Suburbia Italian style

[miketoronto]

I thought you guys would get a kick out of seeing some suburbia Italian style
The photos are not the best, as most of them were taken from bus, train, or car windows.

While the suburbia we think about is not as widespread in Italian cities, they do each have their districts with big box retail malls and collection of warehouse industrial areas and the odd office building etc. Again while North American suburbia is not as widespread(and lets hope it does not get that way) as here, enjoy a look at what suburbia does exist in Italy.

These were taken in a number of cities.











All Italian cities use the circles with a dot to indicate downtown, known as "Centro" in Italian.










New subdivisions








Our cousins subdivision in Bari. While most housing is condo buildings, this development was different in that it was low rise condominiums, which look more like townhouses here. Everything is behind shrubs and fences, due to crime issues.


Inside the subdivision once you go through the main gate which lets you into the interior roads. There are other gates in front of each block of homes. Again this did not appear to be the norm, as most housing was in condo apartment buildings. This subdivision I think is like this, due to the proximity of the ocean being only a block away, and the areas history of more single story homes, etc.


Believe it or not, the train station is only a 10 minute walk from here.




New housing on the edge of a medieval town.












The Autogrill on the highways.

[ColDayMan]

The Autogrills!!!

[stepper77]

Interesting. I saw a thread of suburban France once somewhere and found it fascinating to see other cultures expression of that lifestyle. Thanks for the photos!

[detroitmetro101]

very cool. who lives in these suburbs, working class, middle class, upper class. is it the case here as in paris, where usually poor working class live in suburbs..

[ifeeldope9779]

Very interesting thread. Thanks!

[Minato Ku]

Originally Posted by detroitmetro101

very cool. who lives in these suburbs, working class, middle class, upper class. is it the case here as in paris, where usually poor working class live in suburbs..

Everybody live in suburbs in Paris from the wealthiest people (the weathiest communities of France are in Paris suburbs) to the poorest.
The majority of people living in Paris suburbs are middle class.
I know that the riot of 2005 created the myth that suburbs are mostly inhabited by poor working class but it is far to be the truth.
Even the infamous Seine Saint Denis departement has some pretty wealthy areas.

[miketoronto]

Originally Posted by detroitmetro101

very cool. who lives in these suburbs, working class, middle class, upper class. is it the case here as in paris, where usually poor working class live in suburbs..

Suburbia in Italy is interesting, because the housing still tends to be condo apartment buildings, and these buildings from what I could see, tend to be built as extensions of the existing towns.
The retail stores, warehousing, etc tends to either be built right on the edge of the built up area, or is built basically out in the middle of nowhere, and people commute to these areas to visit the shops.

Overall what I could gather from talking with Italians was that living in the centre of the city is prized, and living further out is not considered normal or desirable.

I also noticed from driving around and also on maps, that the suburban big box stores tend to clump in one section.

So while a city here in North America might have mega supermarkets in every neighbourhood, and 20 Home Depos. In Italy it tended to be say one Leyroy Merlin (their version of Home Depo), etc. They had less of this big box stuff, but what they do have is clustered in one area.
Bari with over 600,000 people in the city and the close in surrounding area
has one Leyroy Merlin.
My section of Toronto with 600,000 people easily has three or more Home Depo's.

[Minato Ku]

I did not know there were Leroy Merlin store outside France.

[Austinlee]

Italy is a first world economy and although people in the US tend to think of suburban sprawl as being only a North American thing, all first world countries have similar ideals, social progress and real estate developments so to think that any one country is so vastly different from others is not very informed, IMO.

Of course almost nothing in the US can compare to the centuries old, dense beautiful villages of Europe, modern cities tend to have more in common than you would think.

I've looked at photo threads of modern day Paris and for a while I forgot and thought I was looking at Tokyo. I saw pictures from NYC that I mistook for Seoul.
Modern cities are looking more and more similar and that's not bad as the world becomes more multicultural and incorporates the best design and urban planning ideals from around the world into building cities. IMO, again.

[mousquet]

Originally Posted by Minato Ku

Everybody live in suburbs in Paris from the wealthiest people (the weathiest communities of France are in Paris suburbs) to the poorest.
The majority of people living in Paris suburbs are middle class.
I know that the riot of 2005 created the myth that suburbs are mostly inhabited by poor working class but it is far to be the truth.
Even the infamous Seine Saint Denis departement has some pretty wealthy areas.

The poor live in the ugly suburbs in France, it's no secret. That's what the guy meant and he was right, wasn't he?
Besides, the disastrous quality of the post-war architecture over here - widely spread over the suburbs of Paris - reinforces the idea that they're mostly poor, even though there are some well-off areas and tons of rather nice neighborhoods with cool homes and everything for the mid-class. People just keep on their minds what's wrong and they are not wrong for that, especially about a place like Paris that often claims to be so exclusively beautiful. It's untrue as it's also partly ugly and impoverished indeed. The Parisians are like ashamed when everybody comes to know , yet it is still a fact.
There are just all kinds of stuff over here, from the best to the worst.