"Densificare demolire riconfigurare". Roma tra il fiume, il bosco e il mare

The paper discusses a project presented to the Dipartimento di Architettura e Progetto of Rome’s Sapienza University (coordinator Piero Ostilio Rossi, team leader Orazio Carpenzano). It was part of an international workshop, “Roma 20–25”, organised by the city of Rome and the MAXXI (Museo nazionale delle Arti del XXI secolo). The proposal hopes to contribute to an inversion of ideas behind town planning for a significant part of Rome’s “Comet Tail”. The “tail” consists of the urban sprawl between Rome’s ring road and the seaside, with Ostia as a natural point of reference. The emphasis lies in the area’s natural resources in the hope of creating a new and better guaranteed cycle of life for the housing and the landscape in which it lies. The research methods and proposed projects tend to measure themselves against the degree to which the housing is embedded within the history and landscape of the area. They absorb this type of data as a fundamental part of bringing back to life some kinds of ways to regenerate and reconnect the more recently constructed areas. Two operational strategies lie at the heart of, and frame, these objectives, demolition and densification. These could be taken as an overall future procedure for the city of Rome. In our proposal the procedure of densification involves using environmental green areas (woodland is the prime and most obvious example), along with new housing projects and social services. The creation of open public spaces would serve as a catalyst in the process of densification, as well as providing planners with a chance to reshape existing buildings. In particular, our analysis highlights seven themes characteristic of this part of town. It also points out the same number of key planning points of particular relevance: the sea and the new layout of Rome’s waterfront; the relevance of water and agriculture in relation to the river and the canal network; the archaeological remains along the coastline, dating to Roman Imperial times; the Castelfusano pinewood; the ways of getting around, with particular reference to the railway line and environmentally friendly transport; the drosscapes, recycling waste products into new landscapes.