
Structural axes and green system
Modern statutory framework for Rome
Rome's Piano Regolatore Generale, approved in 2008 after more than a decade of preparation under the Comune di Roma, replaced the city's 1965 master plan. It organises the metropolis through structural axes of rail-based mobility—the so-called 'cura del ferro'—a network of new peripheral centralities intended to decentralise functions from the historic core, and an extensive ecological and green system protecting the Roman campagna. It is a statutory plan covering the whole vast municipal territory.
The 2008 PRG marked the renewal of Italian statutory planning for the capital, shifting from expansion-oriented zoning towards polycentrism, rail-oriented development and environmental structure. It has been widely discussed in Italian planning culture, both as a sophisticated attempt to reform the master-plan instrument and for the criticism that its negotiated 'centralities' and compensation mechanisms accommodated real-estate interests more than they restructured the city.