Rome, the city

Abstract

A feature of the geography of Europe lies in an early and extensive urbanization. As early as in the antiquity, the city of Roma was the first and most famous illustration. Therefore we can be tempted to consider it as the archetypal European city so far without ignoring its irreducible originality. In this town, sometimes called "Urbs", the city, is it possible to find a little of all cities in Europe. One can search why they look alike when they are all unique. This fundamental duality is what we seek the students to feel in the three pedagogical moments of the sequence "Roma, the city".

The first time seeks to find traces of the past of a city observing its monuments from different epochs, in the shape, orientation and layout of streets in different times and in the names that load places with cultural references sometimes mysterious but always in memory, at least as traces. The time depth of the urban material is what we want to make understand and it's rather easy to do it in Roma, this incomparable place of memory and concentrate of the traces of European civilization.

The second time encourages to recognize that a city is also and always a technical organization to link men with multiple relationships by establishing specialized networks. Of special interest is the observation of the underground network which often constitutes the heart of urban mobility. We also examine how the roads give the city its fluidity and irrigate its expansion.

The third time, by a special technique in images of the urban area of Roma, attempts to concretely illustrate the diversity of habitats, lifestyles and activities while seeking to show the impact of certain organization factors of urban space in all cities in Europe. This is the moment to compare the appearance, functions and density of different habitats and areas with the building policy of the municipality. As often, elsewhere in Europe, this one takes a long time to catch up and correct the imperfections of a socially segregated space.