Aschieri’s contribution to urban planning studies for the city of Rome in the ‘la Burbera’ group: ‘lesser’ drawings as a design path

Abstract

This contribution address drawing as it pertains to the specific aspect of design in the ideation stage. The analysis focuses on the graphics, and even informal design sketches, produced by Pietro Aschieri in his studies to develop a hypothesis for a new Regulatory Plan for the capital. In 1929, a controversial, unofficial competition on the fate of urban planning in the capital was sparked be- tween two groups of designers: the Roman urban planning group and the ‘la Burbera’ group to which Aschieri pertained, coordinated by Marcello Piacentini and Gustavo Giovannoni, respectively. This contribution therefore aims to investigate the graphical ideation of the solutions that, while not being included - at least graphically - in the set of published drawings, not only document the author’s graphical/stylistic style, but also allow us to suppose/imagine some aspects relating to the working methods. This is true even in terms of combining the intents of the participants in the design group. The documents considered and presented here come from the set of graphics entitled ‘Studio urbanistico per la città di Roma’ [Urban planning study for the City of Rome] from the Fondo Pietro Aschieri housed at the Accademia di San Luca in Rome.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.20365/disegnarecon.34.2025.15