Afrasinei, AlexandraCappuccitti, Antonio2013Afrasinei , A & Cappuccitti , A 2013 , ' Polycentrism and commercial “central” places in Rome: State of art and scenarios of urban qualification ' , Revista Lusófona de Arquitectura e Educação .1646-6756Revista Lusófona de Arquitectura e EducaçãoUrban Planning in Rome today tends towards a polycentric structure of the suburbs and of the metropolitan area. For this reason, a system of important “Central Districts” is under construction, and some of them also contain large commercial super-structures. The paper intends to analyze the positive and negative aspects of the relationship between urban polycentrism and commercial super-structures in the city of Rome, starting from the description of the historical relationship between the morphogenetic potentiality of the commercial function and the structure of urban space, and observing the events and characteristics of three largest and most important new Central Districts (Bufalotta, EUR Sud, Ponte di Nona). Starting from this analysis, some topics and criteria for the planning and the urban qualification of this type of urban districts are briefly presented.application/pdfengopenAccessARQUITETURAPLANEAMENTO URBANOPLANO DIRETOR MUNICIPALESPAÇOS URBANOSMORFOLOGIA URBANAROMAURBAN SPACESARCHITECTUREURBAN PLANNINGBOROUGH PLANURBAN MORPHOLOGYROMEarticle