Artena: The Recovery of Urban Integrity (University of Notre Dame Graduate Program in Architecture, Rome Studies Program Publications)

There are places where natural form and urban form reciprocally enhance each other. Artena has embodied such a successful con-formation, revealing the mythic image of a city embracing the hill, where Santa Croce's bell towers are the only architectural elements that detach themselves from the urban fabric to accentuate this remarkable landscape. These are modern traditional buildings, to be raised with an eager sensibility through the site, the typologies and the harmonization between architectural character and use.

As detailed by Erminio Latini the Mayor of Artena, "the study for the town of Artena, masterfully carried out by the University of Notre Dame, has provided suggestions for creating new systems and new conceptions of public and residential building involving high-quality craftsmanship. It is a stimulus to revise certain technical and building criteria as well as the selection of spaces. It is quite clear that most of the planning for public and private works is now based on quick profits, whether in a political or an economic sense.”

Written in English and Italian