REGENERATION OF AN ITALIAN TOWN’S CORNER
Basic information
Project Title
REGENERATION OF AN ITALIAN TOWN’S CORNER
Category
Regaining a sense of belonging
Project Description
The project aim is to reconfigure or "re-activate" an urban corner - a remnant space - through street furnitures.
Geographical Scope
Local
Project Region
Municipality of San Giuliano del Sannio (IT), Italy
Urban or rural issues
Mainly urban
Physical or other transformations
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
EU Programme or fund
Yes
Which funds
CF : Cohesion Fund
Description of the project
Summary
The project aim is to reconfigure or "re-activate" an urban corner - a remnant space - through street furniture.
The constraints present are the adjacent road, the old stone wall, and the connotation of the project area, which appears to be halfway between a sidewalk - along which it is actually located - and a small square. The state of affairs saw the presence of anonymous street furniture placed frontally against the road.
The design solution provides a new furniture arrangement according to the ideal curved generator line that allows the space to be used differently, rotating the benches toward each other, and implementing sociality among the users.
The furniture consists of two benches with concrete tops and wooden seat accessory (industrially produced by METALCO), while the planters and brackets supporting the benches were custom-made in Corten by local craftsmen. The benches were recessed into the existing pavement and placed flat on the sloping ground. The intention is to configure different seating heights for different types of users: adults, the elderly, children, etc.
The planted tree species include native varieties such as olive and medicinal plants and exotic varieties such as Japanese maple.
The constraints present are the adjacent road, the old stone wall, and the connotation of the project area, which appears to be halfway between a sidewalk - along which it is actually located - and a small square. The state of affairs saw the presence of anonymous street furniture placed frontally against the road.
The design solution provides a new furniture arrangement according to the ideal curved generator line that allows the space to be used differently, rotating the benches toward each other, and implementing sociality among the users.
The furniture consists of two benches with concrete tops and wooden seat accessory (industrially produced by METALCO), while the planters and brackets supporting the benches were custom-made in Corten by local craftsmen. The benches were recessed into the existing pavement and placed flat on the sloping ground. The intention is to configure different seating heights for different types of users: adults, the elderly, children, etc.
The planted tree species include native varieties such as olive and medicinal plants and exotic varieties such as Japanese maple.
Key objectives for sustainability
The concept of sustainability is intrinsic to this small urban regeneration intervention. Indeed, it involves "reactivating" an existing, degraded urban area through street furniture alone, excluding new land use, through durable materials and the substantial use of vegetation. Maintaining a place, renewing it, and especially renewing the use of that place by locals.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
Aesthetics plays a key role in the design especially in terms of the assembly of elements and consequent juxtaposition of materials. These create textural contrasts that alternate between rough and soft depending on the role the element plays: exotic wood seating, high performance concrete banches, corten steel planters and brackets, different types of plants mediate the artificial.
Key objectives for inclusion
The intervention tries to "dialogue" with all ages by arranging the furniture in a way that allows it to be used by every age group. The benches are placed horizontally on sloping ground. The average height of the seats is about 45 cm from the ground but ranges from 35cm to 52 cm, configuring comfortable seating planes for all heights and ages.
How Citizens benefit
Although it was not a prerogative, the project is of a participatory design. In fact, the process of placing the furniture took place through an initial design of the benches on the pavement which was then modified according to the needs expressed by the local residents, while not failing to depart from the generating design premises. The benches were indeed moved and changed in number from the first assumptions, however, the placement according to a radius of curvature that would break the pre-existing rigidity, the placement at different heights, remained firm.
Physical or other transformations
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
Innovative character
The innovative character in our view lies in the principle behind the design. That is, in the analytical-historical approach of studying the context and identifying a strategy that can implement urban regeneration interventions. Historical contextualization and adaptability between hamlet and historical period can constitute a new approach to a design practice that can be called "participatory historical design".
Disciplines/knowledge reflected
The main disciplines involved in the study behind the intervention are: history, urban planning, architecture, and sociology. Called upon at different levels as follows. The intervention constitutes a prototype of a process that has the ambition of finding a way in bringing back into play the historic villages that populate the interior areas of the Italian peninsula. The study process that led to a possible roadmap starts from the historical analysis of a "sample village" with which we tried to highlight how the village-understood as a system-has been able to adapt to various historical contexts, from the Roman Empire to the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Each time, in fact, this has "adapted" both by changing its economic and social system and by physically modifying itself by restructuring its urban space and the way it is inhabited. This last concept is the one we are interested in insisting on. In urban planning, the "neighborhood" as it exists in a suburb is a formidable example of an extension of private property, an object of care and maintenance by the inhabitants, a prototype of sustainability. It is precisely urban space so understood, in our view, that is the key to the intended goal.
How stakeholders are engaged
The intervention is financed by the European community under cohesion funds. The assignment was through direct contracting by the Municipality of San Giuliano del Sannio for design and construction supervision. The realization of the work has seen the alternation of purely local figures for the craftsmanship of part of the furnishings and their installation, as well as for the maintenance and care of the greenery, by the municipality and often by the inhabitants themselves. At the same time, part of the elements, about 50 percent of the resources, were purchased from international manufacturing company such as Metalco Ltd.
Global challenges
The "glo-cal" (global+local) set-up is decisive in the concept behind this small intervention that sees the general desire to put back into play or re-connect the well-known Italian Townscape to the global society of the present day. The ancient, if not ancestral, urban spaces of a village with medieval origins are called upon to re-invent themselves with the goal of returning to play a role in contemporary society. These are to be valued in their "being local," being community, being common property.
Learning transferred to other parties
The aim is that such a strategy can potentially be replicated to all Italian boroughs, and others, targeted by the dramatic population decline. To configure an analysis methodology that can be replicated as a standard.
Keywords
URBAN REGENERATION
STREET FURNITURES
TOWNSCAPE
GLO-CAL
RE-ACTIVATION
