Roma Interrotta

***REPRINTED*** ? Historical documentation of a major architectural project on Rome, which went on to be featured in prestigious world venues, and was restated in 2008 by Aaron Betsky, at the 14th International Architecture Exhibition ? Catalogue of the architects' original projects and drawings, which are now part of the MAXXI Architecture collection, in Rome In his 'Nuova Pianta di Roma' dated 1748, Giovanni Battista Nolli presented for the first time the Eternal City as a complete organism: divided into twelve tables, the plan reproduces all mechanisms of Rome, showing the external and internal 'spaces' created by removing the solid mass from built-up areas. Almost two hundred fifty years later, in 1978, the project Roma interrotta was conceived by Piero Sartogo and promoted by Incontri Internazionali d'Arte to show how every town planning impulse in Rome was blocked, the 'Pianta' by G.B. Nolli being proof of an interruption that was both culturally and politically motivated. Twelve leading international architects were invited to reflect on the possibility of something grand and lasting that would give an effective modernity and topicality to the Eternal City; a proposal to cancel centuries of inertia and property speculation and restart from the Nolli's plan as the 'last document of coherent urban design'. 191 b/w 17 colour