Temple of Janus

Design Project • December 2025

The Temple of Janus is a first step into learning classical architecture. It is a pavillion dedicated to Janus the Twofold, the Roman god of doorways, decisions, beginnings and ends.

The Roman forum of antiquity housed a Temple of Janus. Historically, this temple was primarily used for its dual gates. It is held by scholars ancient and modern that these gates were used to signify peace and war, harkening to Janus’s connection with the passage of time. In times of war, the doors to Janus’s temple would be opened - while in peace, the doors would be shut, which would signify a time of pride and celebration for Rome.

This iteration of the Temple of Janus, placed in the Subiaco region of Italy, is upstream from the Temple of Vesta Tivoli, deeply wooded and remote. As such, the Temple of Vesta and Bramante's Tempietto were sources of inspiration in the design. The doric order was chosen to speak to the more stalwart and unchanging nature of Janus.