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San Frediano Forum
San Frediano Forum
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San Frediano Forum
SIZE
25,000 sqft - 100,000 sqft
The San Frediano Forum addresses several issues in the creation of a public forum and ‘circolo recreativo’ or community center:
1: The River
The Arno was an essential infrastructure in the founding and history of Florence. However, Unlike other socio-cultural and historic artifacts in the city, the river has fallen out of focus; its waters are polluted and access limited to a few places along the bank. However, water quality is improving, an a waterfront path is under development. Extending this system of access into the neighborhood of San Frediano would provide residents with better connection to the river and to the city. Embedding it underground both protects pedestrians and creates a shaded refuge during the hot summers.
2: Program
The given program of the forum devoted nearly half of the program area to parking; counterintuitive to its role as a public space. Rather than solely provide parking, alternative uses for the parking area can be created by sloping the parking area, creating a “theatre” for parking. Support infrastructures for alternative programs are embedded in the surface of the theatre, enabling uses such as a market, pool, drive-in or outdoor theatre.
3: Preservation
The existing medieval wall is left untouched, yet its use and meaning are altered by changing the way that people will interact with it and use it. Embedding program around the wall emphasizes its presence while creating new uses for the space.
4: Flooding
One problem that arises with engaging the river and the wall is the problem of flooding. While most of the program could “get wet” the eating, office, and multipurpose spaces of the circolo must be protected from any future floods. They are lifted above the flood line, and in doing so, create a third, outdoor room for sports underneath the circolo. The sunken path leading from the parking area to the water also marks the floods of history, with a series of steel troughs inscribed with the year of floods from the past, set at heights which correspond to the severity of the flooding. Over time, the boxes would weather, creating trails of rust on the concrete retaining wall.
1: The River
The Arno was an essential infrastructure in the founding and history of Florence. However, Unlike other socio-cultural and historic artifacts in the city, the river has fallen out of focus; its waters are polluted and access limited to a few places along the bank. However, water quality is improving, an a waterfront path is under development. Extending this system of access into the neighborhood of San Frediano would provide residents with better connection to the river and to the city. Embedding it underground both protects pedestrians and creates a shaded refuge during the hot summers.
2: Program
The given program of the forum devoted nearly half of the program area to parking; counterintuitive to its role as a public space. Rather than solely provide parking, alternative uses for the parking area can be created by sloping the parking area, creating a “theatre” for parking. Support infrastructures for alternative programs are embedded in the surface of the theatre, enabling uses such as a market, pool, drive-in or outdoor theatre.
3: Preservation
The existing medieval wall is left untouched, yet its use and meaning are altered by changing the way that people will interact with it and use it. Embedding program around the wall emphasizes its presence while creating new uses for the space.
4: Flooding
One problem that arises with engaging the river and the wall is the problem of flooding. While most of the program could “get wet” the eating, office, and multipurpose spaces of the circolo must be protected from any future floods. They are lifted above the flood line, and in doing so, create a third, outdoor room for sports underneath the circolo. The sunken path leading from the parking area to the water also marks the floods of history, with a series of steel troughs inscribed with the year of floods from the past, set at heights which correspond to the severity of the flooding. Over time, the boxes would weather, creating trails of rust on the concrete retaining wall.
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