The Self-Made City - Global Rome: Changing Faces of the Eternal City - page 187

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The self-made City

Carlo Cellamare
(translated by Jennifer Radice)

N early 30 percent of the city of Rome has been built illegally and the phe-
nomenon is in constant development. Numerous forms of squatting, mostly of
housing, are to be found throughout the city; similarly, there are widespread ar-
eas, some more marginal than others, under self-management and self-organi-
zation. still more widespread are the misappropriations (and reappropriations)
of the built environment by the city's inhabitants. in many respects Rome, ac-
knowledged (or aiming to present itself) at the national and international level
as a great “modern” western capital with a strong and stratified historical and
cultural heritage, can be regarded as a “self-made city” whose urban develop-
ment is driven less by centralized urban planning and more by spontaneous pri-
vate initiative and improvisation. in this sense, Rome is unique among european
capital cities.
This chapter considers the “informal city,” focusing especially on unautho-
rized construction: its general characteristics, its historical evolution, its more
recent manifestations. This construction is characterized as one of the basic
structural modalities of the city's development: a sort of “parallel housing mar-
ket” that responds to a demand based on “necessity,” as well as—sustained by
speculative intentions—to one based on “affordability” for the poorer but also
middle classes.
unauthorized building in Rome is primarily a response to the lack of ad-
equate housing and town planning policies. a modality of urban government has
evolved in recent years, and there now exists a veritable policy of unauthorized
urban development, as is demonstrated by the building amnesties enshrined in
recent national and regional housing laws. Rather than eradicating the problem
and finding alternatives, the public administration has adopted forms of nego-
tiation and consultation (if not downright delegation of authority) with builders

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