The house of affectivity

G124 is the code of the room assigned to the Senator for life Renzo Piano in Palazzo Giustiniani. Since the day of his appointment, the famous architect has chosen to return the remuneration received for this assignment through redevelopment projects in the country's suburbs. An idea to which he gave the name of the code of his room, and which in recent years has resulted in several recoveries from north to south of Italy. The last project carried out concerns Rebibbia, the prison in the north-eastern outskirts of Rome. A place where the culture of isolation dominates.

Within this complex there is one of the five female prison institutions present throughout the national territory. Considering the scarcity of facilities, many inmates serve their sentences far from the environment of origin, living daily with a double guilt, that due to the crime committed and that of being very far from their family. In order not to further disperse the bond of affection, in particular with children, a work group of Renzo Piano has created the Casa dell'Affettività, a meeting place between prisoners and families, a space that recreates the domestic dimension, which momentarily reconstitutes the family unit and which allows the inmates to maintain a role within it, favoring their rehabilitation and reintegration.

It is a small building of 28 square meters, all colored, with an iconic shape that refers to the traditional idea of ​​home. Due to the pandemic, its location in the Rebibbia park, in a sufficiently protected green area, was postponed for almost two years. It is equipped with the essential environments for carrying out the typical activities of a daily domestic life. The sloping pitched roof protects a small loggia from which you enter a single internal room that gathers living room, kitchenette and dining area, plus a small service nucleus.

Created by three young fellows of the G124 project (Tommaso Marenaci, Attilio Mazzetto and Martina Passeri) under the supervision of Renzo Piano, it could become the first of a series to be installed in Italian prisons. At the inauguration, the architect, a senator for life, admitted that even though he had never built a prison, he has always been attracted by the dynamics linked to these environments. This "new home" is just a spark "which certainly will not solve the problems of prisons", he remarked, but "reinforces the idea that prison cannot be punishment and revenge, it must be a place where the person changes"

Chiara Genesio
NP Novembre 2021