Speaker
Description
Public spaces have always played a central role in shaping urban quality providing a range of socially valuable services. However, in an age of growing social inequalities, environmental challenges and political polarization, the question of how public spaces can foster inclusion, equity and positive change becomes more critical than ever.
Public spaces have the potential to inspire hope by regaining a role to integrate multiple layers and functions.
The paper explores some of the public projects currently underway in Rome for the Jubilee year 2025. The Jubilee of Hope is expected to attract 35 million people over the duration of 2025. The event started in January and goes through December 2025. In Rome History “…the Jubilee has always been an event of great spiritual, ecclesial, and social significance in the life of the Church… The faithful…draw from the spiritual treasury of the Church by passing through the Holy Door…. Down the centuries, millions upon millions of pilgrims have journeyed to these sacred places, bearing living witness to the faith professed in every age... Pope Frencis Letter).
Rome is preparing this event with significant interventions aimed at improving the quality of the infrastructures, the visitor facilities and the cultural and the tourist offer. The Jubilee public projects are a wide range of interventions types (600): squares and public spaces, infrastructures, tram tracks, bike lanes. These are just some of hundreds of improvements to Rome that were planned in conjunction with the Jubilee Year: a new pedestrian square and walkway connecting Rome’s historic center to the Vatican. Piazza Pia, the square in front of St. John Lateran archbasilica with ground-level fountains for summer-heat mitigation, the renovations around Rome’s major Termini Train Station, Trevi Fountain. The ambitious undertaking at Piazza Pia in front of the Vatican converted one of the area’s busiest roads to an underpass, allowing pilgrims to walk freely in the space from Castel Sant’Angelo down to St. Peter’s Basilica. The public square at Piazza Pia is now car-free area full of benches, trees, as well as two fountains. Another renewed space close to Vatican City was Ottaviano Street and Risorgimento Square. The street and square, located to the north of the Vatican walls in between St. Peter’s Square and the entrance to the Vatican Museums, are some of the first-place people see after emerging from the subway stop closest to the Vatican. Some of the projects are improvements that will benefit locals such as: a new bicycle path connecting the area south of the Vatican to an existing walkway in Monte Ciocci Park, the pedestrian-and-biking path along the banks of the Tiber River. Some smaller upgrades are the re-pavement of streets, updated street lighting and new buses and trams, a pedestrian bridge and path connecting the station to the Vatican basilica.
The paper explores the potential of these new spaces on assembling and recombining different elements to structure the contemporary fragmented city.
The paper presents preliminary result of an ongoing research project, dealing with recent processes of public space development in Rome’s metropolitan area.
References
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| Keywords | public space; hope; transformation; |
|---|---|
| Best Congress Paper Award | No |
