The SELF MADE URBANITY project observes the city of Rome as a cross point where urban phenomena of the Northern and Southern hemisphere are very near together.

Researching along a spatial axis of the Roman consular streets Casilina – Prenestina, in the territory of the municipality of Rome our aim is to focus on different cases of informality, such as informal economies, informal housing, informal settlements, self organization and (self)recovery of the territory, connecting at the same time the different „cases“ to related phenomena within the City of Rome or other European and extra European cities.

SELF MADE URBANITY looks at the different phenomena of alternative city building from the point of view of those, who have constructed their homes by themselves, learning from and including the protagonists of self organisation and self organized urbanism in knowledge production. Researching and reflecting on the complex historical, sociological, anthropological and political situation from their point of view will provide, in our opinion, a new consciousness and understanding of contemporary European urban space.

SELF MADE URBANITY is a multidisciplinary, collaborative and participatory research project initiated in the framework of urbanXchange by Antonella und Susanna Perin in collaboration with Jochen Becker (metroZones, Berlin)

Since 2008 several workshops, guided tours took place in Rome. Several lectures and project presentations took place in Zürich, Hamburg, Pula. In 2012 Self Made Urbanity partecipated at the 13th Biennale d’Architettura di Venezia. In 2013 (September – November 2013) the exhibition „Self Made Urbanism (working title) is planned at NGBK Berlin as a collaboration of Self Made Urbanity research, Rome and metroZones, Berlin.