Francesco Careri: Porto Fluviale RecHouse in Ostiense. Rebirth of Hospitality.

Abstract

Porto Fluviale is a former military building, listed by the Superintendency, squatted since 2003 by families fighting for housing rights, which, through ten years of collective and shared practices, has become an intercultural social laboratory and a symbol of urban resistance. Faced with a deep housing crisis in Rome — with tens of thousands of families in fragile situations and a large amount of empty property — citizens, movements, universities, and the administration have initiated unprecedented negotiations. The project, funded with PNRR funds, formalises the occupation in terms of regeneration, philological restoration of the building, creation of public housing to be allocated to eligible occupants, and socio-cultural spaces open to the neighbourhood.

Community participation, the mediating role of the Department of Architecture of Roma Tre University, and the transformation of informal activities into associations are at the heart of the experiment, designed as an antidote to gentrification. However, the process has encountered internal and political resistance, revealing the difficulties of translating conflict practices into institutional governance. Despite this, with the construction site in its final stages and the gradual return of families, Porto Fluviale is emerging as an insurgent model. It shows how collective actions, even those that arise informally, can generate sustainable, inclusive housing solutions and urban regeneration for European cities in crisis.

Biography

Francesco Careri, Architect, Cofounder of the Stalker urban art laboratory, Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture, University of Roma Tre

Francesco Careri is an architect, cofounder of the Stalker Urban Art Laboratory and Associate Professor at the Department of Architecture, University of Roma Tre, where he is codirector of the Master Studi del Territorio/Environmental Humanities and head of the courses in Architectural Theory, the Architecture and Emerging Communities Design Lab and the itinerant course Civic Arts grounded in walking explorations of neglected suburban areas. He is the scientific coordinator of the Laboratorio di Città Corviale and the Laboratorio CIRCO. Among his main publications: Constant. New Babylon, una città nomade, Torino 2001; Walkscapes. El andar como pràctica estética / Walking as an aesthetic practice, Barcellona 2002; Stalker /Savorengo Ker. Dal campo nomadi alla casa di tutti, Roma 2015; Pasear, detenerse, Barcelona 2016, Sao Paulo 2017; Stalker/Campus Rom, Matera 2017, con Lorenzo Romito; Nomadismo Architettura Ospitalità. Esperienze e azioni dal camminare al CIRCO, Roma 2020; Hospedar-se, Barcelona 2023; Camminare e Fermarsi, Mimesis, Milano 2025; Roma. Guida alla Selva, Nero Edizioni, Roma 2025 (con Dario Gentili e Serena Olcuire).