ABSTRACT
Roman fascist borgate are one of the most significant but lesser-known Italian housing types built during the interwar period. The history of fascist borgate, also known as borgate ufficiali (official borgate), is strongly linked to the contradictory Roman urbanism during the regime. However, this housing program had a strong impact on social and urban development of Roman suburbs in the postwar era. Although in their early decades official borgate were considered symbols of social tensions and reflective of the low quality of life for the Roman poor and working classes, today these quarters are renowned for spaciousness and urban designs that private development and most of the public housing interventions in the postwar period were not able to match.
By focusing on the case study of Quarticciolo, one of the last housing projects built in the capital under the regime, this paper reconstructs the design story, reception and evolution of a typical fascist borgata. Lastly, it will also investigate how symbols, building typologies and spatial practices linked to the body of ideas that generated the borgate have been collectively renegotiated and transformed by Quarticciolo residents through years.
