intervention strategies for renovation of social housing estates

Laurentino38. Example of deprived social housing estates in Rome. Chapter 7
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The Northeast and the Northwest sector were built by the IACP using GESCAL’s funds.
Shortly later and financed by other sources, similar building types were replicated in the
North and the Southwest. The remaining sectors towards the south were realized by the
cooperatives (Barucci, 1979).
The layout of each sector is best characterized as a repetition of a stamp. The stamp consists
of one or two groups of buildings, the so-called ‘insula’. Besides providing an effective chance
to diversify the urban layout, the use of the insula allowed to save money on construction
works (one building site per insula) (Barucci et al., 1979).
A single insula houses between 1400 and 2500 inhabitants, living in up to 300 dwellings in
seven buildings: five multifamily blocks (in Italy called ‘in line’ building), one tower and a
sort of ‘bridge block’ containing primary services and facilities at the local level.
The ground floor of both multifamily blocks and towers is the porticoed 5 . The first group
buildings are 8 storeys high (28ml), the second 14 (46,80ml) storeys high.
The bridge block is more complex than the other buildings. It consists of two storeys high on
ground floor and partially porticoed. It includes terraces, public spaces and pedestrian paths
on different levels. All the building volumes were precisely defined by the urban plan, and
the bridge works as a unifying element (Barucci et al., 1979). The bridge holds primary
facilities such as small shops, private and public offices, and residential services.
Parking garages are located in the basement of the blocks, together with the storages.
Vehicles enter this part from the main road. Only emergency vehicles are allowed to use the
porticoed ground floor. The porticoed ground floor, in fact, was designed as a car free open
space to be used by inhabitants as a safe place to stay. Such a semi-public space between
the blocks were supposed to also have further recreational services placed in the surrounding
areas, like rest zones for elderly, playgrounds for children and sport facilities. These facilities
were never realized.
5 The law n. 167 imposed the use of pillars on the ground floor. According to the group leader of the building
department Pietro Barucci, there is not (functional or technical) motivation for this direction. Rather, this seems to be
an awkward attempt to enforce a principle of modern architecture in Rome.
3. G
BUILDING LAYOUT