What if a City Becomes Carbon Neutral?
A trail map that shows a world many of us might experience soon
When preparing Rome’s masterplan for Expo 2030, Italian architect and engineer Carlo Ratti encouraged the city to respond to the climate emergency with giant and ambitious leap:
In Europe and America, where the urban population has stopped growing, it is absolutely necessary to repair, regenerate, and continue to work on urban fabrics which by their nature stratify and historicize. — Carlo Ratti
For the bid, he imagined the construction of an Expo Solar Park to ensure that the event will not only regenerate a neighborhood, but help decarbonize it. Unfortunately for Rome, Riyadh was selected to host Expo 2030.
Reinvigorated by Ratti’s vision, Gianluca Gabrielli, co-founder and Creative Director at ias:atelier has not given up on preparing his city and local neighborhood for global scale challenges such as climate change, labor automation, access to clean water. He elaborated a city model that embraces nature at its core. He placed vegetation at the center of neighborhoods, creating a network of parks to combat soil warming, enhance urban ventilation, and produce more oxygen than CO2. The main symbol of this ambitious leap is “Percorsi verdi” (Green Routes), a major green corridor along the Tevere river.
Besides producing renderings of what that Rome of the future might look like, Gianluca collaborated with me to prototype what neighborhoods might feel like when the city reaches its objective and becomes carbon neutral. We gathered observations and weak signals for multiple questions: What would the traffic of people and goods look like? What would be the new points of interest for tourists and locals, which ones would remain relevant, etc?
The result is a trail map that tells the fictional story of “Percorsi verdi” (Green Routes) in Garbatella, a neighborhood of Rome. Inspired by the Decorative Construction Fencing Panel program in New York, we imagined that his map would typically be present along the trail in construction to share information on the project goals and benefits, assist with wayfinding, and engage the community.
Here are some of the stories you might discover looking at the map and panel (download the PDF version):
Garbatella, once a working-class neighborhood, underwent a makeover by implementing a Low Energy Traffic Zone (LETZ) , limiting access to energy-efficient vehicles. Here, you’ll spot Automated Logistics Trolleys (ALTs) navigating the streets, sometimes amusingly stuck. This unexpected congestion prompted local authorities to promote vehicles with human drivers and assisted-driving solutions “Made in Italy”.
Change, however, stirs mixed emotions. Not everyone welcomes “Percorsi verdi,” leading to friction among local businesses and residents. Rome’s deep history and sentimentality make it resistant to rapid change. People are sentimental. They cling. And they don’t replace everything with the next new thing. Particularly in a city like Rome. Activists and artists have rallied against lithium-ion batteries, seeking to reduce the city’s dependence on cobalt and nickel, which have fueled conflicts globally. Legislation promoting human driving hasn’t prevented layoffs at CartPlus, a local Mini EV fleet operator emblematic of Rome’s mobility transition.
Yet, Romans are resilient and inventive. Ostiense, a cultural hub, capitalizes on “Percorsi verdi” as a unique mobility attraction. This evolution spawns new urban hotspots along key routes, such as the Mercati Generali 0km market, Monte dei cocci open-air museum, and Gasometro, breathing fresh life into the city.
In this vision of a carbon-neutral Rome, the city’s future is a dynamic blend of environmental consciousness, cultural revival, and community resilience, where both nostalgia and innovation coexist in a captivating urban tapestry.
The map of Percorsi verdi is a collaboration between Gianluca Gabrielli at ias:atelier and Fabien Girardin at Girardin & Nova as part of the Futures in Maps observatory.
The objective of this work is to provoke the imagination with the emergence of technologies, distinct customs, regulations, and social practices. This map that comes from the future also warns us about unintended consequences, failures and debates that we can anticipate today.
