Title

Author(s)

Milena Farina

Affiliation

Università degli Studi Roma Tre

DOI

https://doi.org/10.65686/WAVZ6668

Keywords

Modern Neighborhoods, Collective Spaces, Upcycling

PP

358-365

How to Cite

Farina, Milena. “Adaptive Reuse for Collective Spaces in Modern Neighborhoods.” In Proceedings of the International Conference on Adaptive Reuse. Volume 1, edited by Andrea Crudeli, Francesca Molle, and Emanuele Carrai, 358–365. Firenze: STH Press, 2026.

Abstract

The provision of collective spaces within walking distance is particularly widespread and articulated in modern neighborhoods, especially in projects carried out according to procedures and laws reserved for affordable and social housing. These neighborhoods present, on the one hand, well-developed systems of common open spaces and, on the other, a wealth of facilities originally designed to host community services, which testifies to the importance of a public city project especially since the Second World War. Despite its potential, the public heritage of collective spaces in modern neighborhoods is often in a state of degradation, underuse or complete abandonment. On the other hand, the most marginal modern neighborhoods express a need for sharing spaces and services that is manifested in the experimentation of alternative forms of sociality and the provision of informal welfare, through the reappropriation of abandoned structures recovered from the heritage left behind by the public city. The “PRIN” research underway at the Department of Architecture of the Roma Tre University experiments with strategies for the regeneration and adaptive reuse of abandoned collective spaces in modern neighborhoods, bringing together the needs of local communities expressed by associations active in the area and their institutional representatives with those of public entities that manage the heritage.
Adaptive reuse strategies are also being explored in a project to set up a communal space in a public housing neighborhood, shared with the community of residents: a seating system with a wooden shade canopy, which involves the use of materials from other installations through processes that preserve and enhance their grain, texture, density, consistency and color. Following the logic of adaptive reuse, the memory of its transformations remains inscribed within the material.

Edited by
Andrea Crudeli
Francesca Molle
Emanuele Carrai

Publisher
STH Press, Firenze

ISBN Paperback – 9791281661141
ISBN Ebook – 9791281661158
DOI – https://doi.org/10.65686/SISY7263

Year
2026

Proceedings of
International Conference on Adaptive Reuse
hosted by The University of Pisa, Italy
15-19 September 2025, at the Gispoteca di Arte Antica dell’Università di Pisa.