TERRAIN VAGUE: THE RIVER VALLEY Beatrice Bruscoli [email protected]

Figure 1: Bridge on Via del Foro Italico looking downstream

Rome, the Eternal City, continues to be —to really begin to know the an active model and exemplary location city—we must walk through it, taking to study and understand the dynamic our time. Arriving at a gate in the transformations taking place in contem- Aurelian Wall, we cross the threshold porary landscapes. In the process of and enter the Campagna (countryside) becoming “eternal,” Rome has been that surrounds Rome just as it has for continually—often radically—altered, millenea. while conserving its primordial image; Looking through the multitude of renewing itself over time, without losing images, paintings, and plans of Rome, its deeply rooted structure. we cannot help but notice that its Before urban form, forma urbis, primary characteristics have remained there is natural form. As Christian distinct and constant over the centuries. Norberg-Schultz informs us, the genius Gianbattista Nolli’s “La Pianta Grande loci of Rome does not reside in some di Roma” of 1748 is the city’s most abstract geometric order or a formalized well-known representation.2 (Plan 1) architectural space, but in the close and This remarkable figure-ground map continuous ties between buildings, voids, presents us with a view of Rome; of a and the natural landscape.1 Rome’s dense compact area of inhabitation, forma urbis was generated and shaped dotted with piazzas and courtyards, and by the natural morphology of its land- surrounded with vast unbuilt areas all scape. Thus, to more fully understand lying within the city walls. The urban

THE WATERS OF ROME: NUMBER 10, APRIL 2016 1 voids, which include streets, piazzas, fabric, and also in its outlying zones of church interiors, palace courtyards, and uninhabited land, the disabitato, where small gardens are its essence. This is true the landscape, even if domesticated, has in the city’s dense core, the abitato, not been romanticized but appears as a where public spaces dominate the urban more natural environment.

Plan 1: La Pianta Grande di Roma, Gianbattista Nolli, 1748

The forma urbis seen in the Nolli radiating out from the historic center, plan is the result of centuries of aban- through the city gates, and initially, donment that unintentionally contains along the ancient consular roads. This traces of the profound ties between the pattern has absorbed vast portions of the city and its original landscape, a condi- Roman Campagna, creating voids that tion that defined its consecutive and continue to dominate the morphology of over-lapping phases of urban develop- the city. This remains its fundamental ment, including modern-day Rome: a figure. Viewing Rome from above, multiform and polycentric archipelago; a perhaps through the eye of Google metropolis of tentacles and islands of Earth, we see a collection of fragments, development. an archipelago of differences, of divided, The city has expanded well beyond disconnected and dispersed urban the historic margins of its ancient walls; centralities. (Plan 2)

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Plan 2: Aerial view of Rome with the Tiber River and the Roman Campagna. Google Earth screen capture, 17 July 2015.

The modern city grew without pressures, the increasing cost of living in conforming to the social and economic the historic center, cheaper suburban expectations of urban planners. Rather, land, and forced removals under its twentieth-century transformation is an Mussolini (and other urban renewal historic amalgam of anarchy, property plans), together created an inhospitable speculation, and well-documented com- environment that forced Romans to plicity between developers, politicians, move far outside their walls to reside in and individual economic interests. uncontrolled sprawl. This unchecked Rome’s urban planners have churned urbanization has expanded Rome’s out several comprehensive master plans territorial influence to engulf large since the beginning of the century; portions of its region, Lazio. including the SanJust plan of 1908, This forced evacuation from the Mussolini’s 1931 variant of his own center has resulted in fragmentary 1925 plan, and the 1962 version with typological development: there are two “Varianti di Piano,” ammendments; primarily residential zones, which are of 1967 and 1974. Each plan involved fundamentally embryonic traditional years of discussion before reaching neighborhoods; other zones are basically approval and implementation. Mean- large shopping and recreational centers; while entire swaths of the city’s perifery there are also military districts; and were built following outdated ordinances finally, technological and industrial or in total disregard of existing laws. areas. Since many developments origi- Even as these plans included territory nated along Rome’s radial streets— beyond Rome’s walls, they were still emanating from the historic center— focused on the historic urban core. there are large swathes of undeveloped But over the last century, market areas, parks, and designated open space.

