ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the dissolution of Italian public space from the piazza to junkspace, and presents a framework for defining and understanding space, place, and buildings along with some modest proposals for recovering public space in Rome, and ultimately an argument for why it matters. Giambattista Nolli's map of Rome from 1748 documents the city in ways that have become metaphorical for modern architects: a 'Nolli plan' describes a graphic convention of representing in figure-ground those public urban spaces and semi-public building spaces that exist in such fruitful interchange in the historical center of Rome. The history of urbanism in medieval Rome is largely the history of localized ecclesiastical centers, or loci of baronial power, with the gradual transformation of ancient routes and spaces into the armatures of pilgrimage and places for neighborhood commerce. The monumental quarters of ancient Rome were composed of prominent figural buildings often integrated into an urban frame.
