Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
of the best planned, designed, and executed shopping centers in Rome (Valle
2005). The centralities envisaged by the urban master plan were progressively
and ever more exclusively regarded as large shopping centers that at most, in
some cases, involved the construction of residential districts in the areas next to
the new mall. The shopping center was presented as a structure at the service of
the neighborhood that would tend to raise its profile, causing property prices to
rise; whereas the residential district was intended as the main catchment area for
the shopping center. in reality, the catchment area that justified a project of such
magnitude was (and could not have been other than) on a much more than local
scale, revealing the entrepreneurs' lack of concern for the local context.
The actual creators of centralities of this kind hardly ever foresaw or brought
in any productive activities even at a high level (for example, high-tech manage-
rial or service industries) that might constitute a significant factor of production,
job creation, or a driving force for development. one of the major grounds for
criticism in bufalotta (though it was the only centrality where this was envisaged)
was that the original plan to include an office complex, which residents felt would
raise the profile of the district, was never fulfilled. Very few of the staff employed
in the shopping center, who often work demanding shifts on temporary contracts
through agencies, come from the surrounding districts. The new districts with a
reasonably high standard of building remain mostly residential and are indeed
“dormitory neighborhoods,” giving rise to further features of commuting that
certainly do not lead to the regeneration of the outer suburbs. instead, they at-
tract vast crowds of visitors to the shopping centers and the resultant cars that fill
up the huge existing car parks,9 another feature that blights the area.
The unfulfilled objective of regenerating the suburbs and the lack of concern
on the part of those in charge of the project for the neighboring districts is borne
out by the physical organization and the structure itself of the project. The shop-
ping center is a large, basically monolithic, structure that is entirely projected
on to its interior and creates an insurmountable distance between itself and the
world outside. The expanse of car parks that surround it, with their acres of as-
phalt and the metal of the parked cars, confirm and reinforce this distance and
become an overwhelming barrier. what primarily concerns people is access for
cars from far outside the district, rather than from the locality. pedestrian access
from the neighboring districts is forbidden or extremely difficult. The consider-
able distance and the lack of direct routes obliges local residents to drive and join
the heavy traffic flows on the ring road and motorway in order to reach the shop-
ping center that is literally next door.
it is notable that in these areas, which are meant to be desirable parts of the
city, there are in fact citizens' protests and demonstrations, which are often or-
ganized by committees who are trying to make the authorities respect the com-
mitments made by the administration and the construction firms, to stop fur-
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