Event Info
Organized By
Anu Kaisa Koponen
Photo exhibition on Rome's social housing neighbourhoods
Anu Kaisa Koponen
The photographic exhibition presents social housing neighbourhoods of Rome inspired by the international garden city movement.
Architect and visual artist Anu Kaisa Koponen's photographs illustrate the current state of these neighbourhoods, while reproductions of 1920s architectural drawings complete the picture of their construction under the guidance of respected architects and engineers of the time. The social housing blocks featured in the exhibition were built affordably and sustainably, while their character continues to give them a strong sense of place.
The carefully designed communal courtyards of Rome’s social housing neighbourhoods, which have been remarkably well preserved for a century, provide excellent examples for designers planning microforest projects in new cities. The topic is timely, as numerous European cities — from Rome to Kemi — are currently planting micro-forests aimed at combating climate change and supporting urban biodiversity.
Affordably built 1920s Rome social housing architecture together with its planning and structural solutions, offers valuable inspiration for designing a more equal city and sustainable wellbeing.
Opening on Thursday, 1 October 2026, 5–7pm.
Anu Kaisa Koponen
Architect and visual artist Anu Kaisa Koponen has explored the relationship between architecture and ornamentation both through her scholarly research and her artistic practice. As her diploma work at the Academy of Fine Arts (1999), she painted a large fresco in the sculpture hall of Helsinki's Kunsthalle. In her doctoral dissertation (2009), she examined the relationship between ancient Roman wall paintings and residential architecture, and her numerous articles have explored Egyptian-inspired motifs in the spatial sequences of houses in Pompeii. In her current project, which combines science and art, she is researching the social housing blocks built in Rome in the 1920s and their shared courtyards. Alongside her scholarly publications, Koponen presents this subject in a touring exhibition, in which her photographs depict the current state of these areas while Innocenzo Sabbatini's architectural drawings reveal their design process. The exhibition was on view at Kuopio Main Library from 25 August to 11 September 2026, and will next travel to Helsinki's Alppigalleria from 1 to 25 October 2026. In 2027, the exhibition will then move on to Italy, Rome and Osimo.