Urban Landscape archaeology, geodesign and the city of rome

Abstract

Throughout the history of Western society, the classical Greek and Roman world has figured as a model for architectural and spatial design and planning, with regard to both individual buildings and entire cities and landscapes (Fig. 12.1). It might therefore come as a surprise that classicists—those scholars who actually study the classical world—have refrained from employing classical models to further modern needs. They investigate ancient art and architecture and even ancient town plan- ning, but usually only as examples of the unique character of classical civilization. In this paper, we observe that in recent decades approaches have changed in this re- gard and that classical archaeologists have much to offer to modern spatial planning and design. In regard to these changes, we will demonstrate how archaeological and heritage information can be integrated in geodesign-informed spatial planning and the role that geospatial technologies can play in this integration. A Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) has been developed and deployed for an urban design task in Testaccio, a neighbourhood in Rome, the very heart of Classical society. Our evalu- ation of this case study will conclude with suggestions for further promoting the mutually beneficially exchange between archaeology and geodesign