Abstract

The exclusive ‘Olgiata Romana’ residential centre, built between the 1950s and 1970s, is an emblematic case of the real estate strategies of Società Generale Immobiliare, a leading player in Rome’s post-World War II urban development. &e idea of an integrated residential nucleus with common services and facilities is declined in a very low-density settlement organised as a fenced enclave with controlled access, located about ten kilometres outside the Grande Raccordo Anulare. &is settlement model, based on individual mobility, expresses a desire for social isolation and control over one’s territory, but at the same time a desire for openness and integration with nature. &e contradictions of this idea of living are expressed in the architecturally most valuable part of the intervention, islands 106 and 107 designed by Luigi Moretti.