Consorciando os habitantes: As experiências das “zonas O” e dos “topónimos” em Roma

In Rome during the last century, the phenomenon of abusivismo (which in Italian signifies a genuine “illegal urban culture”) became a common method of developing urban agglomerations. With the passing of time the phenomenon – originally seen as a “necessity” due to the inability of the public authorities to find a solution to the lack of housing for the more vulnerable sections of society – became a means of building quality housing at accessible prices, designed for a wealthier public and, later, a speculative activity, involving situations in which the builders were not necessarily residents and the land was not used for residential purposes only. Since the 1962 General Regulatory Plan, the progressive coalitions governing the capital have been dealing with the phenomenon structurally. This article describes a measure devised by the City Council – in the absence of any national legislation regulating the informal city – based on creating consortiums of residents for independent recovery work, and discusses the added value of residents’ participation in the legal and urban development regulation of the areas in which they live.