Ricerc@Sapienza

In the name of regeneration, the study on the historical city and the deep linkage between
city and architecture is renewed. For years at the heart of the political agenda in Europe and
worldwide, “urban regeneration” not only implies a comparison with history, but also global
objectives of social inclusion, economic upturn, environmental sustainability. A design project is
more difficult when placed in a historical context left to decay, a melting pot of different people
and a crucial point in the metropolitan layout that calls for a complete and complex renew of
the relation between architectural design and urban morphology. This is the case of the San
Lorenzo district in Rome, an urban island intra moenia once was recognised for its archaeological-
monumental heritage that is now recognisable for its anthropological-cultural mixité. This
article aims to define guidelines and strategies that qualify design when it fits into a consolidated
urban fabric, highlighting the role of morphology as an analytical prerequisite for interpreting
the built landscape and a synthetic one for configuring new spaces as a natural evolution of
reality. The challenge of contemporary design lies both in understanding and respecting the inner
logic of a specific city neighbourhood and in making it unique and operating within a more
complex and cross-scale system. Regenerating does not mean generating again, but knowing
how to continue creating unity, continuity and vitality of the urban organism.