The project was first exhibited within an installation at the Accademia Britannica in Rome where unlawful building trespassed the façade of the academy to open its private interior to its public foreground. The door was opened, the portico occupied and the vista exploited. Mirroring a city that operates “at risk”, the three storey installation was clamped, weighted and offset from the listed Lutyens façade. The installation was recreated for the facade of the Padiglione Centrale in Venice.

Abusivismo edilizio, (trans. unlawful building) is a diverse and endemic phenomenon in Italy with typologies ranging from small extensions to large scale construction projects. Since 1945, over 28% of the built area of the comune of Rome has been defined as having been constructed illegally and the possibility to build and seek legitimisation in retrospect has been affirmed in successive masterplans and in national law through the condono edilizio. The films, installations and the co production of a planning room all form part of a wider investigation of abusivismo in Rome brought together in a project dossier that is available upon request.

The term Toponimi refers to both a place and to a policy. It is a geographical area built without permission and outside the city plan; and a policy for the recuperation of these areas. Valle de Borghesiana is one of 88 toponimi zones. The film, Flight over the Toponimi, is a survey from a helicopter of these zones in the periphery of the city and was made at the Accademia Britannica as Rome scholar in architecture by Alison Crawshaw with filmmaker, Cesare Querci.

In collaboration with residents and local architect, Antonella Perin, a brief and design were developed for the first public space in an area where even the streets are privately owned. The works involved converting a derelict building into a functioning meeting room for the development of neighbourhood plans and were undertaken with planning permission. The meeting room that was made in Valle de Borghesiana is at once a finished product and a sort of portal. A space where an officially appointed architect and those who have built the city in the absence of architects come together to articulate a vision for the future of the periphery.

Team: Sandro Aversa, Mauro Baldi, Viola Carnelutti Lione, Antonella Perin, Cesare Querci and Amedeo Del Vecchio. With thanks to: Paolo Berdini, Massimiliano Carafo, Pippo Ciorra, Paolo Franchin, Giorgio Lupoi, Matteo Maida, Daniel Modigliani and Andrea Veneziano.