Rome 1989: The urgent need for a planning process

Abstract

This article recalls in brief the town planning events of Rome since national unification in 1870, describing how in the making of Italy's capital, the wonderful baroque city desired by Pope Sistus V and planned by Domenico Fontana was torn down. In spite of a series of town plans between 1873 and 1962 (the latter of which is still in force), the city with its present three million inhabitants has rejected any form of organization or control, with heavy political responsibilities resting with the municipal administrations, which often favoured real property speculation supported by landowners. This led (particularly in the 1960s and 1970s) to the dreadful phenomenon of illegal building and to the spreading of the peripheries. The recent law for ‘Rome, capital city’ could represent the starting point of a new era for Rome if the political forces of the city, the province and the region together are able to draw up and run a strategic and structural plan for the metropolitan area.