Termini: palinsesti, dinosauri, grandi vuoti, eterotopie

Abstract

Stazione Termini has always been at the center of urban and architectural debate in Rome. Over the years, it has undergone many transformations that have altered its spaces and uses. Today, it repre-sents a crucial hub for the city, welcoming hundreds of thousands of people daily, including travelers, commuters, tourists, passersby, and migrants. Vittorio De Sica's film Stazione Termini, set and entirely filmed within the station in 1953, offers a snapshot of the life and society of that era, representing a val-uable document for spatial and social comparison to observe the invariants and changes concerning the station's role within the city. The article examines the architectural development of the station, highlighting the crucial steps in its evolution from a monument embodying symbolic values to its progressive transformation and adapta-tion from a space exclusively linked to transit and movement to a multifunctional place, primarily fo-cused on commerce and consumption. Through the analysis of the film and the spatial changes, the essay underscores how, both in the past and present, Stazione Termini represents an urban micro-cosm reflecting the social and cultural contradictions of society. The station is configured as an ever-evolving palimpsest that layers and integrates urban life; a complex heterotopia that embraces multi-ple possible narratives, where the different communities that inhabit it contribute to defining a system of values and meanings, granting it the role of a contemporary public space.