labics regenerates rome neighborhood with mixed-use 'city of sun' development

in east rome, architecture studio labics has completed ‘città del sole’, or the ‘city of sun’. the development, which covers 11,000 square meters, seeks to regenerate an area of land adjacent to the city’s tiburtina railway station. the project is made up of residences, commercial spaces, offices, car parks, and a succession of public spaces on various levels. ‘the most important aspects of an urban regeneration project are the relationship with the context and the creation of shared spaces capable of rooting the project in the local community,’ says the design team.

image by marco cappelletti (also main image)

the layout of the project — its scale, geometries, and circulation routes — directly responds to the context. this spatial arrangement is reflected in the multifunctional program, with a commercial area at street level and offices, distinguished by a slight overhang, above. city of sun offers two types of residences: ‘urban villas’ and ‘tall houses’. designed as single-family homes, the eight urban villas, 100 to 160 square meters in size, are distributed over two floors and a roof terrace. meanwhile, the tall houses contain 72 apartments ranging from 40 to 120 square meters. these are located in the nine-storey volume to the east.

image by marco cappelletti

‘the development of the site has been designed to be porous, allowing good access to and from the site, encouraging the ow of people and demonstrating labics’ philosophy that cities should be built around systems rather than as a series of objects,’ say the architects. ‘public realm space is not seen as residual but is fully integrated with the built elements – so, for example, the basement space becomes the load-bearing structure for high level walkways as well as a pathway in itself. this creates a complex public space, rich in experience.’

image by marco cappelletti

image by marco cappelletti

image by marco cappelletti

image by fernando guerra

image by marco cappelletti

image by marco cappelletti

image by marco cappelletti

image by fernando guerra

image by marco cappelletti

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name: città del sole / city of sun
location: via della lega lombarda, rome, italy
client: hines italia SGR spa (INPGI hines fund)
current owner: investire SGR
architects: labics (maria claudia clemente, francesco isidori)
design team: luigi panetta (team leader), paola bettinsoli, chiara capriulo, gaia maria lombardo, michele morganti, giorgio pasqualini, filippo pesce

structural engineering: studio pagnoni vita
mechanical and electrical systems: 3TI progetti
site construction supervision: eideo servizi d’ingegneria (stefano d’ambrosio)
developer: parsitalia srl (general contractor)

program: residential, offices, retail, public library and parking
lot area: 11,000 square meters
gross floor area: 17,300 square meters
gross usable floor area: 11,800 sqm
residences: 5,500 square meters of gross usable floor area
offices: 4,200 square meters of gross usable floor area
commercial spaces: 2,100 square meters of gross usable floor area
library: 1,700 square meters of gross usable floor area
parking area: 10,000 square meters of gross usable floor area (including the archeological area)
construction cost: €35,100,000 euros
photography: marco cappelletti and fernando guerra

invitation competition: 2007
design: 2007 – 2010
groundbreaking: november 2010
end of construction: november 2016

suppliers
building envelope: focchi
rubber flooring: artigo
elevators: schindler
windows for the residences: metra – fire doors: NINZ
seating in the public space: escofet