"Spinaceto - I thought it was worse. It isn't so bad."
Nanni Moretti "Dear Diary"
The architectonic space of a city is often intended to mean a macrocosm organised to represent the territory on which it stands, a vast system of signs and forms that give life to a connective and recognisable web. On the other hand, its elementary unity, represented by the quarter, if it is an active matrix for terittorial expansion, is also a microcosm which locally unifies experiences and expands perceptions of those who reside there. So it has the connotations of a measurable and livable space. This becomes a place through its relationship with its users, their actions, meetings and daily experiences.
For an ancient city like Rome the force of historical roots has been such as always,undeniably, to favour Rome's own identity of macrocosm territory, while successive developments beyond the consolidated belt have testified to the difficulty of building valid urban microcosms. The efforts required have made it difficlt to propose a new model, as a space of modernity, a physical horizon symbolic of living in the present.
Among the 'most authoritative examples of past planning we are still struck today by the emblematic fixity, the aesthetic purity and the large scale dimensions of the EUR quarter, which includes among other celebrated architecture that of Aldoberto Libera, Pierluigi Nervi and Luigi Moretti. Yet about 5 kilometres beyond EUR, many questions of design arise and the urban quality of the relatively recent residential quarter - EUR-Spinaceto, commonly called simply Spinaceto. It is distinquished by the sinuous design of its various roads, intended to give this settlement a certain spatial fluidity, supported however by rows of high buildings which alternate on the sides of a vast section of roads (varying between 200 and 300 metres). Following various positions of urban design they are the paradigmatic scenario of this new urban metropolis.
This fruit of urban research aimed at the control of territorial expansion of the city, this singular master plan of a settlement for about 40.000 inhabitants, was , drawn up by a team including Arc. Lucio Barbera, currently head of the Faculty of Architecture of Rome, "Ludovico Quaroni". It immediately provoked a deep split in public opinion, between those who saw it as a coherent proposal consonant with policies for houses , and others concerned with a merely ideological and popularist aspect of its implementation.
In fact a strong re-action was feared to such a concentration of inhabitants in a suburban zone not connected to the infrastructure system of the city. The quality of the plan presented was low, viewed in an abstract key like a sort of huge social incubator, in spite of everything, a tragic protagonist in a process of deterioration and marginalization. Inevitably such an approach was confined to considerations of isolation from the rest of Roman territory. Almost to witnessing the solitude that symbolically claws at contemporary man. So amidst controversy, and inspite of many difficulties, the the project for they quarter was completed in a short time, along with works of primary urbanization and obligatory schools. Different features of the construction programme were new:: a main road system which crossed the quarter in two directions, at the heart, shops and offices in commercial centres, and on the sides blocks of flats and systems of residential green.
Spinaceto at first sight seems to represent the fact of hurry today, a piece of city which promises to become not so much the set of glossy public relations, as the scenario for a metrolitan protest. One of the many examples of a periferal Rome which has difficulty in discovering identity of place.. Paradoxically the planning experience of the quarter was born from theoretical premises of law and and integration, in the sense that it developes most exquisitely urban components and at the same time rereads the specifically architectural aspects of light and shade, of movement and pause, of origin and path. These can never be understood if not lived, or passing through those places which in the envisaged project have become concrete reality touchable, perceivable, experiencable.
In this light, and overcoming the impact of disorientation, it is still possible to investigate the quarter with a fresh appoach, to discover the qualities which are not obvious and the validity of many of its architectural characteristics.
Historical urbanistic picture
Spinaceto is a large quarter to the south-west of Rome, situated just a kilometre beyond the Ring Road. Built between the zones called Mezzocammino and Tor de Cenci, it is bounded to the east by Via Pontina and to the west by Via Camminino. Beyond, two villages have recently been built, Villaggio Azzurro and Tre Pini on the inside of a green belt which stretches as far as the Via Cristofero Colombo.
Just as for the neighbouring quarters, its name must derive from the ancient holding of Spinaceto on which it was constructed.. The term "Spinaceto" appeared already in I536 referring to the Capella dei SS Pietro e Paolo, and with time it came to be used to indicate a group of farm houses close to each other, constituting a vast agricultural zone of about 250 hectars belonging to one landowner.
Already at the beginning of the twentieth century the entire property was split up into different grounds, later included in a reclamation scheme, around 1910 and then interested after the war the expansion plans regarding economic popular building , to integrate the settlements which illegally arose in the neighbourhood of Tor de Cenci. Here, in fact, Ciociari, Marchegiani and Abruzzese families came to work in the capital during the building boom in the capital They created a suburb having the aspect of a small village which took its name from the homonym Torre dei Cenci currently incorporated in an agricultural farm. And so it was that in 1965, as envisaged by the General Regulatory plan and thanks to the new law 176/62 for the realisation of the so-called PEEP (Plans For economic and popular building), in an area of about 180 hectars belonging to The Comune of Rome, co-inciding with the old holding of Spinaceto and with part of the great holding of Decima, the popular Eur-Spinaceto quarter with about 40,000 new residents was completed by the architects. Piero Moroni, Nicvola Di Cagno, Lucio Barbera, Fausto Bettinelli and Dino Virgilio Francione.
