ABSTRACT
The Corviale Void belongs to the same culture of urban design that was the theme of Ludovico Quaroni's satellite city, of Rossi's administrative centre and Yves Klein's Architecture of the Air. Amongst the people of Rome the Corviale development tends to be looked upon with contempt, its inhabitants especially finding it objectionable, but despite its infamy Corviale is not well known outside of Italy, certainly it does not feature much in British architecture culture. The author first became interested in the Corviale development whilst planning a field trip for undergraduate students, pouring over the maps at the back of my guide to the modern architecture of Rome. Since then Corviale has begun to appear in the international architecture press. Recently there have been a number of proposals to expropriate Corviale, converting the apartments into units that fit more comfortably within the cross-wall system. The hard, protective outer layer of the natural beetle body is a complex structure.
