Prenestina Linear System. Urban archaeology, climate-ready public space, welfare and housing dynamics from Rome to Gabii

Rome’s eastern territories are characterised by a dispersed and stratified urban form, where archaeological traces, ancient routes and modern infrastructures coexist without producing a continuous fabric. Along the Via Prenestina, this condition has historically structured access to the city while remaining marginal in terms of public space and urban welfare, through an heterogenous 18 km fabric spanning from Porta Esquilina to Gabii. This paper interprets the corridor as a persistent archaeological linear system, whose discontinuous traces generate morphological value for contemporary city renewal, while also shaping differentiated socio-spatial and real estate conditions along the west–east gradient. Drawing on urban morphology and urban archaeology, archaeological remains are read not as isolated heritage sites but as a spatial substratum capable of structuring accessibility, public space and everyday practices. Renewal is articulated through a node-based approach, focusing on locations where archaeological depth intersects with welfare-related infrastructures and mobility systems. Within this framework, real estate dynamics are addressed as an intrinsic component of urban morphology, reflecting existing spatial conditions and acting as a constraint for welfare-oriented transformation rather than as a driver of extractive valorisation. The paper further argues that climate adaptation in archaeologically sensitive contexts requires distributed, climate-ready public space rather than large peripheral green areas. Vegetation is therefore interpreted as an ecological and morphological infrastructure embedded within everyday urban spaces. The Prenestina corridor is proposed as a framework for integrating archaeology, public space and climate adaptation and non-extractive approaches to urban value in fragmented metropolitan contexts.