Camille De Waele Y4
Orto Urbano is an alternative reuse programme which, inspired by the image of the medieval campo vaccino, proposes that the abandoned Flaminio Stadium in Rome be transformed into a shared vegetable garden and Garden Kitchen. Nervi’s stadium, currently abandoned in central Rome, will be reclaimed by the Municipality as part of the “Rome, city to be cultivated” initiative.
The stadium will be used as a stronghold for the 55 - and growing - Solidarity Purchasing Groups in Rome, where they will have the opportunity to achieve autonomy in the acquisition of their own food through synthesis with the recent boom in orti comunali, (communal vegetable gardens), across Italy. Based on principles of collaboration and a drive for policy change, I reject recent reuse proposals which involve enormous volumes of material and carbon, and rather suggest that, through an alternative perception of 20th century urban ruins, space for cultivation can reveal itself.
