The ancient buildings of Rome still form an important element of the well-known cityscape and serve as architectural testimonies of a three thousand year old and in many respects unique city history. However, the significant buildings have not remained untouched in the centuries since their construction and can therefore no longer be admired today in their originally designed form. Rather, they have been constantly developed architecturally and thus have completely or partially been converted, extended or dismantled in a variety of ways.

A particular example of this tradition of conversion is the church of San Lorenzo in Miranda, which was built into the ancient temple of Antoninus Pius and Faustina on the Roman Forum. Here, a memorial building dedicated to a divinized emperor and empress was first converted into an early Christian church around 800 and then into a Counter-Reformation wall-pilastered church around 1600: A significant development that can be observed with individual facets and design characteristics in a variety of Roman building ensembles.

The focus seminar pursues the goal of examining concise examples of conversions of ancient structures in Rome, which will be processed, documented and analyzed in groups of two, both in terms of content and drawings.