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Plan 3: Piano Regolatore General, 2008, Ambiti di progrmmaione strategica; quadro di unione.

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Unlike earlier plans, the 2008 Nuovo of large centralities. At the second level Piano Regolatore di Roma, Rome’s the plan proposes a recomposition of the newest master plan (the process began in existing city fabric in the Campagna—at 1994), represents a critical paradigm present frayed and almost completely shift.3 No longer a monocentric devoid of urban substance—with planning model defined from the inside projects that clearly separate and define out—that is, from the historical center margins, which can then be re-stitched surrounded by a residential periphery— together. (Plan 3) the new plan proposes a multipolar and It is important to highlight how the polycentric development strategy. Rome, 2008 Master Plan confronts and as envisioned in the new plan is a city centralizes the system of voids by without limits, physical restrictions, or rendering the landscape as a “natural edges. It is a city in which the voids— network” that connects and structures the absence of density—take on a the archipelago of fragments. The distinctive new role. In this plan the system of natural spaces becomes a voids will be the glue that holds the city continuous infrastructure that can be together; they will provide the foun- crossed, integrating road and rail dation for Rome’s new infrastructure connections. and its future development. The overall result of the various A critical element of the 2008 plan, decision making processes related to the as defined by Rome’s municipal govern- development of the Master Plan has led ment, is to protect the city’s environ- to the protection of over 82,000 hectares mental systems. To do this the plan (about 203,000 acres), some sixty-four focuses on recomposing Rome’s percent of the entire municipal territory, physical structure by protecting the to which we must add the 5740 hectares voids and the public and private park- (about 14,200 acres) of land recovered land against incompatible development. inside the historical and consolidated The goal is to facilitate and more fully city. Within the municipal territory of control current and future expansion by 1,290,000 hectares (about 3, 200,000 clearly defining the physical dimensions acres) the 2008 plan identifies approx- of allowed transformations. As envi- imately 87,740 hectares (about 217,000 sioned in the 2008 plan, Rome of the acres) of open spaces to be configured future will be a metropolis of contiguous and stitched together as a continuous centralities, tied together by the protec- ecological network. ted environmental systems and the The forecasts for the Plan are planned mobility network. To accom- encouraging, although some doubt plish this, the plan proposes to compress remains about its viability. In a market Rome’s collection of fragments—this economy, where liberalism appears to be urban archipelago—based on a two- the only applicable model of develop- tiered structure. On one level the plan ment and in a country where urban works at the territorial scale, construc- planning regulations have always come ting a system of parks, modifying under strong attack, it is feared that mobility through the so-called “steel Rome’s transformation will be entrusted cure” [the construction of metropolitan to those who make concrete proposals— rail lines] and implementing the system land owners and speculative developers,

