The 'Citadel of Exclusion': Regeneration Processes in the Area of S. Maria della Pietà in Rome

My work focuses on the regeneration of a particular type of urban area: specifically the areas which housed the former psychiatric hospitals. The history of all derelict areas is somewhat similar. In almost all cases it seems to me possible to identify in them a similar process of evolution, divided into three consecutive phases: abandonment, invasion, renewal. In the first stage we see the decline of the function for which the structure was originally conceived. The structure is then gradually abandoned by its owners (public or private). The duration of this phase depends on the degree of resistance mounted by those who worked in the structure, or who received from it a more or less vital social service. As the “traditional” activities of the structure decrease, so the parts of it that have been abandoned are invaded by a new series of activities which, for various reasons, can be classified as “fringe” activities. They are, in fact, almost invariably located on the fringes of the economic and social process, and sometimes even excluded from it, because society does not recognise their economic value or social use. These various activities are usually tolerated even after abandonment has been completed. But they are often a source of conflict once the regeneration stage has begun. It is during this stage that the conflict between the owners of the site and the social groups that have invaded it becomes most pronounced. The outcome of this conflict – and particularly the probability of the social groups involved exerting any influence on plans drawn up for the re-conversion of the derelict area – greatly depends, however, on what happened during the preceding stages (abandonment and invasion). Have the invading groups developed any ties with the groups which tried to resist the area’s abandonment? Have they succeeded in co-operating together to produce a joint and (in cultural terms) widely shared project? Is this project able to mobilise the majority of the inhabitants of the area of the city in question? To what extent are the social groups involved in the project represented within the city’s political institutions? What is the strength and extension of the social network that the groups involved have succeeded in developing around their project? These are the questions that will guide my investigation of the particular case being studied here: the former psychiatric hospital of Rome, Santa Maria della Pietà.