Work From Home
University of Waterloo Rome Design Studio with Eric Haldenby
Project designed in collaboration with Jonathan Sinn
The results of WWII and the fall of the Fascist Regime left Italy economically, politically, and socially damaged. Much of the urban middle class population had been displaced during the war and forced to live in less than civilized conditions, and rural families migrated to cities in search of work.
The postwar government responded to these issues through Ina Casa, a nation-wide worker’s housing project, whose main goals were to provide housing and create jobs. Through its architecture and urban design, Ina Casa sought to construct a sense of historical continuity with the times preceding fascism in an effort to erase it from the Italian identity. Ina Casa aimed to reconstruct Italian society in a way that would alleviate many social problems, and it succeeded in redefining the lives of Italians through the provision of a civilized home in a new community.
Tuscolano, a peripheral district on the edge of Rome, was one of the many Ina Casa developments and underwent three construction phases of social housing complexes. While each phase had their own interpretation of housing, they all sought to resolve the conflict between forces of the past and present.
Our intervention in Tuscolano next to the historic Park of the Aqueducts aims to provide housing for the influx of refugees arriving in Italy. The project is a mix of residential, cultural, and commercial programs. It is arranged in a continuous armature which patches the gaps in the park and city grid. The housing units feature flexible space at street level which has the capacity to act as a storefront, workshop, studio, or office space for residents. Through the provision of flexible spaces that can be adapted to evolve with changing lifestyles or growing families, we hope to establish a framework for a new type of community in Rome.
