TESTACCIO DISTRICT

QUARTIERE TESTACCIO

Via Marmorata/Lungotevere Testaccio/Viale del Campo Boario

The district was built in the fifty years 1870/1920, although most of the buildings for the residents were built after 1905

The area had been assigned for centuries to public use and it was known as PRATI DEL POPOLO ROMANO (meadows of the Roman people) destination for picnics especially on Easter Monday or Sundays in October, the so-called Ottobrate

The district was listed in the city plan of 1873 by Pietro Camporese the Younger (1792/1873) and took the Rione (ward) attribute in 1921

About 8,400 people live here

1908/10 CASE ICP (public housing homes) between Via Bodoni, Via Manuzio and Lungotevere Testaccio by Giulio Magni (1859/1930), grandson of Giuseppe Valadier

“His four-story residential blocks are reinvented in proportions and relative positions in the blocks and compared to the internal voids (courtyards), no more extra spaces of the constructions, but spaces for qualified social life and playgrounds for children and teenagers. The backing up of the peripheral blocks and their adjustments in size re-establish a new visual relationship between these courtyards and the streets outside (visual continuity) and a new system of social relations. It was also special the attention to detail and surfaces so that they get a visual recognition and confer uniqueness whole blocks” (Luigi Secondo Gioggi)

1914/17 THREE BLOCKS OF CASE ICP (public housing homes) between Piazza S. Maria Liberatrice and Lungotevere Testaccio by Quadrio Pirani (1878/1970) who designed them with Giovanni Bellucci

“The attention to detail, the particular decorations and the use of particular materials (brick and Roman plaster with travertine inserts) allow us to recognize and appreciate the architecture of Pirani. Justly Pirani can be considered now as a predecessor of Mario Ridolfi for the appreciation of a building as a product of artistic craftsmanship and as for his effective use of materials” (Luigi Secondo Gioggi)

1930 BLOCK ON PIAZZA S. MARIA LIBERATRICE by Camillo Palmerini (1893/1967) near the three blocks by Quadrio Pirani

“He tries to overcome linguistically the recurring motifs of 'Roman Barocchetto' (small Baroque) or the mediaeval references common to many designers by simplifying the elements of the façades in decorative function. Studied in Testaccio, in particular, intensive block to block with closed courtyard without setbacks where the interiors are enhanced as part common to green homes and services for the same” (Luigi Secondo Gioggi)

1918/19 CATTANEO PROFESSIONAL SCHOOL on Lungotevere Testaccio by the engineer Carlo Mazza

It used to train mechanics and electricians for the automotive industry. It was a model structure in Italy for the production of subsequent vocational schools for industry and crafts

1926 NOVEMBER 4th ELEMENTARY SCHOOL in Via Alessandro Volta 43 by Augusto Antonelli (1880/1960)

“Formally, the structure has a certain majesty and by the author reveals the knowledge of the great works of architecture and eclectic public of the time” (Luigi Secondo Gioggi)

1921 RESIDENTIAL COMPLEX IN PIAZZA DELL'EMPORIO, Via Ferdinando di Savoia and Via Andrea Cecchi by Carlo Broggi (1881/1968)

“It represented one of the first examples, later widely followed in the buildings of Rome, of an almost public house, created for a variety of cooperative apartments that would have anyway a character of decent architecture, referring to the examples of seventeenth-century Roman Baroque, and that would come out of the monotonous flat uniformity which had almost completely characterized until then, this kind of developments, and that had created, for example, the disaster architecture of the new district of Prati. In this building I was especially interested in the study of the upper parts and of the roof because I believe that, in a city such as Rome, with steep gradients and visual overlapping, it is a huge mistake to completely forget about this kind of the architecture that had so much influence on the effect of the whole landscape of the city” (Carlo Broggi)

1929/31 TWO BUILDINGS IN VIA MARMORATA 139 and 149 by the great Innocenzo Sabbatini (1891/1984)

The project involved two other buildings that should have faced Piazza S. Maria Liberatrice but that were never executed

“It aims to reinterpret the city and residential apartment blocks, to rediscover an image of Rome in the new constructions, congruent with the past and a modern interpretation nevertheless. Sabbatini's houses are unmistakably 'Roman' because derived from the idea of global architecture of the city, because the knowledge of the past is taken over by the imagination of the architectural present without denying origins, culture, language” (Luigi Secondo Gioggi)