Such a project for residential settlment, came into existence according to a new urbanistic conception and in opposition to entrenched building speculation. It was founded on planned principles: a concentration of public and private spaces in specific ambits to guarentee maximum compactness and specialisation, and the providing of ample spaces for a network of roads, technological services and continuous public zones of green. The positioning of residential areas was designed to guarentee a veiw of facilities and their role in public life; throughout the settlement a system ensuring equal residence facilities, a relationship between the residences themselves and green spaces, organized in specific areas and within the so-called countryside-park system. The main characteristic of the plan for the Spinaceto zone was its road system organised according to a Y pattern with curvilinear movement. (so very soon the quarter got the nickname of Serpentine). This distinguished the rows of big residential complexes , placed at the edges of double road axises lined with trees, running alternately one way, from so-called omnibus buildings, multi-storey structures intended to accommodate collective facilities, positioned in the centre to constitute a kind of pole of services. To integrate everything a secondary network of road and pedestrian connections, was designed, with underpasses and flyovers, so as to link at different points the two parts of the quarter.
Despite a rapid completion of primary urbanisation works and scholastic services for resident families, Spinaceto became very early in the 70's a dormitory area, given the lack of minimum services such as public transport and the non completion of buildings destined to be shops, which began to appear only in the early 80's with the building of the first omnibus building called Garda I
Following the construction of other commercial centres, sporting centres, hotels and offices for advanced tertiary services, and two very beautiful natural parks the park of Decima Malafede, officially opened in 1998, which developed in grand part to the east of Via Pontina and the Parco campagna di Spinaceto and the realisation by Arch. La Fluente and Rebecchini of the Catholic church dedicated to San Giovanno Evangelista, the zone changed. Instead of being seen as a deteriorating residential quarter on the extreme outskirts of Rome, it became a multi-purpose facilities zone. It still needs, however, an important infrastructural connection with the city, like the ventilated project of doubling the B Line of the Metropolitana of Rome as far as Tor De Cenci and local cultural and leisure services for the young and for families.
The integrated development of Spinaceto
Since it was constructed many things have changed and the quarter has expanded both towards the Via Pontina and towards the Via Cristoforo Colombo. So it is, in fact, like a city satellite of medium size where services are much improved and, at the same time, the quality of life.
The integration of this limb of city has involved the forming of a civic network which has been helped by different associations formed in building local commitees,and supporting social and cultural initiatives. for protecting,controlling and organising the territory. Here we may recall among others, members of the "Committee for Spinaceto" and the associations "Parco di Spinaceto", "Italia nostra", "Colle della Strega" and "Le Betulle", constantly committed to the work of communication and sensibilising of citizens. Their strategy seems to have been successful above all in the sector of safeguarding the ambience, against uncontrolled building, and respect for historic green zones.
Their generous commitment to the development of these zones has enabled us to obtain good results for the quarter. In May 2006, after
confrontation, and keen sometimes heated discussion with citizens, the Campidoglio Junta approved the project thanks to which the historic club Rugby Roma will be able to play at home in the Parco di Spinaceto. Here will be born, in fact, the so-called Rugby polo, enhanced by a fitness centre, including a gymnasium, a swimming pool and an olympic skating rink.
The first project put together by the associations of the quarter was approved by the Juncta to speed up the process of the sporting complex, which will be realized by a private company according to an officially agreed formula of "green points for quality".
To complete the works of improvement of the park of Spinaceto with the realisation of new structures, the estimate came to about 14 million euros, work to be concluded by spring 2008. To guarantee respect for the park campaign of Spinaceto, the Campidoglio Juncta appointed the citizens themselves as inspectors of the entire operation, making the project a real showpiece for the improvement of the quarter.
So from this sort of social incubator were born different vital situations and proposals which restored dignity to the quarter revitalising it and the services which were lacking. Among the most significant experiences we recall the constitution of the Teatro della Dodicedsima, born thanks to the activities of the association "Spinaceto and culture Boomerang" created in 1990 by Claudio Cilli and Gabriella De Rosa. A real theatre of art of the XII Municipality, it not only proposed a calender with shows put on by different Italian companies, but brought to the territory an artistic workshop for the young who wish to establish themselves on the stage and for all those who wish to experiment with games and stage illusion.
In order to enlarge the panorama of communications, for the use and sharing of information for the young, in the ambit, of the ten year old activity of the social centre Auroeuromarco (www.auroeuromaro.org), the Spinacity Medialab was created. This is an infrastructure of telecommunications for community use, or a sort of multimedia service which offers Internet connections, organizes moments of auto-information, provides the possibility of operating P2P (Peer to Peer) .It aims, also, to draw the attention both of real people residents and of virtual persons by internet to thematics of a technological kind, as well as to the creative possibilities of co-operation in the management of the contents of information.
