Introduction

At present Rome's urban space appears open and unconfined. The major housing expansion, which began during the post-war period and stretched through to the present, brought about a loss of coherency in the urban fabric. Over time, the city centre – while nominally preserved thanks to its historic value – has lost the specific, connecting function of ‘the centre’, becoming instead a discordant space. In its place, individual and disconnected fragments within the city have assumed its various ‘central functions’: be they administrative, economic, cultural, etc. Roberto Cassetti has commented on this situation, making particular reference to the 2003 piano regolatore, the urban master plan of the city. In Cassetti's view, the various ‘centres’ of Rome, which have materialized around the various focal points of urban activity, should be placed into dialogue with one another within a system of reciprocal relationships, so as to manage organically the dispersed urban context.