Social Housing and Building Communities in Naples in the Second Post War Era. Quality, Involvement and Open Processes Between Segregation and Boundaries to Date

The essay discusses the quality, involvement and actions concerning affordable housing and building communities in Naples between the 1950s and 1960s. It focuses on problems that have developed since the first urban planning actions were taken and that are still ongoing. Awareness of social housing began in Naples in 1884, when a cholera epidemic demonstrated how urgent it was to reclaim unhealthy neighbourhoods. As a result, a master plan was designed, and considerable building works were planned. This circumstance therefore not only led to the design of a plan that, directly or indirectly, has delineated the shape of the contemporary city to date, but it was also the first time that the dwellings for workers and lower classes were tackled as a social problem and administrated by the government. In addition, new, specific quarters for the lower classes were planned and dwelling typologies were designed. The primary aim of this essay is to investigate the problems of urban spaces and the facilities of these neighbourhoods that have grown between segregation and peripheries, and to question them critically in a historical analysis. Specifically, it briefly crosses the history of social housing in Naples since the shape of contemporary city was first delineated, focusing on a paradigmatic case: the CEP-Traiano neighbourhood in the Soccavo district, built between 1957 and 1975.