Add To Collection
Add to Collection
regeneration of Formignano: a mining village
regeneration of Formignano: a mining village
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
View Original
Add To Collection
Add to Collection
regeneration of Formignano: a mining village
YEAR
2011
THE INITIAL STATE
BEFORE THE INTERVENTION
The district of Formignano is situated on a
large sulphur catchment area which surrounds the territories from Romagna until
Marche and is second in Italy only to the Sicilian catchment area. The work of
sulphur extraction has been carried out in these areas since Roman times.
Beginning from the eighteenth century, with the onset of the industrial revolution,
the industry of sulphur extraction marked a real economic boom. However, at the
turn of the twentieth century, competition with the Sicilian sulphur industry and
in turn, with the mass sulphur production by the Americans, pushed the local
sulphur industry out of the market and the Italian sulphur industry as a whole
eventually followed. In 1962 the mine of Formignano closed down.
The district of Formignano has remained at this
point since then. The closing of the mine has favoured a mass emigration that
has left the mining village situated in the immediate vicinity completely
uninhabited, while the residential district, at little over a kilometer from
the mine, has less than a hundred registered inhabitants. An aggregate of small
and modest housing is found in the center of a street made of clay that describes a fragmented
perimeter made up dry stone walls mixed with leftover building materials.
Before the intervention the district found itself in an elevated state of
degradation. The urban spaces and the aggregations had disappeared, utilized in
an abusive manner for the stockpiling of material and precarious things. The
wellbeing of the environment was threatened by hydrological problems of nature,
the presence of landfill material and the act of extraction done in the past,
limiting the stability of these buildings. The situation was compounded by the
complete absence of a sewage system: the buildings dumped their sewage which
contributed to ground pollution while the complete absence of a rainwater
management system favoured the arrival of landslides and various other problems
of a hydrological nature.
OBJECTIVES OF THE
INTERVENTION
The objective of the redevelopment of the
district has even more importance, if one considers that we are talking about an
awareness and value of cultural-historic resources that are less important in
respect to the parameters of recognized norms, but undoubtedly felt strongly in
this place because they give a testimony of an almost completely oral history
which has included practically all the original families in their entirety and
which risks, with the passing of the last miners, to disappear without a trace.
At this point the activity has been on going for twenty five years under the Department
of Research and Study of Romagna Mining who are pushing the general public
towards the topic of the ability of volunteers to preserve the history and to
transform it into culture. The redevelopment of Formignano could also be a
worthy example of the appraisal of periurban spaces with the objective of
repopulating small centers in the areas of the highlands of Cesena.
The intervention will be financed based on the
project agreement from the program going back to the 1990’s between Hera s.p.a.
(the organization put in charge of the management of waste) and the municipality
of Cesena, that foresaw three ” lire” for every quintal of stockpiled material
in the landfill nearby named ‘la Busca’ that would be put aside in a fund to be
utilized for redevelopment projects in the surrounding areas. This system
allowed for the mitigation of the environmental impact of the landfill, with
the goal of producing the necessary resources for the urban redevelopment of
the spaces in concern. The financing project allowed for the redevelopment of
the roads, the schools and the public squares; the redevelopment of Formignano
was realized with a cost of around 1,100,000 euro.
DESCRIPTION OF THE
INTERVENTION
The profile of the retaining wall indentifies
the limits of the urban centre, opening new public spaces and overlooking at
different levels in the direction of the mine. The new wall is an
interpretation of the preexisting one: in the lower part of the structure the
reinforced concrete wall disappears behind dry stones encased in a structure of
metal bars; the side above on the other hand , is recovered in a corten steel plate that, reaching the top, connects
to a banister. This particular steel develops, under the oxidization from the
sulphur present in the air, a superficial coat of rust that stabilizes the
process of corrosion. The chromatic quality of the corten is reminiscent of the industrial archeology evoked by the
antique carriages used for transport that protrude over the wall in the
direction of the mine. The fragmented course of the new wall follows the
preexistent permanent wall, leaving it almost unrecognizable from the erosion
produced by the old landslide. The project identifies three squares that are structured
on different levels. The design of the pavement doesn’t follow forms or octagonal
hierarchies, but an organic composition that is adapted to the fragmented
outline of the old inhabited district. The stone used is called Alberese, a
sandstone that comes from a quarry near the town of Sarsina, in which hints of
iron in the pigmentation, similar to that of oxidized iron, are present. In the
public square situated at street level
and in the one in the part above, two corten metal inserts define a circular
form at which the inside flooring changes from plates with a saw cut
surface to small ashlars arranged in
concentric circles that go up and close around
a large mulberry tree.
