Roman Apertures
Project Type
Project Date
Urban Planning
2020
Project Description
Rome’s depopulation crisis has been accelerated by rising tourism, which displaces locals, inflates housing costs, and erodes community identity. Residents find themselves pushed to the periphery—both physically and socially—as tourist hotspots dominate central spaces. The design intervention responds by re-centering residents within the historic fabric of the city. Rather than proposing large-scale changes incompatible with Rome’s heritage restrictions, we focus on underutilized residential courtyards: discreet, often forgotten spaces embedded within housing blocks. These courtyards, typically inward-facing and surrounded by residential units, offer a unique spatial opportunity to restore privacy, community, and green infrastructure—without interrupting the city’s formal character.
Design Research
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Inspired by visiting Rome and endless complaints from locals over tourists over saturating their public areas, it left me thinking: what if the areas between important places could also be utilized: areas used for locals and/or tourists?
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![Nolli Plan V1]()
Here, a hypothetical map showing what the current accessibility of Roman areas on the (left) compared to what an open version of Rome might feel like (right).
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![Vegetative Plan]()
Increased vegetation Rome not only helps make the city a greener city, but it also can create shaded zones around Rome. With climate change and an increased possibility of heat waves throughout Rome in the hotter months, areas like this would be more valuable areas to combat against the heat.
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![Pushback]()
Like any large design intervention, there will be considerable pushback, in this case, from locals.
While it might seem like a win/win for mostly tourists, giving them more areas to run around and be loud in and bother tourists, it is important to note that a sizeable portion of Roman blocks have public services and if there were to be public sections of a courtyard or an open courtyard in an already public block, it would just give people more space to inhabit and thin out busy areas. There is also opportunity to have closed off courtyards for residents and options of that nature.
Design Proposal
Design Intervention
A network of interconnected courtyards—an alternative passage for residents—that offers layered program, micro green spaces, and adaptive reuse of unoccupied ground-floor units. This system subtly resists the tourist-centric flow by creating spaces tourists might overlook, but residents can claim. Discreet entrances blend into the urban context, preserving local privacy while allowing flexibility for communal use, rest, and expression. These interventions create “an oasis,” not the oasis—recognizing that revitalization in a heritage-heavy city must be distributed, local, and deeply tied to lived experience. Our work aims to reverse the spatial hierarchy of the tourist city and reinstate a sense of belonging for those most at risk of being forgotten.
An expanded 3D view of a courtyard. 1. Openings to courtyards can be strategically placed in existing openings that courtyards already or in spaces not used (ground floor). 2. Flex space 3. Short/long-term Commercial opportunities for underused or neglected spaces. 4+5. Green areas, can be used for public agenda, but primarily areas filled with shade-preffering plants, creating cool down zones from heat or just general shelter. For more private areas, utilizing denser vegetation give residents a buffer from others.
A section cutting through the entire courtyard. By using different levels, ground, below and above, you can create different zones, private and/or public all in one area. Notably, in this section view, you can clearly see how areas like this provide immense shelter from the heat and how much easier it would be for locals to get around cutting through courtyards instead of walking around each block in the heat.
Mockups of sections of these courtyards on the ground floor and rooftop areas.