The Cloud

Italian architecture practice Studio Fuksas has completed the largest building in Rome in over 50 years. It will host auditoriums, exhibition spaces and a hotel – amassing 55,000 square metres in new public space. Located south of the city’s core, in the business district of EUR, the complex follows the simple orthogonal lines of the surrounding 1930s rationalist architecture.

The New Rome /EUR Convention Hall and Hotel ‘the Cloud’ comprises three distinct architectural concepts: the basement, the ‘Theca’ and ‘Cloud’, and the ‘Blade’. The ‘Theca’ is the outer shell and facade of the convention Hall and Hotel, which has been made from a combination of metal, glass and re-enforced concrete.

The ‘Cloud’ is an independent cocoon-like structure that is covered in 15,000 square metres of highly advanced membrane fiber glass and flame-retardant silicone and is supported laterally at points by the ‘Theca’.

The final architectural concept is the ‘Blade’ – an autonomous building split into 17 floors and containing a new 439-room hotel built to provide accommodation to visitors to the centre and the city of Rome. Spread over 18,000 square metres, the ‘Blade’ will also include seven boutique suites, a spa and a restaurant.

The building has been constructed from 37,000 tons of steel – the equivalent weight of four and a half Eiffel Towers. Additionally, 58,000 metres of glass has been used for the centre’s exterior and interior design, which is enough to cover the surface of 10 football pitches.

New Rome/EUR convention Hall and Hotel ‘the Cloud’
Architects: Massimiliano and Doriana Fuksas
Interior design: Fuksas Design
Engineering: A.I. Engineering, Torino
Structures: Studio Majowiecki; Studio Sarti
General contractor: Società Italiana per Condotte d’Acqua SpA
Area: 55,000 sqm
Completion: 2016