Megastructures: a great-size solution for affordable housing

• Published in: Histories of Postwar Architecture Vol. 1; no. 3; pp. 72 - 104
• Main Author: Lorenzo Diana
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Bologna 01-12-2018
• Subjects: Council housing; Existing buildings; Great-size interventions; Megastructures; Regeneration
• ISSN: 2611-0075
• DOI: 10.6092/issn.2611-0075/8514

During the 70’s and 80’s, affordable housing production in Europe faced the huge emergency caused by rising urbanization. In suburban areas of European main cities, megastructures appeared, drawing visible marks in urban fabric. Megastructures were planned to synthesize residential functions and all existing services of traditional city in unique buildings. Nowadays, these buildings are affected by bad physical conditions and they are no longer able to satisfy the needs of the contemporary demand. The proposed paper investigates the genesis of housing megastructures with particular regards to the Italian case and council housing districts realized in Rome within the 1st public plan for council and affordable housing (1964), an original plan for the settlement of 700,000 inhabitants. A focus will be proposed concerning the differences between megastructures and traditional big buildings and the main connections between the spread of great-size buildings and the industrialization and automatization of construction techniques. An insight about possible future regenerations intervention is suggested.