Trajan's Returned Markets, Studies and Restorations 2005-2007
After some first important restoration and arrangement interventions carried out between 1996 and 1998, the works carried out in the Trajan's Markets first for the Great Jubilee of 2000, then during the two-year period 2000-2002, and finally with the static and anti-seismic adaptation, dealt with delicate issues related to conservation and safeguarding, but at the same time aimed at enhancing its exhibition and museum potential, as well as a place permeable to the city, with a constant search for balance between the needs of preservation and those of enhancement.
During the works, researches conducted with different methodologies were scientifically supported and favoured, making available materials and results deriving from the restorations in progress, fueling the free interdisciplinary comparison with very interesting results on the performance of the cross vault, on the possible role of seismic events, on the knowledge of materials and the consequent choices of the great Roman builders.
The most innovative choices - acrylic glass, cor.ten - already used, also marked the completion of the internal front of the Great Hall, of the furnishings for the monument's signage, according to criteria of unity of style and image, considering that both the final presentation of the complex and the communication pass through these contemporary but not intrusive materials which do not subtract anything from the strength of ancient architecture and its timeless language.
