WOP HOP POP: OSTIA ITALY 2008

OSTIANATURE RESERVE: THE HORTUS PROJECT:

Location: Boacciana Island, Ostia, Rome.

Workshop 1 dates: September 19-21, 2008,

Partners:

HORTUS is Harmoniser les Opérations de Restauration Territorial du Paysage Urbain Soutenable),

Lead partner: AEDA- Development Agency of Athens in the framework of Interreg III B MEDOCC (European Community).

LIPU Lega Italiana Protezione Uccelli (Italian Bird Protection Society)

Municipio di Roma (Rome Muncipality)

PietroPaolo Anella, Landscape Architect. Peter Lang TAMU Coordinators

(from the HORTUS proclamation)

The urban regeneration processes of suburbia, rural and ex rural areas of the cities that have been characterised by settlements (houses or industries) without specific plans of urbanisation of in a state of decay. Today these settlements, characterised by a low quality of life, coincide with the suburban areas of the cities. These suburbs have become the new doors of access to the urban surroundings from the country. Therefore, the project aims to improve the relationship city-country, regenerating the ways of access to the city from the country, through an integrated approach which pays attention not only to the recovery building, but also to the improvement of the territorial, landscape and habitat resources.

The project H.O.R.T.U.S. aims at the urban regeneration of the border areas of the Mediterranean cities through the utilization of green areas in order to reconstruct and regenerate the urban landscape, to improve the image, the quality of life and the relationship city-country. In fact, among the H.O.R.T.U.S. activities, the one related to the Pilot Actions of urban regeneration of the landscape has the aim to improve and spread the heritage of technical and the cultural knowledge on the themes of environment, territory and the building.

The Municipality of Rome, with a territory of 128.531 Kmq is the biggest Italian municipal area, with a population of over 3 millions of inhabitants. The Municipal Administration is divided in 19 (150.000 people. for each Municipality), 19 Departments and 12 Extra Departmental offices, with 25.000 units of personnel. Municipality XIII, comprehending the area of the study of feasibility has a surface of 150, 6 Kmq, the 12% of the whole municipal territory. The population (December 31st 2005) is of 208.067 inhabitants; in particular in Ostia Lido are 88.620 residents. In particular, in order to individuate the different instruments of environmental regeneration (studies of feasibility, plans, small materiel interventions, etc.) indicated in the same EU project, the Municipality of Rome have chosen a suburban area of its territory in the XII Municipality, an area nearby the mouth of the Tevere river called “Isola Boacciana e territorio circostante la foce del Fiume Tevere”, where a study of feasibility will individuate one of the possible interventions of environmental regeneration through the utilisation of green spaces.

HORTUS PROJECT: Workshop 1:

Students will stay two nights in Bungalows in the Boacciana Island. Documents and Research materials will be provided for reference.

Friday (Day 1). Check into Bungalows. Students will team up in groups of 3 and complete walking, mapping, surveys, on the Nature Reserve’s periphery areas, interstitial zones and boundaries, seeking connections and barriers between the park and the city, with a focus on eventually re-stitching the Park-City together.

Saturday (Day 2). Morning visit to Ostia Antica. Afternoon: Workshop goals: the location of special zones of interaction and interconnection. (The definition of special landscapes where City and Park meet, collide or divide, as possible sites for future interventions, installations, architecture, landscaping and public spaces, and sites of local community memory- examples already include the Michelangelo Tower and the monument to Pier Paolo Pasolini)

Sunday (Day 3). Complete site surveys, documentation and mapping. Check out from Bungalows, 11am. Students can go swimming, explore the City of Ostia’s beach front and noted architecture (Libera Beach side apartments, and 1930s Post-Office).

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