ICP TRIONFALE NEIGHBORHOOD

QUARTIERE ICP TRIONFALE

Via Andrea Doria/Via Mocenigo/Via Candia/Via Vittor Pisani

Housing blocks by Innocenzo Costantini (1854/1937), son of Costantino Costantini and Innocenzo Sabbatini (1891/1984). The two architects were cousins

It was built ​in two stages:

1919/22 southern part with both mediaeval forms and innovative solutions

1925/26 northern part with secessionist ideas and elements of Roman classical tradition

“The decoration is inspired by a significant movement of masses and lines, in search of a musical space with a few notes of shadow and color generated by the slopes of the roofs and chimneys, the boxes of flowers or the small iron motives, the pillars of stone and bricks, or the slight overhangs of eaves” (Alberto Calza Bini)

Casa Impiegati del Governatorato

House for the governorship employees

Via Andrea Doria 1/27

1927/30 Luigi Ciarrocchi (1902/68) and Mario De Renzi (1897/1967)

The two architects were influenced by both Roman insulae recently discovered at Ostia, and the Futurist avant-garde movement in vogue at the time

“At the end of the Twenties, after some experience in the area of 'barocchetto'​(Small Baroque), Mario De Renzi built his expressive key set on the reduction of the decorative and chiaroscuro apparatus and on the 'stylization' of architectural elements of classical derivation. (...) The building on Via Andrea Doria offered him the opportunity to combine this issue with solutions of Futurist taste, visible in the way he emphasized the stairwells on the front of the building, in the use of terraces with large overhangs, in the volumetric ratio between ground floor and tripartite upper part” (Piero Ostilio Rossi)

Casa dei Bambini

House for Children

Via Ruggero di Lauria 28

1919/22 Innocenzo Sabbatini (1891/1984)

Preschool for children where it was tested the method of Maria Montessori. The first Montessori Children's House was founded in the neighborhood of S. Lorenzo in 1907 

Now it is home to OFFICES OF THE ISTITUTO CASE POPOLARI (Institute of Public Housing)

“The work of Innocenzo Sabbatini is broadly consistent with a linguistic research aimed at overcoming Eclecticism. Echoes of the Viennese Secession, also present in some works by Piacentini, are instantly recognizable even in this small building” (Piero Ostilio Rossi)

ICP TIBURTINO II NEIGHBORHOOD

QUARTIERE ICP TIBURTINO II

Via di S. Ippolito/Via Eleonora D'Arborea/Via Giovanni da Procida/Via Arduino/Via Matilde di Canossa

1926/28 Innocenzo Sabbatini (1891/1984) for the ICP, ISTITUTO CASE POPOLARI (Institute for Social Housing)

It is divided in two by Via Eleonora D'Arborea

The southern part includes apartments with two or three bedrooms, the northern part larger apartments

“The generating idea is based on the possibility of creating a meeting point between the building model with low density, typical of the English New Towns and the intensive one, typical of the Roman compact blocks” (Giorgio Muratore)

“One can sense the thoughtful study that the designers did with respect to indoor environmental quality for better and healthier buildings and the importance of including harmoniously the entire complex in the rest of the neighborhood. This intervention of semi intensive constructions highlights a specific research project on how to structure public housing to give continuity to the new buildings with the rest of the city so to get even a low population density. The cohesive element with the rest of the urban area, actually makes the outbuildings more attractive, the ones which in some way define the perimeter of the blocks and almost invite us to come and explore other areas of this city within a city” (Gaia Rinaldelli - www.gaiarinaldelli.it)

The CASA A GRADONI S. IPPOLITO (House with Big Steps St. Hyppolitus) in Via della Lega Lombarda 41/43, built in the years 1929/30 stands out for its originality

“To the expressionist phase of the work of Innocenzo Sabbatini can be traced back the project for the building, which is the spectacular solution for the head of the block between Via della Lega Lombarda and the staircase in continuation of Via Berengario. (...) A recent English guidebook (Modern Architecture in Europe. A guide to buildings since the industrial revolution) claims the direct derivation of this project to the one of Hans Poelzig for a 'House of Friendship' in Istanbul in 1919. This statement could be debatable, but well corresponds to the ability to tap into models that is characteristic of the work of Sabbatini” (Piero Ostilio Rossi

