From marginal territories to the city. Exercises to turn virtuous experiences into planning possibilities

Abstract

Recognizing the transformative potential of practices that ‘make cities’ from below (Cellamare, 2019), how do we translate bottom-up ferment into a strategic method «to create and guide a (range of) better futures for a place on the basis of shared values?» (Albrechts and Balducci, 2013). Using as a starting point the case study of Quarticciolo, a Roman public housing suburb, the paper brings to light a virtuous form of urban regeneration from below. The process, built with daily practices of reappropriation of abandoned spaces, mutualism and political capacity-building, is now being experimented in the construction of new, challenging dialogues with some local institutions. This reflection intends to critically interrogate some aspects of the ongoing process, starting from the analysis of some translation and mediation tools between ‘above’ and ‘below’ proposed and tested in this context: Manuale di futuro (Handbook for the Future) and a Polo civico (Civic center). If on the one hand, the experience calls for reflection on the role that urban planners and policy makers have in this historical moment, designing processes and being the carriers of ‘upward’ instances, it also highlights an important weakness found in these operations: how do we create the conditions for engaging processes of transformative innovation in areas where social energy has not found space, form, or voice? How can local processes inform structured strategies of large scale, such as the metropolitan one, that aspire to favor a systemic and long-term change in the ways of reducing territorial gaps?