier from 1995 to 2006, the project’s development was highly contentious, due largely to the role of the transnational star architect and the project’s relation to its historic context. Assemblage and Actor-Network Theory is used to decipher the role of human and non-human actants to generate new understandings of this socio-material transnational heritage assemblage within the centre of Rome. The research examines the developmental phases of the project considering the different layers of heritage present on the site. Ultimately, the research reveals the prevalence of multiple heritage dimensions ininforming the process, the challenges of contextualizing projects in heritage sites, the advantage of recognizing the wider socio-material heritage assemblage and the potential to adopt these theoretical frameworks to inform practice.