In the Italian capital, the first steps are being taken towards the participatory rebirth of the Ostiense neighbourhood and the improvement of residents' quality of life.
In Rome's Ostiense neighbourhood, projects of urban regeneration are increasingly shaping the interventions that are redrawing its profile. After all, this is a part of the capital that has been the focus of street art for around fifteen years, along with the recovery of disused spaces and the enhancement of sites of industrial archaeology that are essentially unique within the Roman landscape. The neighbourhood was born in the early 1910s to house the city's first industrial area, taking advantage of its proximity to the River Tiber and to the railway for the movement of goods. A past that has left indelible traces such as the gasometer, the Montemartini power station and the general markets.
After the first interventions that, around the turn of the millennium, helped make it one of the city's most interesting neighbourhoods, the process had come to a substantial standstill over the past decade, with all the (negative) consequences that entailed. Now the big news is an urban regeneration project that represents a "new beginning" and a concrete signal for the community. The overall vision aims to involve the main stakeholders present in the area, starting with Roma Tre University and continuing with local associations and the companies that have chosen to relocate their headquarters here, transforming this corner of the metropolis into a place of creativity and innovation. The idea, in essence, is to bring together the many individual initiatives that characterised the neighbourhood years ago into a single, organic intervention.
This is the context in which DOTS – Connecting Ostiense was born: a project to redevelop the route between piazzale Ostiense and via del Porto Fluviale, strongly championed and supported by Brightstar, a company that has had its headquarters in the neighbourhood for over twenty years, and curated by Industrie Fluviali, a hybrid space that acts as a community hub and cultural ecosystem. The underlying idea is to give life to an urban development project within a collaboration with the city and its inhabitants, in order to jointly deliver benefits of a social nature (from inclusion to the development of relationships) as well as environmental ones. The project – endorsed by Rome's Municipio VIII – also aims to reclaim from neglect long stretches of the area's streets. All with a single objective: to make the neighbourhood more welcoming and vibrant. The regeneration of Ostiense represents the third step in a programme of interventions delivered thanks to Brightstar, following Casilino Sky Park in Rome in 2022 and the Tunnel Boulevard in Milan in 2023 and 2024. The intervention focused specifically on the route linking the Piramide – one of the neighbourhood's symbols and the area's main transport hub, home to the Line B metro station – and via del Porto Fluviale, passing through viale del Campo Boario and piazza Bottego. The objectives: to stimulate exploration of the neighbourhood by connecting key locations through urban art and the enhancement of its main points of interest.
As part of the DOTS project, the first work by Geometric Bang came to life — an artist who in recent years has left a profound mark on the Italian street art scene. Known for his ability to work on any type of surface, Geometric Bang employs geometric elements as a backdrop for colours, stories, faces and characters from everyday life; this blend of geometric balance and chromatic explosion also underpins this work, which covers an area of 240 square metres along via del Porto Fluviale and tells the story of the women and female workers who shaped the birth of the Ostiense neighbourhood. "The work originates from the history of the places that host it," says the artist. "Stylised portraits of various figures tied to the neighbourhood's roots — above all female ones (workers from the general markets, the Lavatoio Lanario, the Saccheria Sonnino and the Società romana formaggio pecorino) — alternate with depictions of the neighbourhood's architectural elements and stylisations of its topography. The neighbourhood gives itself back to itself, with colours and forms that evoke the childhood and early days of Ostiense and its gaze turned towards the future."
Also closely tied to the neighbourhood's roots is the work by Moneyless, an artist who grew up in Lucca and is today considered one of the leading figures of the abstract current in urban art. The geometric details of the asphalt art piece – which stretches for over 590 metres along via delle Conce – evoke two elements bound to the history of Ostiense: railway tracks and the telegraph, highlighting the infrastructural and historical context of this part of the capital. "Le Telegrafiste" is the title of the walkable asphalt art work, which transforms urban space into a surface capable of communicating, drawing inspiration from the role of women in the social and technological advances that closely shaped this territory.
The centrality of women in the neighbourhood's history is a common thread running through all the works of DOTS – Connecting Ostiense. It also leads to the final walkable asphalt art intervention, created by Alice Lotti along viale del Campo Boario and piazza Vittorio Bottego. A work that unfolds across traffic islands and pavements, portraying the many places and key historical eras this street holds within it, from the Roman Republic to the women of the partisan resistance who fought here. Historical events, landscape, architecture and people are the four areas underpinning the narrative, with symbols and figures that rework the memory of this stretch of the city, transforming it into a shared imaginary. A neighbourhood that has always been a place of exchange, passage and transformation, to be rediscovered through a work designed to be walked upon, in the spirit of a public and participatory art.
Beyond art, among the interventions that make up DOTS there is also the care of public green spaces. Along viale del Campo Boario, one of the neighbourhood's main arteries, "Green Up" has come to life, curated by the Comitato di Quartiere Piramide Ostiense: a community action to revitalise flowerbeds that aims to blend care, beauty and civic sense, restoring to residents green spaces that had been neglected and overrun with rubbish. DOTS – Connecting Ostiense ultimately shows how it is possible to regenerate the city through a project that builds its model on participation, on listening to local energies, and on activating the resources already present within the territory.
Article written in collaboration with Brightstar
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