Living Amidst the Ruins in Rome: Archaeological Sites as Hubs for Sustainable Development

Alessandra Capuano

doi:10.3390/su14063180

Abstract

In Rome, the intertwining of natural and built environments is structural, and has consolidated over the centuries. In the contemporary fabric, the overabundant presence of archaeology, always in symbiosis with vegetation, plays an important role for the image of the city and has helped maintain the alternation of voids and solids. Porosity can be seen therefore as a permanent morphological urban character of the city, particularly significant nowadays for environmental considerations. Ruins, which only a few years ago were perceived more as a brake to urban transformation, in recent years are emerging as an interesting potential in terms of biodiversity spots and social catalysts to implement more sustainable development. Out of the concept of sustainability, we can in fact recognize new and more cutting-edge ways of planning and designing heritage territory. This article describes a different approach to the enhancement of archaeological areas, through three case studies—The Appian Way Park, Rome’s City Walls and ArchaeoGRAB—that consider heritage as a sustainable integrated system. These projects present, through a holistic and multidisciplinary perspective, possible ways in which landscape design can contribute to the preservation of natural and heritage environments, as well as the development of healthier lifestyles and strengthening of local culture for the communities that dwell therein.

Highlights

The extraordinary and unique abundance of archaeological areas that characterizes Rome, within and outside the city walls, represents an unparalleled historical and cultural resource and acts as a deterrent in modernity to the transformation of the city; so much so that the ruins were perceived as a “nightmare” in the construction of the subway in the film Roma by Federico Fellini
We illustrate in this paper three Roman cases that concern archaeological areas and green spaces, for which we propose a different design approach oriented towards the mere preservation of historical and natural places and aimed at overlapping uses, functions, and the symbolic and social aspects that these areas have to offer
We are working on the city walls and the ArchaeoGRAB, intended as urban systems providing available and usable historical and natural environments as well as clear uniqueness and identity and urban connections

Summary

Introduction

The extraordinary and unique abundance of archaeological areas that characterizes Rome, within and outside the city walls, represents an unparalleled historical and cultural resource and acts as a deterrent in modernity to the transformation of the city; so much so that the ruins were perceived as a “nightmare” in the construction of the subway in the film Roma by Federico Fellini. For this reason, in Roma Città Mediterranea [1].

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