Garbatella: A New Urban Plan
Technique: Watercolor Rendering
Fall 2024
This was a group project and is set on on the Garbatella neighborhood in Rome, and is supposed to restore life and dignity to its decaying entrance. It includes Public, Mixed Use, and Residential buildings. Within the Public buildings, we were required to include a market hall.
Each group member was then required to design an individual market hall for the project.
Rome, Italy
For the design of this project, we began the process by understanding how people would approach the sight. Both vehicular and pedestrian flow would come from the North, as the two main streets are directed southwards, and the metro station is to the North of the sight. Because of this, we decided to include a terraced entrance in Via Alessandro Cialdi. These terraces would act as an entrance, exit, and space in itself. This would be framed by an archway and colonnade, inspired by the Canopus in Villa Adriana. In the other main street, Via Alberto Guglielmotti, we included a bridge (characteristic of Garbatella), framing the view from the street to towards the site.
In our site analysis, we learned that the most public area was North of the site, and it became more residential towards the South. Therefore, we incorporated a chapel, the market hall, and other public and mixed use buildings in the upper part of the site. In the lower part, we included residential blocks. We decided to play with elements of compression and expansion. When approaching the site from Via Alberto Guglielmotti, one is compressed by the building and the tunnel under the bridge, and the surroundings then expand into the central garden area. From this garden, one can follow a narrow path upwards, lined by porticoed walkway with restaurants. This then expands into the piazza where the chapel and market hall are found.
In the group phase of the design, we decided to incorporate the market hall as a containment element of a public space. Therefore, the market hall was not intended to be the main focus of the space, as opposed it the space itself. Therefore, the design of the market hall was made with this in mind. It is intended to serve as a market hall, but also as a community pavilion, flexible to the needs to the inhabitants. The facade design is inspired in the very eclectic Garbatella, taking precedent from several buildings in the neighborhood.