The project entailed the
renovation of an urban area. The architectural definition of a limit, a sort of
threshold to the historic town. The design of a sort of border and together a
kind of joining element, which would connect the historic town with the modern
suburbs.
The main elements of the
project were conceived as traditional urban elements: the wall, the ramparts
and the bridge.
The orography of the
ground, already in place, enabled a new design for the wall to be built, an
element taken from tradition but which interprets the variation in levels with
shapes that show the contemporary nature of the intervention.
From the existing
roundabout near the school a path in red bricks is lined by a type of enclosed
wall of limited height which, with an irregular development, defines and
outlines the greenery along the pathway.
The parking places are on a lower level than
the road and can be reached down a ramp; they are thus hidden by foliage.
The project has tried to
unite the two different parts of the built-up area, by giving it a new dignity
and urban decoration.
A unity that by means of
the path in red bricks, connected through a system of ramps, pathways and
passages strategically placed so as to connect the car park built on a lower
level, is achieved in a few, but significant gestures. There are very few signs
on the ground, unobtrusive, almost imperceptible and yet , at the same time,
strong and eloquent.
All the outdoor
furnishings (lamps, litter bins, fencings, pavement decorations …) are in
corten steel, a material considered ecological. The placement of the vegetation
completes the whole, and contributes to closing and opening perspectives, to
hiding the motor vehicles and to marking the previous paths, which were
difficult to discern and for this reason were badly- or under-used. From the
existing roundabout the land is connected to the car park using the gentle,
existing slope. At this point the foliage has not been changed, but pruned and
looked after.
In the shelter of the wall
a green area has been created, and long stemmed plants have been planted. On
the lower level, after the car park, there is another green area, for
recreation, easily reached from the gymnasium of the school.