The design that results from this is
reminiscent of “calcaroni”: large furnaces where the sulphur mineral extracted
from the mine was accumulated. A great
brick tower stands in the lower public square with the top of the tower
reaching the square above. Its
troncoconical shape is an interpretation of the “Gill” furnaces, utilized for
the extraction of sulphur , that were a direct evolution of the “calcaroni”
system.
Thanks to the panoramic position of the tower,
it’s possible to see the view of the Savio valley, where below extends the
mining tunnel. Referring to the local culture which is permanently tied to the
mining past of the district, there are numerous sessions that show serigraphic
prints of verses from the text of the poem “ Il Zolfo”( the sulphur), that
brings to mind the activities that were carried out by generations many years
ago in the same places. In addition to the references evoked from the
industrial mining past, the project follows lines of research on the sulphur
history that are lost in a past that is much more antique , written in texts about
hermetic philosophy. The protagonist of the project remains the sulphur which,
through direct references to industrial
mining and indirect to the philosophical principles attributed to the mineral,
renews the district of Formignano with an identity connected to its history.
APPRAISAL
The project improved the nature of
places, from the environmental point of view because it restored the urban and
community spaces of the inhabited suburb, and also in relation to the material
used and the constructive choices adopted. The regulation of the meteoric
waters has been projected according to the calculation of millwork, eliminating
the erosion phenomenon of the ground. The water collected is conveyed to a
ditch for the fields irrigation. The creation of brick walls of reinforced
concrete keep safe the inhabited area from landslides and geological
instability which were common in that area. The materials used do not need any
maintenance and follow the “zero km project” principles, in order to reduce the
energetic consumption of transports. The stone used comes from a cave which is
30 km away. The waste from processing have been reused to fill wire netting
cages which render nobler the wall surface.
The Corten steel protects itself naturally from
external agents thanks to the development of a rusty gloss which stops the
oxidization and which doesn’t need any maintenance. In contact with the
atmospheric agents, the natural cedar wood creates a gray superficial film
which naturally protects the material with no need of maintenance. The redevelopment
project initiated a valuable route which favoured , even during the construction
of the work, free enterprises aimed at recovering pre-existing houses and
building new ones. The entire area has been reclaimed and during the work
polluting materials were disposed of, due to the mine activity and the
unauthorized dumping. As a result of this, a sewage system has been planned in
order to clear up the ground from domestic dumping.
BEFORE THE INTERVENTION
The district of Formignano is situated on a
large sulphur catchment area which surrounds the territories from Romagna until
Marche and is second in Italy only to the Sicilian catchment area. The work of
sulphur extraction has been carried out in these areas since Roman times.
Beginning from the eighteenth century, with the onset of the industrial revolution,
the industry of sulphur extraction marked a real economic boom. However, at the
turn of the twentieth century, competition with the Sicilian sulphur industry and
in turn, with the mass sulphur production by the Americans, pushed the local
sulphur industry out of the market and the Italian sulphur industry as a whole
eventually followed. In 1962 the mine of Formignano closed down.
The district of Formignano has remained at this
point since then. The closing of the mine has favoured a mass emigration that
has left the mining village situated in the immediate vicinity completely
uninhabited, while the residential district, at little over a kilometer from
the mine, has less than a hundred registered inhabitants. An aggregate of small
and modest housing is found in the center of a street made of clay that describes a fragmented
perimeter made up dry stone walls mixed with leftover building materials.
Before the intervention the district found itself in an elevated state of
degradation. The urban spaces and the aggregations had disappeared, utilized in
an abusive manner for the stockpiling of material and precarious things. The
wellbeing of the environment was threatened by hydrological problems of nature,
the presence of landfill material and the act of extraction done in the past,
limiting the stability of these buildings. The situation was compounded by the
complete absence of a sewage system: the buildings dumped their sewage which
contributed to ground pollution while the complete absence of a rainwater
management system favoured the arrival of landslides and various other problems
of a hydrological nature.
OBJECTIVES OF THE
INTERVENTION
The objective of the redevelopment of the
district has even more importance, if one considers that we are talking about an
awareness and value of cultural-historic resources that are less important in
respect to the parameters of recognized norms, but undoubtedly felt strongly in
this place because they give a testimony of an almost completely oral history
which has included practically all the original families in their entirety and
which risks, with the passing of the last miners, to disappear without a trace.
At this point the activity has been on going for twenty five years under the Department
of Research and Study of Romagna Mining who are pushing the general public
towards the topic of the ability of volunteers to preserve the history and to
transform it into culture. The redevelopment of Formignano could also be a
worthy example of the appraisal of periurban spaces with the objective of
repopulating small centers in the areas of the highlands of Cesena.
