Research today should focus on building a fairer and more sustainable longterm development model, compared to the present situation, capable of effectively meeting the political, economic, market and social demands. Social housing encompasses all these elements and is currently in a phase of applied experimentation. For some time now universities have been usefully contributing to furthering the issue of social housing and the time is now ripe to apply the results produced by the large number of researches in this field. The aim of the paper is to provide an overview of the design process and the environmental features of the Master Plan relating to a significant Social Housing project in the area of Collina Muratella, in Rome, within the framework of a research project commissioned to the DATA Department of La Sapienza University of Rome by the construction firm Lamaro Appalti Unipersonale spa.