Maximiliane Gindele, M.A.

Working title: “Invisible Buildings. Presence, Perception, and Impact of Immaterial Architecture in Rome”

Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Mischa Meier, Prof. Dr. Richard Posamentir

In ancient Rome, buildings, although absent from the present city, could be powerful in diverse media and contexts. Time or unreality created a distance which withdrew them from visibility and materiality, but imagination gave presence and impact to vanished, projected, and unrealised buildings. In the perception of the knowing observer, the architecture of several time layers overlapped and thus formed a multi-layered cityscape. So far, Classical Studies lack awareness and pay little attention to this phenomenon. Therefore, in this thesis, the invisible architecture in Rome will be examined in a nuanced way for the first time. The study asks what social impact architecture unfolded beyond its physical presence and how imagined buildings were embedded in socio-political discourses. The focus lays on the 1st centuries BCE and CE, since in this period, a fundamental urban and political transformation was taking place in Rome, during which invisible buildings appeared more frequently. They seem to be time signs which mark turmoil and, at the same time, reflect the zeitgeist. The study begins with a specific survey of literary and archaeological material; based on this, significant examples are selected and analysed in case studies; subsequently, the individual results are compared and interpreted comprehensively. As fundamental research, this thesis would like to show that the meaning of architecture could be detached from its materiality and develop a transferable interpretative model for the investigation of invisible buildings. This study can thus establish an innovative and interdisciplinary perspective for examining ancient architecture in its cultural context.

• cultural history of the late Republic and the early Imperial period
• Roman architecture and urbanism
• history and topography of the city of Rome
• ancient architectural and urban sociology

• Review of J. Prim, Aventinus mons. Limites, fonctions urbaines et représentations politiques d’une colline de la Rome antique, CEFR 571, Diss. Paris 2012, Rom 2021, in: sehepunkte 22 (11), 2022, <http://www.sehepunkte.de/2022/11/35846.html>.
• Review of T. Behm, Städte in Ovids Metamorphosen. Darstellung und Funktion einer literarischen Landschaft, Hypomnemata 112, Diss. Rostock 2020, Göttingen 2022, in: BMCR 2023.08.10, <https://bmcr.brynmawr.edu/2023/2023.08.10/>.

• "Ubi habitas? Wohnort, Nachbarschaft und Politik im spätrepublikanischen Rom", Kolloquium des Seminars für Alte Geschichte, Tübingen, 19.01.2021.
• "Nachbarschaft und Politik im spätrepublikanischen Rom. Senatorische Wohnorte im Stadtraum", Absolventenfeier des Fachbereiches Geschichtswissenschaft und des Fördervereins Geschichte an der Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, 24.11.2021.
• "Out of Sight, out of Mind? The Demolition of Fulvius Flaccus’ House in the Late-Republican Discourse", St Andrews – Tübingen Graduate Conference, Tübingen, 01.06.2022.         
• "Urbs Roma. Geschichte und Archäologie der antiken Stadt", Rotary Club Biberach Weißer Turm, Biberach (Riß), 12.09.2022.
• "Fremde Federn. Die Marmorsäulen des Aemilius Scaurus als Gestaltungselement und Erinnerungsobjekt im römischen Stadtraum", Doktorand*innen-Workshop. Urbane Ästhetik. Gestaltungsstrategien im öffentlichen Raum, Mainz, 10.11.2022.
• “Meaningful Emptiness: Open Spaces as Places of Remembrance in Republican Rome”, Ancient Architecture Discussion Group, Oxford, 03.03.2023.
• “Constructing Neropolis: Nero’s Urban Projects after the Great Fire and Their Literary Echo”, Constructing Ancient Cities, Mainz, 11.09.2023.
• “Wenn der Kaiser wie ein Kaiser baut. Neros Großbauprojekte im literarischen Diskurs”, Der Römische Principat als Paradoxie. Interdisziplinäre Zugänge zu einer besonderen Monarchie. Workshop für Nachwuchswissenschaftler:innen der klassischen Altertumswissenschaften, Konstanz, 05.10.2023.