The Self-Made City - Global Rome: Changing Faces of the Eternal City - page 190

city,” extending to some 30 percent of the built-up area of Rome, is now used by
or intended for the middle class and reaches urban quality standards that are
minimal but regarded as acceptable for housing purposes. The people who live
there are now well-organized and capable of dealing with the authorities who in
turn accept them and acknowledge them often as legitimate counterparts. it is on
situations of this type that i shall concentrate in this chapter.
second, we have a form of unauthorized building that bears a marked resem-
blance to the classic model because it is intended for housing and constructed by
self-builders, but has come into being without ownership of the land and without
the permission of the landowners. here we are dealing with squatting, and the
locations are thus for the most part public areas or land that is disused or aban-
doned. areas, therefore, that are seldom checked and in which the owners have
little interest.
unauthorized building in privately owned areas tends to be of short dura-
tion and to generate greater problems and conflicts. This is an aspect of informal-
ity that has its origins and roots in the prevalence of “shanty dwellers” (such as
the historical shanties built next to the felice aqueduct). in this type of informal
city conditions are diverse. some are extensive areas, now historically established
and also well-known and recognizable, that generate entire housing conglomera-
tions (like the idroscalo di ostia—see trabalzi, chapter 14). Then there are the
less consolidated and structured sites that can generate small nuclei, still partly
hidden and not well known, as in magliana. finally, there are sites closer to be-
ing shantytowns that are very precarious (people live in shacks), short-term in
nature, with a very low standard of living, and unacceptable housing conditions.
These sites, fewer in number, for the most part occupy a small area but are dotted
around the city, along the tiber, on wasteland, building sites, and under flyovers
(scandurra et al. 2009). such conditions are frequently linked to the presence of
immigrants. in recent years, the administrations of both political groupings have
dealt with the phenomenon by means of policies based on clearances and remov-
al of the residents from the city to areas fitted out on an ad hoc basis and gener-
ally fenced in, thus turning settlements into veritable ghettos. in short, we have
“occupations” for housing purposes and squatting in existing buildings, usually
publicly owned ones, that have fallen into disuse or been abandoned (Caudo and
sebastianelli 2008). The occupations are generally supported by committees and
associations (such as the Committee for the struggle for housing or Action ) that
lead people to become organized and interact, sometimes harshly and violently,
with the authorities.
The evolution of unauthorized building
Classic unauthorized building came into existence in Rome as a response to the
housing problem. it is hard to identify the precise moment when it started, not