THE WATERS OF ROME: NUMBER 10, APRIL 2016 5 industrial interests, global tourism, and The Tiber’s central zone, the raison those who control the vast chains of d'être of the city, that which has nurtured commercial distribution. The question it and ensured its vitality for centuries, is remains; will it be possible to consoli- now separated and invisible from the date the ecological network of open city. Within this densely urbanized area spaces into a resistant planning model? there is a critical need for a coordinated In the meantime, it is necessary to design effort that can help recapture the continue to cross these natural open dynamic qualities that once defined the spaces and pass along the urban river, and encourage the transformation corridors, preferably by walking as the of the river into a new strategic infra- best means to internalize their essential structure that can stimulate processes of qualities. This is especially relevant in recovery, especially along its edges. the Tiber River Valley, which the plan The plan identifies four fundamental identifies as a strategic programming issues for the Tiber’s recovery: 1) the environment, capable of transforming ecological question of the riverbed; 2) the city. increasing mobility along its edges; 3) Under the new plan, the river’s the identification of new functional course is divided into three distinct programs; 4) and the transformation of sectors: 1) the northern part of the the visual relationships between the city metropolitan area, that is, everything and its river. above Milvio; 2) the central area The southern area, which includes that includes the historical centre and suburban development and important consolidated city, that is, from Ponte infrastructures, becomes increasingly Milvio to the Magliana neighborhood; naturalized as the Tiber heads toward the and 3) the southern sector, that stretches Mediterranean. In this sector, as in that from Magliana to the mouth of the Tiber north of the urbanized area, the river at the Mediterranean Sea. remains largely unembanked, and thus The three riverine fragments unite acts as a floodplain. Here there are the entire city, yet each has its own ecological corridors that extend from the recognizable and profoundly different river into the Tiber Valley with its physical and functional qualities. As the collection of natural parks and agricul- Tiber flows southward, it divides Rome tural areas that characterize this portion into eastern and western halves, of the city. There are also important adjoining multiple environment systems, archaeological areas in this zone. residential fabrics, monuments, The Tiber Valley, in its entirety, is a archaeological areas, and infrastructures space of voids; a true terrain vague, that including road, airports, and naval ports. is fragmentary and yet embodies the The river’s northern zone, which acts potetial for continuity; a continuity that as a flood plain, is characterized by does not rely on traditional modes of limited but significant infrastructures, development that look to maximizing including the water treatment plant, the financial profit. As architects, scholars, Urbe airport, and rail corridor. There is and educators it is not only worthwhile also a network of protected open spaces, to investigate Rome’s terrain vague, it is including parks, historical villas, and critical for us to consider its ecological natural reserves. value, but also the possibilities it offers

THE WATERS OF ROME: NUMBER 10, APRIL 2016 6 to discover and imagine new ways of see that the Tiber, running through and dwelling, sharing, and constructing the uniting the different cities of the Roman new city that go beyond outdated urban environment, is precisely one of paradigms. those spaces along the margins of which Traversing Rome along the Tiber’s different territories and ecosystems, course helps us to understand why the networks, and infrastructures can come Eternal City (nearly three thousand years together, develop, overlap, and old) continues to be a model for investi- communicate. gation. The river’s continuous passage The study of Tiber Valley landscape, represents the permanent trace of the city through attentive observation and map- itself, exposing its millenary existence. ping of highly articulated phenomena, is We see Rome as a complex and in harmony with the actual complexity intelligent construction of public space. of the contemporary city, offering a Along the river we see not only the dynamic alternative to the rigidity of dilated periphery of a generic city, but urban planning, and the multitude of above all, we see Rome’s wild and design proposals that are limited to the naturalized landscapes united as a production of formal objects. dynamic paradigm of sustainable urban development that corresponds with the necessity of contemporary existence. We

Figure 2: Bicycle path north of Corso Francia, Milvio

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Figure 3: From looking at the bridge of Corso Francia

If we shift our investigation away the potential to support any type of from issues of formal construction to one urban activity, planned or unplanned, that looks directly at the structure of the imagined or unimagined; it is an landscape, we realize a significant environment of different systems that change in perspective. Now, the focus activate a series of networks or of our research is one that looks at the interactions. Thus, the Tiber has the relationships existing between different suggestive potential of abandoned areas, components animating the urban where anything can happen, where territory and the relationships between everything is embryonic. coexisting processes of transformation This strategy, of allowing the Tiber that support the entire territory. to steal the scene as foreground while It is not the final form, but the the city that surrounds it, becomes back- process of transformation that interests ground, is critical to its future. This is us. Walking along the Tiber, or within especially true in the historic center. As the different void spaces of the city, we investigators walk through the dense continuing the study of Rome through its urban core, the Tiber’s archaic energy, network of natural spaces, serves bound within embankment walls, precisely to identify, through the act of struggles to reach our senses. In this crossing, the landscape as a model of area, the Tiber’s history is compressed transformation: a landscape that is between the floodwalls, which are a layered, indeterminate and flexible. subtle line on the horizon that presses This approach—of being ‘in’ this against the riverbanks, whose deep different space of the city—reveals a depression keeps the water out of reach. horizontal plane, an open field that has Once we step down to the river, below

