Students: Jan Pisani, Fan Zhang

The research attempts to capture the origins, driving forces and morphological characteristics behind Roman suburbia. First and foremost, it appears that the strong gravitational force of the center characterizes Roman suburban territory. At the time of Imperial Rome contained within Aurelian walls, the city is today ‘mentally’ encircled and separated from its suburbs by the GRA (Grande Raccordo Anulare of the ‘Big Ring Junction’), a ring-shaped orbital motorway, 68,2km in circumference, designed to be as most equally distant as possible from the geographical center of the city, the Campidoglio. In order to be able to observe and study the Roman periphery, we will use the metaphor of the eclipse: a shadow cast temporarily over the Rome will enable us to perceive the ‘solar flairs’ - the city’s reach in the territory - in its full clarity.