Multiple narrations of peripheral mass housing. The case of Tor Bella Monaca in the Italian planning debate

A series of questions underlie the current debate about mass housing and the forms of contemporary living, which are reflected in various sections of this book. What about the city built by public initiative during the second half of the 20th century today? What is its basic grammar, and what trace does it leave in the current perception of urban space? How can its degree of erosion and transformation be measured, and to what dynamics does it respond? In the following pages, we will try to answer these questions by exploring the places, uses, and interpretative paradigms of Tor Bella Monaca (TBM). From a multidisciplinary and diachronic perspective, qualitative and quantitative aspects of the ‘public city’ (Di Biagi, 1986) will be studied, in their interactions with the interests of the actors involved. The essay focuses on reflections and critical trajectories that can be extended to many other public or mixed mass housing districts.