designer carmelo battaglia presents us his latest piece, a time-lapse video called ‘viaggio nelle città invisibibili di roma’ (journey to the invisible cities of rome) where he takes us to abandoned places in rome that he brings back to life with a camera, natural light, and a very precise eye. battaglia’s immersive journey transports the viewer into the heart of forgotten roman realities like the half-built skeleton of santiago calatrava’s sport city, the gasometro, the abandoned flaminio stadium, and the never finished piazza dei navigatori.

carmelo battaglia viaggio nelle citta invisibili di roma designboom
‘casa albero’

 

 

 

carmelo battaglia decided to represent his photographic architectural project using the time-lapse technique because this one helped to understand the concept of time: by capturing frames in sequence, you can speed time resulting in the possibility to observe and focus on the things that are blurred in our everyday life. it helps to understand the architectural elements in a different way within time while they are animated by the movement of light which creates a dance of shadows and gives dynamism to its static nature.

carmelo battaglia viaggio nelle citta invisibili di roma designboom
‘tor vergata’

 

 

 

patience was the main ingredient the designer had to endure. the project took in total 4 months to be completed, where the main goal was to catch the right moment, one where all the elements participating are collaborating and ready to be picked. the difficulties faced include the limited access to the structures and the weather, as well as the calculations of the sun’s path. after these things were resolved and the parameters settings were ready, battaglia was ready to shoot the sequence, giving it intervals ranging from 5 to 45 seconds depending on the movement of the shadows.

 

the result is a video which showcases architectural structures that are no longer dead, that are brought back to life and that interact with time and light, gaining a second life.

carmelo battaglia viaggio nelle citta invisibili di roma designboom
the designer setting all the things needed to create the materpiece

carmelo battaglia viaggio nelle citta invisibili di roma designboom
the camera takes shots every 5 to 45 seconds to create the sequence of pictures that are later on animated

 

 

designboom has received this project from our ‘DIY submissions‘ feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

 

edited by: juliana neira | designboom