The New Auditorium was the most impressive building to be erected in Rome after a long stagnant period. It is not a mere concert hall but a veritable music and cultural center. The site was chosen in a particularly dilapidated part of Rome, situated between the hill of Parioli, Villa Glori, the Flaminio Quarter extending to the Tiber, and the unattractive buildings constructed for the 1960 Rome Olympics – in other words, an area desperately in need of culture.

Renzo Piano, who designed this important building, created a unified structure composed of three different buildings having the same outward appearance but of different dimensions; around these develop the open-air theater, the bars, restaurants and bookshops.
The whole design embodies the idea that culture is not something accessible only to the few; culture, rather, must interact with the city and all its people.
The site provides not only a sense of historical continuity through the choice of building materials, but also through the ruins of an ancient Roman villa found during the construction work. These have been beautifully incorporated into the new ambience.