Putting my fellowship at the American Academy in Rome to use, I studied centuries of monumental spaces. I began to consider how monumentality might feel if the honorees were not the usual gods or rules but innocents who perished because they lacked freedom or power.

The largest stadium in ancient Rome, Circus Maximus, was used for gladiatorial events and wild animal fights. The venue stretched across the Valley of Murcia between Rome’s Aventine and Palatine hills. Today, the expansive space is a protected ruin—a perfect setting for a theoretical monument.

I imagined a confined passage that progressed through soaring earthen walls. Recalling the experience of captives who perished there, tension builds as walls rise until spatial compression culminates and releases into a light-filled escape. The simple, verdant bowl brings relief and fosters remembrance.