Architetto
Playground urbano
The square as a transformation device
Competition - Finalist project
Savigliano (IT), 2022
The project aims to create a precise identity for the Piazza del Popolo, welcoming new compositional and functions that allow defining an innovative image that responds to the needs of the contemporary public space. The new urban design reevaluates the existing spaces in favor of a unified layout both physically and perceptually. The new square can become a virtuous example for the city's urban space design and human-scale livability, fitting into an urban context in which to become an important connecting node and new centrality.
The project is presented as a strategic proposal that returns the first phase of a transformation process that will allow for the envisioning of a square capable of reducing and eventually eliminating the presence of cars. Next to the viability aspect, the new urban design thus focuses on the addition of large areas to be used as meadows and rain gardens. This is intended to activate new behaviors of participation and care towards the city, defining proximity spaces that are not marginal but structural for an idea of urban landscape that welcomes nature.
The project focuses attention on various attracting devices, both material and immaterial. This translates into the design of the seating elements, both movable and fixed, which create multiple situations in which it is possible to recognize places for people to stop and relate to each other, as well as to constantly relate to the surrounding space. The other important device that enriches the space with different possible uses and strongly characterizes the image of the square is the new canopy. It is a light and suspended architecture, which builds a specific ambit of the public space sheltered both for part of the market in the moments of setting up and for free citizens use.
Piazza del Popolo inside the system of squares and green infrastructure.
Current situation.
Critical issues and new attitudes.
The project.
Perception and spatial unity.
The design of the plaza surfaces is intended to encourage as much as possible the inclusion of vegetation within the urban environment. Starting with the expansion of the currently existing permeable surface, the project initiates a transformation process designed to convert areas currently used for parking into green areas over time.
An urban playground.
The new canopy is a covered/open space, an architecture that is juxtaposed with the Market Pavillion without overpowering it, an added value to the multiple functions that the Square is able to accommodate. It's a an informal perimeter, which encourages possible new events and activities.
The project returns a reduced and simplified vehicular road system and introduces on the entire square area the 30 zone, which allows a hierarchy in favor of soft mobility. This ensures a safer urban space design and directs subsequent urban transformations to more and more pedestrianization.
The architectures of the Square.
The market.
The new urban design increases green areas in which to imagine vegetation systems that can respond to contemporary climate challenges, and thus enable proper water disposal, ensure biodiversity, and improve the city's climatic conditions, both in terms of temperature and air quality.
The parking areas are permeable and greened. This solution makes it possible to imagine a transformation process in which, as parking spaces are gradually relocated outside the city center, these areas will be able to accommodate new functions and activities
Car parking
Bike parking
Urban gardens
The market
Salotti
Scenarios for a vivible square.
The project investigates specific detail solutions involving hard and permeable surfaces. Attention has been paid to the points of contact between the different types, as well as to the particular finishes of furniture and flooring.
