CONCRETE DREAMS
Built in the 80’s by the Autonomous Council Housing Institute (IACP) the complex covers an area of 11 hectares and comprises 648 flats (able to host up to 2500 residents), along with social and commercial services.
Informally known as the “quadrilateral”, or even more informally, at least amongst some of its residents, as “Alcatraz”, the complex (designed by a team led by architect Carlo Celli, and completed in 1981) is situated in the outskirts of the city of Trieste, and ows its most popular name to the neighbourhood where it is located: Rozzol Melara.
The aim of the designers was to shape and build a semi-independent urban area, rather than just a residential building, as well as to create, through high-density housing, an epicentre for the future development of a wider surrounding, which would gravitate around the complex.
Today, though most of the social and commercial spaces lie unused, the number of inhabitants is in excess of 1500.
CONCRETE DREAMS is a photo series about how a design based on everything that’s human - to provide a home and space for social relations to bloom, and indeed thrive - can grow and exceed a critical scale beyond which lies an artificial city.
