Campo Testaccio

The urban project is structured around the definition of two connecting axes. The first identifies a new urban park that extends from Monte Testaccio to the Parco della Resistenza; the second reconnects the residential area of Testaccio with the gardens of the Pyramid in the Non-Catholic Cemetery of Rome. The focal point of this system is the project area, where the mineral dimension of the consolidated city meets the vegetal dimension, which has always had a predominant character, from ancient orchards to the reconquest of pioneer plants.

This hinge becomes a place of crossing, of staying, and of observing. The blocks of schools and other buildings already present in the area are redefined and regularized, respecting their original surfaces. Among the islands that these blocks constitute, a new system of public pathways is articulated, among which emerges a tree-lined avenue that cuts through the plot from southwest to northeast, gradually opening towards the Poste di Libera building and thus emphasizing a privileged perspective axis between existing buildings and the new dense vegetation that characterizes the southern area of the plot.

Public space, in Scenario A, is granted to citizens with two contrasting and complementary atmospheres: the pathways area - towards Testaccio - open, defined by perimeter trees and predominantly mineral paving; and the park area - towards the Cemetery - covered by the new canopy, in continuity with the existing vegetation, punctuated by tree trunks and predominantly vegetal paving. In Scenario B, "Prati del Popolo Romano," where the orientation of the football field does not allow the opening of the avenue, intense vegetation is proposed throughout the public space, with predominantly vegetal paving, interspersed with functional islands with mineral paving.

To enhance the privileged position of the site, from which it is possible to simultaneously observe a fascinating array of archaeological, architectural, and natural landmarks, such as the Pyramid, the Aurelian Walls with Porta San Paolo, the enclosure of the Cemetery from which the spiky trees ("alberi pizzuti") emerge, the rationalist building of the Post Office, and Monte Testaccio, it was decided not to build upwards. This gesture is, among other things, facilitated by the possibility of exploiting existing excavations for the insertion of new functions, referring to the current positioning, lowered compared to the urban level, of the Pyramid of Cestius.