GARBATELLA DISTRICT

QUARTIERE DELLA GARBATELLA

Circonvallazione Ostiense/Via Ostiense/Via Cristoforo Colombo

Made by the ICP (Istituto Case Popolari - Institute of Social Housing) in the years 1920/32

First works 1920, now partly demolished, around Piazza Benedetto Brin by Gustavo Giovannoni (1873/1947) who, with Innocenzo Sabbatini (1891/1984), described as Barocchetto (Small Baroque) the architectural style of the new district

Buildings for 190 homes well separated, mainly on two floors, with various and well harmonized typological solutions

“The fundamental contribution of Giovannoni to Italian architecture in the twentieth century is to be found far more in his work as a scholar and theorist, than in his limited activities as a designer and planner. The field of his research is very extensive, but it can be limited to a specific field: the study of architectural monuments and of the ancient towns with reference, almost always, to the extraordinary series of examples offered by Rome, his hometown” (G. Zucconi - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

Later they were joined by Costantino Costantini (1904/82), Massimo Piacentini, cousin of the more famous Marcello and Mario De Renzi (1897/1967)

“From a linguistic point of view the district testifies of a research for the picturesque, the vernacular, the rediscovery of those elements of the lesser Roman architecture between the '500s and '700s which Giovannoni (...) was advocating on those years and which constituted a form of progressive response to the Eclecticism from which already, in another ways, others, like Piacentini and Sabbatini, were trying to come out with their 'Viennese' solutions. This trend, which was given the name of 'barocchetto' (Small Baroque) to emphasize the nostalgic and resigned tone, characterized for a few years the work of many Roman architects. Among them Debbio, Limongelli, Sabbatini himself (who designed, inter alia, the tall houses of this first nucleus of the district) De Renzi and, at least in part, Aschieri” (Piero Ostilio Rossi)

The population of the district is now approximately 46,500 inhabitants

The inspiration came from the urban English Garden Cities, far from the center but well connected by public transport and consisting of small residential units with gardens also cultivable as vegetable gardens

The district name probably derives from the nickname of the owner “graceful and beautiful” of the family-run restaurant Osteria da Maria, which was at the end of 1800s on the Via Ostiense near St. Paul's cliff

The following buildings were all designed by Innocenzo Sabbatini:

EDIFICIO DI MAGGIOR MOLE (The Largest Building)

1920 Piazza Brin

ALBERGO ROSSO (Red Hotel)

1927/29 Piazza Eugenio Biffi 

It should have been an experiment of accommodation with shared areas for families displaced from the center of Rome, but the shared areas were immediately divided into apartments

“After the 'Viennese' phase, Sabbatini approached the 'barocchetto' (Small Baroque) and imprinted a particular and recognizable character to the production of the Institute. (...) In this climate can be traced the project for the Hotels, where there is no shortage however, even of expressionistic accents related to how to compose the great mass of buildings. The Albergo Rosso was presented at the 1^st Exhibition of Italian Rationalist Architecture and aroused mixed reactions for its atypical style compared to the projects of young rationalists” (Piero Ostilio Rossi)

CASA ALBERGO (House Hotel)

1930 Viale Guglielmo Massaia

CASA DEI BAMBINI (Children's House)

1928/30 Via Rocco da Cesinale

MOVIE THEATER AND HOMES WITH PUBLIC BATHS AND STUDIES FOR ARTISTS

1926/28 Piazza Bartolomeo Romano

The homes were inspired by the House of Diana in Ancient Ostia

“With the rise of fascist authoritarianism, the urban development of Garbatella underwent a sudden change, characterized by an intense period of construction to the detriment of public parks in the area. This new phase, the result of changes in the national political scene, sees the Garbatella become a place of accommodation for all those people, not necessarily poor, who were without a home. During this period, in fact, a decision was taken to redesign the city center, through the destruction of many buildings and the consequent need to find new accommodations for evicted tenants. ICP put into effect a building development based on testing of the 'fast house' in the years between 1923 and 1927. This type could be visually associated with the Garden Homes, but, unlike the English model, it provided the use of low cost materials, was characterized by a high speed, the ornamental elements were marginal and green areas were no longer private gardens but public places” (Site of the Associazione Culturale e Sportiva Rione Garbatella - www.rionegarbatella. it)