The intervention will be financed based on the
project agreement from the program going back to the 1990’s between Hera s.p.a.
(the organization put in charge of the management of waste) and the municipality
of Cesena, that foresaw three ” lire” for every quintal of stockpiled material
in the landfill nearby named ‘la Busca’ that would be put aside in a fund to be
utilized for redevelopment projects in the surrounding areas. This system
allowed for the mitigation of the environmental impact of the landfill, with
the goal of producing the necessary resources for the urban redevelopment of
the spaces in concern. The financing project allowed for the redevelopment of
the roads, the schools and the public squares; the redevelopment of Formignano
was realized with a cost of around 1,100,000 euro.
DESCRIPTION OF THE
INTERVENTION
The profile of the retaining wall indentifies
the limits of the urban centre, opening new public spaces and overlooking at
different levels in the direction of the mine. The new wall is an
interpretation of the preexisting one: in the lower part of the structure the
reinforced concrete wall disappears behind dry stones encased in a structure of
metal bars; the side above on the other hand , is recovered in a corten steel plate that, reaching the top, connects
to a banister. This particular steel develops, under the oxidization from the
sulphur present in the air, a superficial coat of rust that stabilizes the
process of corrosion. The chromatic quality of the corten is reminiscent of the industrial archeology evoked by the
antique carriages used for transport that protrude over the wall in the
direction of the mine. The fragmented course of the new wall follows the
preexistent permanent wall, leaving it almost unrecognizable from the erosion
produced by the old landslide. The project identifies three squares that are structured
on different levels. The design of the pavement doesn’t follow forms or octagonal
hierarchies, but an organic composition that is adapted to the fragmented
outline of the old inhabited district. The stone used is called Alberese, a
sandstone that comes from a quarry near the town of Sarsina, in which hints of
iron in the pigmentation, similar to that of oxidized iron, are present. In the
public square situated at street level
and in the one in the part above, two corten metal inserts define a circular
form at which the inside flooring changes from plates with a saw cut
surface to small ashlars arranged in
concentric circles that go up and close around
a large mulberry tree.
The design that results from this is
reminiscent of “calcaroni”: large furnaces where the sulphur mineral extracted
from the mine was accumulated. A great
brick tower stands in the lower public square with the top of the tower
reaching the square above. Its
troncoconical shape is an interpretation of the “Gill” furnaces, utilized for
the extraction of sulphur , that were a direct evolution of the “calcaroni”
system.
Thanks to the panoramic position of the tower,
it’s possible to see the view of the Savio valley, where below extends the
mining tunnel. Referring to the local culture which is permanently tied to the
mining past of the district, there are numerous sessions that show serigraphic
prints of verses from the text of the poem “ Il Zolfo”( the sulphur), that
brings to mind the activities that were carried out by generations many years
ago in the same places. In addition to the references evoked from the
industrial mining past, the project follows lines of research on the sulphur
history that are lost in a past that is much more antique , written in texts about
hermetic philosophy. The protagonist of the project remains the sulphur which,
through direct references to industrial
mining and indirect to the philosophical principles attributed to the mineral,
renews the district of Formignano with an identity connected to its history.
APPRAISAL
The project improved the nature of
places, from the environmental point of view because it restored the urban and
community spaces of the inhabited suburb, and also in relation to the material
used and the constructive choices adopted. The regulation of the meteoric
waters has been projected according to the calculation of millwork, eliminating
the erosion phenomenon of the ground. The water collected is conveyed to a
ditch for the fields irrigation. The creation of brick walls of reinforced
concrete keep safe the inhabited area from landslides and geological
instability which were common in that area. The materials used do not need any
maintenance and follow the “zero km project” principles, in order to reduce the
energetic consumption of transports. The stone used comes from a cave which is
30 km away. The waste from processing have been reused to fill wire netting
cages which render nobler the wall surface.
The Corten steel protects itself naturally from
external agents thanks to the development of a rusty gloss which stops the
oxidization and which doesn’t need any maintenance. In contact with the
atmospheric agents, the natural cedar wood creates a gray superficial film
which naturally protects the material with no need of maintenance. The redevelopment
project initiated a valuable route which favoured , even during the construction
of the work, free enterprises aimed at recovering pre-existing houses and
building new ones. The entire area has been reclaimed and during the work
polluting materials were disposed of, due to the mine activity and the
unauthorized dumping. As a result of this, a sewage system has been planned in
order to clear up the ground from domestic dumping.
Product Spec Sheet
Were your products used?
Join as a manufacturer to add your products.