THE WATERS OF ROME: NUMBER 10, APRIL 2016 8 the embankment, the river has the unkempt gardens, barriers, and starring role. Here, sounds change; our overgrowth that hide shelters, homes, focus is on the churning and flowing refuges, sports fields, cultivated fields, river. Here, the water’s horizontal and horses; palimpsests of diversity and surface becomes a free zone, a space of residual terrains. truce. The future of the Tiber banks is not As the Tiber flows south its relation only ecological, but also political. There to the city is constantly transformed. In is a future where, as part of the the north, the landscape is confused; education of the architect or the average there are floodwalls, but they do not citizen, we choose to study and support create an isolated space, the form of the the existence of these abandoned spaces, city disappears in its fragmented with no final objectives except to protect construction, and untamed nature them from devaluation, social control dominates the landscape. Further south, imposed from outside, and economic the river expands and reveals marginal interests of developers and speculators. spaces and the Roman periphery. Here, This is the starting point, a place to learn time is suspended, a poetic neorealist about and understand the evolving image of the past advances in a vacuum landscape of the river and its city, and to of sound. Time stops to make way for accept that, even without us, this genius pure space. In the riparian zone along the loci that is Rome continues to evolve banks there are wild birds, fishermen, and to exist beyond us.

Figure 4: From Corso Francia looking at Ponte Milvio

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Figure 5: Ponte Milvio

Figure 6: Ponte Duca d'Aosta

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Figure 7: From Ponte Risorgimento looking at Ponte Matteotti

Figure 8: After Ponte Risorgimento looking downstream

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Figure 9: Lungotevere delle Armi looking upstream

Figure 10: Looking at Ponte Pietro Nenni

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Figure 11: Ponte Pietro Nenni

Figure 12: From under Ponte Regina Margherita looking upstream

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Figure 13: Looking downstream at Ponte Regina Margherita

Figure 14: Lungotevere

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Figure 15: Lungotevere in Augusta

Figure 16: Lungotevere in Augusta

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Figure 17: Ponte Cavour

Figure 18: Lungotevere Prati

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Figure 19: Looking upstream at Ponte Cavour

Figure 20: Looking downstream at Ponte Umberto I

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Figure 21: Towards San Pietro

Figure 22: Castel Sant'Angelo's bridge

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Figure 23: Castel Sant'Angelo's bridge

Figure 24: Looking upstream at Ponte Principe Amedeo

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Figure 25: Looking downstream at

Figure 26: Looking upstream at Ponte Sisto

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Figure 27: Looking downstream at

Figure 28: Isola Tiberina

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Figure 29: and Cloaca Massima

Figure 30: From Ponte Palatino looking downstream at

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Figure 31: Porto di Grande

Figure 32: Ponte

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Figure 33: From Ponte Testaccio looking upstream

Figure 34: From Ponte Testaccio looking downstream

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Figure 35: Lungotevere di Pietra Papa

Figure 36: From Ponte Marconi looking downstream

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Figure 37: Viadotto della Magliana

Figure 38: Looking upstream towards Viadotto della Magliana

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Figure 39

Figure 40: Before Circonvallzione meridionale looking downstream

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Figure 41: Before Circonvallzione meridionale looking downstream

Figure 42: Circonvalazione Meridionale, fishing for eels

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Figure 43: Towards the mouth

Figure 44: Dwellings

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Figure 45: Near Via Angelo Vescovali

Figure 46: Towards the mouth

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Figure 47: Towards the mouth

Notes

All photographs are the property of the author; © Beatrice Bruscoli, 2016. Please contact the author directly if you wish to reuse any images for any purpose other than personal study.

Footnotes

1 Christian Norberg-Schulz, "Rome" in Genius Loci: Towards a Phenomenology of Architecture, (Milan: Rizzoli International) 1984 2 Giambattista Nolli, Pianta di Roma, 1748; reprinted as The Nolli Plan of Rome: Facsimile, full- size facsimile portfolio; introductory essay by Allan Ceen, (J. H. Aronson: Highmount, New York), 1984. 3 Piano Regolatore Generale di Roma / March 2008, http://www.urbanistica.comune.roma.it/prg.html, and http://www.comune.roma.it/dipterritorio/Npr/prg

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