Traversing the route that departs by Roman square in the historic centre and proceeds towards the east is like taking a trip through the evolution of settlement system of the city. Between the old town that stands out with recognizable identity of the Roman centre, the city bounded by avenues (with still strong influence of the first nucleus in its morphology), the expansion of the nineteenth century with its conformation defined by the road grid, up to the recent parties where the city is fragmenting and composing of the spaces that never reached and perhaps never completely owned their clear identity, the "Piazza Varlungo" is located there, point of passage between cities and territory. Investigating the memory of the place was an act of interpretative knowledge; the identification of "invariant" geometries, the conditioning of roadways plant recognized as inductor of urban form, the predominant plot of an agricultural structure, the original relational sense, the signs that have resisted to change over time, they all were a source for the identification and support for design choices. Recovering the sign of the old road path, previous to enlargement of the 1930s, was the founding element of the project. This choice, retrieved of historic viability, was possible considering to reduce significantly vehicular traffic, which should be diverted otherwise. This allows to bring back, or perhaps to assign for the first time, the character of "Viability of the district", which may be the only premise to transform in a really enjoyable urban space this stretch of Via Aretina. This solution also helps to optimize the organization of the space by creating a vast pedestrian area.

The new squares of Varlungo The characteristics of the same context, or more exactly its particularly narrow and elongated form and the many situations that characterize the different parts of the street, prompted us to create, not so much a square in an traditional sense, but rather a system of linear pedestrian areas and squares consisting of a set of episodes, each with different spatial and functional characteristics strongly related to context. The "four squares" that make rhythm of the long pedestrian theme are placed at the most significant points that are already places of gathering and meeting. Reflecting the "squares", the paved area extends to include the carriageway road and to constitute a unique platform with the opposed sideway according to by now consolidated and widely used typology of northern woonerf. The system of "squares" is then connected by a pedestrian walk lined with trees and furnished with stop areas and benches.