NEIGHBORHOOD FOR SLUM DWELLERS

1925/27 Via Antonio Rubino/Via Roberto De Nobili by G.B. Trotta (1898/1959)

MODEL HOMES

1929 Piazza S. Eurosia

Thirteen two-story houses designed for a competition among seven young talented architects selected by five construction companies on the occasion of the XII Congress of the International Federation for Housing and Town Planning, held in 1929 in Rome:

Mario De Renzi (1897/1967), Pietro Aschieri (1889/1952), Gino Cancellotti (1890/1987), Giuseppe Nicolosi (1901/81), Mario Marchi (1900/96), Plinio Marconi (1893/1974)              AND Luigi Vietti (1903/98)

“From the architectural point of view some projects, those of Aschieri and especially the two houses of De Renzi, highlight the progressive abandonment of those linguistic references to the minor architecture of Rome, which had partially characterized the research of the twenties. In fact, one can perceive in them the hints of works of formal settling, more sensitive to the echoes of contemporary European experiences” (Piero Ostilio Rossi)

DISTRICT OF HOUSES IN REDEMPTION

1926/27 Via Gerolamo Adorno/Via Giovanni Ansaldo by Plinio Marconi (1893/1974)

“Only by starting from the fundamental contribution of personalities such as Poletti and Calderini, first, to pass, then, through those of G.B. Milani, Giovannoni, Piacentini and, also, Fasolo, Minnucci and Marconi, it may be possible to define in its most authentic dimension and in its specific essence of the complexity of a situation in Rome which, through its aporias and falls, but also through its not insignificant moments of excellence, it is considered now to have had an important and decisive role, not only in Italy, but also internationally. (...) The case of Plinio Marconi, from this point of view is emblematic and exemplary: practically forgotten, neglected and shunned by critics and contemporary historiography like other personalities, however eminent, (see the case in some ways 'similar' of Giuseppe Vaccaro, only recently 'rediscovered'), gravitating in different ways in the vast and varied cultural orbit of Piacentini, and only for this destined to a specific damnatio memoriae (...). Plinio Marconi, in this context, is a good example (...) of the quality of these young architects, well informed about what was happening in the rest of the world (...) and also capable of catalyzing the theoretical arguments of a complex contemporary debate that, especially around the Thirties, created a moment of extraordinary and accelerated vitality. Especially in the relationship between the latest experiments and the assorted theoretical and methodological, technical and aesthetic ideas that were their basis, the reflection of Plinio Marconi suggests us the wealth of theoretical knowledge of the ones who, in ways more and less evolved and aware, were starting to cross a territory still unexplored, heading to the uncertain, yet fascinating, but still, in many ways, obscure objectives of Modernity” (Giorgio Muratore - www.archiwatch.it)

NEIGHBORHOOD OF THE GARDEN CITY ANIENE

QUARTIERE CITTÀ GIARDINO ANIENE

Viale Tirreno/Viale Adriatico

1920 Gustavo Giovannoni (1873/1947), Quadrio Pirani (1878/1970) and Edmondo Del Bufalo (1883/1968)

It is connected with Via Nomentana through the TAZIO BRIDGE 1927 by Gustavo Giovannoni over the Aniene River. It was restored and partially reconstructed in the years 1938/39

“Particular attention was devoted to the design of the roads layouts, rich in curvilinear patterns with a configuration adhering to the altitude of the terrain and capable of proposing an environmental quality with a suburban character” (Piero Ostilio Rossi)

PIAZZA SEMPIONE

1920/27 by Gustavo Giovannoni and Innocenzo Sabbatini (1891/1984)

CHIESA DEI Ss. ANGELI CUSTODI (Church of Saints Guardian Angels)

1922/24 by Gustavo Giovannoni

“At the center of a web of roads, inspired by models of the English garden suburb, Giovannoni designed in 1922 Church of the Guardian Angels in a traditional style. In plan and elevation, the building reproduced Baroque models with elongated plan. Again here it is shown the duality between the engineer, able to grapple with the most up to date techniques, and the student of Roman history tied to stylistic references of local inspiration” (G. Zucconi - Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Treccani)

PALAZZO PUBBLICO

1921/25 by Innocenzo Sabbatini

CASA DELLA GIOVENTÚ A MONTE SACRO (House of Youth on the Sacred Mountain)

1934/43 by Gaetano Minnucci (1896/1980)