Università Roma Tre

The class investigates the conceptual arena and the room for manoeuvre of spatial policies, strongly depending upon some major drivers of change: contraction of the public sphere, alternation between development and recession, competition and globalisation dynamics and metropolisation processes.
The discussion around such issues are conducted in the classroom with the help of commented readings and seminars.
Part One addresses the conceptual definition of public policies, introducing and critically discussing the distinction between policy and politics; it stresses policy design issues to be put on the agenda, notably in the frame of general agreements on the environment on a supernational level; the coupling between problems and solutions; the nature and role of stakeholders influencing policy making in a multilevel governance framework and policy implementation, assessment and effects.
Part Two explores a wide array of regeneration policies and practices in the European contexts, that pay increasing attention to the quality of life at local level by intertwining affordable housing, local development and community empowerment issues. The case of the construction of local agendas also helps revisit a wide range of Italian urban and territorial policies, notably in reference to governance issues. Environment and biodiversity take in a major role, allowing to tackle welfare and wellbeing in urban and peri-urban areas.
Part Three, that will be developed alongside the previous parts, is devoted to a practical approach to a specific case study.
On the backdrop of the challenges awaiting the Municipality of Rome (Roma Capitale), the pilot will be that will be developed alongside the previous parts, is devoted to a practical approach to a specific case study.
Current trends in urban planning prompt small scale urban design to encompass sustainable development models and practices rooted in ecological transition.
The most recent European policies acknowledge the greenways and the “Green Infrastructure” as parts of strategic networks able to link different spaces: urban fringes, suburbs, agricultural and natural landscapes often neglected.
The Pietralata district, daily horizon for around 30,000 residents, lies under different planning tools (Municipal Master Plan, Landscape Plan, Tiber River Basin Plan, Regional Reserve of the Aniene River, District Plan). Dynamics of environmental fragility, fragmentation of the land use and a general loss of “sense of place” characterize the area of the Aniene, whose resilience has to be recovered.
Ongoing programs run by the City Council (the expected new Stadium, the ongoing Technopole innovation ecosystem supported by PNRR funds) are likely to radically worsen their quality of life without resolving previous cruciality: urban decay, neglect of open space, traffic congestion, poor accessibility and mobility within the area.
The Green Infrastructure approach (European Commission, 2011), in reversing the figure-ground ratio, offers to Pietralata the opportunity to connect open space fragments different in size and feature, while providing manifold environmental and social benefits (entries space and species).

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