Retrospective on Rome: The case of the Montesacro Market

One story if that of the market of Viale Adriatico, a heavily underused place with poor quality public space. Citizens taking part to the Local Support Group identified it as one of the spaces on which to intervene.

Thanks to the collaboration with the University of Arkansas Rome Centre we had a group of 60 students that developed 8 different projects proposals on how the market could be improved based on the input coming from the neighbourhood association, parents that are adopting the playground nearby, activitist promoting the requalification of markets in Rome and obviously the market vendors. The projects were then presented publicly and voted by people. Many ideas arose and served as a basis for the plan of the future market, such as opening it up, improving the lighting, creating a common language with the public space around it…

Thanks to all this input it was possible to synthesize some of the main ideas and discuss them with some architects experts on Markets that joined the workshop in Rome thanks to the support of the Dutch Embassy within the project “Il Mercato al Centro”.  The workshop consisted of site visits to the market in Viale Adriatico but also to the agricultural farms of the districts and other markets in the City to see how the production and distribution chain could be improved through a better use of markets. The exchange between Italy and the Netherlands was also shared with a wide public during the conference that took place in the Casa della Citta’ in Rome.

All this exchange gave many ideas for how to place could be improved, reason why the following weekend over 50 people from around the neighborhood gathered to start the first transformation of the space through public space temporary use interventions. Thanks to the support of the administration both at central and district level and of the various local associations and private citizens, a first step was made.  The intervention consisted first of all of the eradication of the oleanders to make a public open space at the entrance, the cleaning of the entire area surrounding the market, the cleaning of the fachade and the application of colorful wallpaper, insertion of low-cost public furniture out of painted cement cubes, signaling the entrances of the market with paint on the ground and list of products sold within it and lastly the personalisation of the inside by making notices for each of the market vendors saying their name and what they sell.

This is obviously not the end of the story but just the beginning. What has happened since this colorful weekend intervention is that the market vendors have come to an agreement to stay open also in the afternoon twice a week to better cater for the public, as they are usually supposed to be open only in the morning. This was also an important moment for all the different people that gravitate around the market to meet and share their ideas. Let’s see what will happen next!

A special thank you goes to the Local Support Group: TSPOON, Eutropian, il Comitato Attiva Monte Sacro, market vendors, the parents taking care of the playground, Retake Roma, AICS and the III District administration, Cittalia, the Dutch Embassy, the University of Arkansas Rome Centre, the Ordine degli Architetti di Roma e Provincia, the Biennale dello Spazio Pubblico, LabGov dell’Universita’ Luiss Guido Carli,  and many many more!

If you want to read more about this take a look at the article published by Cittalia ‘TUTUR, dal Viadotto al Mercato‘.