From Knowledge to Action. Reading the Prenestina Corridor through Urban Archaeology and Adaptive Common Spaces Design

This paper examines how urban archaeology can serve as both a conceptual lens and an operational support for adaptive and sustainable urban design. Focusing on the Prenestina corridor in Rome, the study reads this extensive urban axis – where Roman infrastructure, archaeological areas, twentieth-century industrial landscapes, and post-war residential fabrics overlap – as a living archaeological system in which past and present continuously interact. The argument is grounded in the collective outcomes of the doctoral workshop Roma Urbs Urbis – Via Prenestina (Sapienza University of Rome, 2024-2025), which produced a multilayered knowledge base through socio-economic mapping, institutional and regulatory analysis, and morphological/ cartographic interpretation. By positioning mapping and knowledge production as drivers of action, the paper shows how urban archaeology can extend beyond heritage protection to support adaptive, climate-conscious, and inclusive approaches to public space design. The Prenestina case demonstrates how long-term spatial structures can be translated into design- relevant intelligence and used to frame regeneration scenarios in which historical continuity, morphology, and social dynamics converge towards resilient and equitable common spaces.