Sapienza: la storia e i progetti

Sapienza’s relationship with Rome has taken on different forms and spaces over the years, but it has always been important for the social and economic development of the city. The essay traces the history of the University and makes a critical analysis of its development since the post-war period. Since the 1960s, with the economic boom, the number of students increased significantly. The headquarters of Sapienza expandes in the areas surrounding the campus, in the districts of S. Lorenzo, Castro Laurenziano and Nomentano. This growth, which also affects the engineering poles of S. Pietro in Vincoli and architecture in Valle Giulia, is not very interesting from the point of view of urban quality. The Policlinico and the Città Universitaria itself have also undergone a similar process, progressively eroding those open spaces that represented the architectural and urban quality of the settlements, to house the new extensions. The neighborhoods gradually invaded by the needs of the academic structures, have also responded by adapting to functional needs, rearranging existing spaces to new uses, in the absence of an overall plan of transformation. The project experimentation that we propose within the research “The city as a cure and the care of the city” deals with what we could define as the “widespread campus” of the main roman university. The research project is based on two main areas: 1. The reconfiguration of the public space near some strategic nodes of the city, with the intent to promote the connections inside and outside the neighborhoods and the soft multi-modality. 2. The use of residual spaces and green infrastructures, with potential functions of ecological network, to equip spaces that promote active outdoor life. The research has therefore identified three areas of action: 1. The area around the University City and the S. Lorenzo district which can be defined as a real “widespread campus”. The state of congestion in this area calls for reflections on the requalification of open spaces, the enhancement of residual spaces, the reconquest of pedestrian space and the creation of cycling circuits. 2. The Flaminio axis, a system that links the various Architecture venues that develop between Piazza Borghese and the Olympic Village, where creating a cycle-pedestrian path that intercepts the Borghetto Flaminio and the slopes of Villa Borghese, one can rejoin the Tiber. 3. The Campi Sportivi - Sant’Andrea Hospital system, the area most characterized by the natural context and the Roman countryside. The backbone of this system is the river Tiber with its riparian vegetation and the system of sports facilities. These three areas of urban redevelopment are crossed by the Sapienza Cycle-Bypass, a pedestrian circuit that in our project forms a ring that intersects the GRAB (Grande Raccordo Anulare delle Biciclette proposed by Legambiente), the Aurelian Walls and the Tiber. The project “La Sapienza della cura urbana” has also identified a decalogue of strategic design actions articulated in three main categories that can be used on other similar occasions: a. SUSTAINABLE NETWORKS, b. EQUIPPED SURFACES, c. NODES AND ATTRACTOR