Testaccio : memories of an urban landscape

The aim of this project was to maintain the cultural heritage of the district of Testaccio born in the 20th Century and located next to Rome historical center. This area is affected by economic and social mutations that strip the area of the characteristics that makes it singular and wealthy.

Testaccio is a district full of history. Unfortunately the economic and social mutations of the city have made a strong social disparity enhancing fragmentations that emphases more the gentrification phenomenon.\nAfter studying the social aspects of Testaccio’s neighborhood, I chose three main constructions that have become now part of the landscape: the working-class houses, the slaughterhouses and the soccer field. \nI started by trying to understand this main constructions to incorporate them into the urban landscape of the area through a network of actions able to update this elements. \nThe soccer field has become an abandoned land. In the beginnings, it was the first soccer field used to train the players of the famous soccer team La Roma but today it has been left behind. As it is surrounded by several schools, it is interesting to think that it could be enlighten by the new generations as a way to celebrate its historical baggage.\nThe annex of the former slaughterhouses could find a new programmatic use by creating in it libraries for the school of architecture. Through an incremental process, the idea is to transform working-class houses into student’s residences disseminated in the neighborhood to avoid any real-estate speculation. As they are built, the future library could be used as a transitional space and accommodate the student’s residence.\nIn the abandoned stables of the slaughterhouses where nowadays remains a few associations, the idea is to create a participative project to give a new impulse to this rejected space. Creating inclusive projects will give to this abandon space a sense of community and belonging where locals can actively participate and share their needs.\nEach intervention responds to a specific economic installation and theme. Together they contribute to reform the imaginary of the place which tends to disappear by requesting various memories of this district. I tried to describe a heterogeneous story through various pieces of the common memory by perpetuating it in a context of social transformations by including the inhabitant as the pillar of every intervention.