Essentiality and Decorum in Rome and Europe

There are many Romes. The city’s architecture is a medley of different, even contrasting shapes and styles, a contrast that modern architecture has at times taken to absurd levels. Take, for example, Rome’s southern quadrant that saw the rise of two completely different cities during the 1930s: Garbatella, designed as a popular neighborhood along the lines of a typical small Italian town with narrow streets and small squares enclosed by pleasing yet unpretentious architecture; and next to this small-town charm, the EUR super-city, its triumphant imperial style proclaiming the apotheosis of Fascism. Today, these two “cities” live comfortably side by side, almost as if mutually dependent on each other. Yet this improbable co-existence sums up a city like Rome, so difficult to classify and which continues to juxtapose opposing forms and lifestyles. Against the backdrop of this medley, the Roman-style apartment block – known as a palazzina – stands out as belonging to a particular moment in Roman architecture. Its best examples express a relaxed, cordial modernity, pleasing even if congested and a far cry from the requirements of well-spaced urban modernity. The palazzina cannot be defined as a building typology. Not conceived within the framework of any precise town-planning rules, it grew out of the small townhouses developed at the beginning of the last century by urbanists who saw Rome’s development as a series of garden cities around the ancient town center. Gradually, these independent urban houses morphed into the palazzina. The result is the middle-class city of the 1970s, an often-irritating medley of excellent and shoddy design.

It’s is an architecture practice with offices in Rome, Geneva and Paris. The “Live” EUR project of partners Alessadro Cambi, Francesco Marinelli and Paolo Mezzalama takes a critical look at the palazzina. First off, they have...

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