Purtroppo è cosí: Complaint in action in the Corviale, Rome

1000 meters long, nine story high, Corviale is a social concrete housing project built between 1975 and 1984 and designed by Mario Fiorentino and a team of 23 architects in the periphery of Rome. The big serpent, as it is called, can house 8,500 inhabitants and is divided into six sections. Today, 4,500 people from more than 20 countries, not without struggle, live in the complex. Through three microhistories centered around building components and inhabitants’ complaints, this presentation offers contested views of ongoing issues that intends to position practices of maintenance not just as technical operations but cultural and political acts.