Re-Start Italy: (post-)Covid19 Lessons for Full Scope Renovation of the Italian Public Space

The Covid-19 pandemic has suddenly upset the way we used to live. When eventually lockdown ended, the desire to return to open spaces while respecting social distancing have challenged the role of public space as a space for interaction. In Italy, one of the most affected countries, the piazza as public space par excellence has not remained immune to the issue. This contribution addresses four Italian design experiences that have tried to give an immediate answer to the needs of these precise historical circumstances.  The Covid-19 emergency can become an opportunity for innovation in the project and in the way the piazza can be perceived and experienced. New approaches and processes of regeneration of the piazza lead to reconsider the role of the project and that of the architect. An updated idea of public space as a problem-solver space follows suit, turning the piazza into a space that does not need to project itself into the future, but aims to answer to current needs embracing new core features: temporariness, flexibility, functionality, repeatability and the community’s contribution. The idea of the piazza as a permanent public space is replaced by that of an adaptive public space. Such an open phenomenology is starting to think of the piazza as a space for experiences - a space that, while respecting the Covid-19 logistical constraints, allows people to return, in new ways, to social interactions

The Socialist Sarajevo: between heritage and modernity

In the early 1960s, when Bosnia and Herzegovina was renamed to Socialist  Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo experienced an exponential growth and an economic and demographic boom that exceeded the availability of housing. To remedy this growth peripheral areas were occupied by newly built districts - “residential colonies”, which among other things reflected the gigantism of the socialist period, and proposed a system made up of blocks and super-blocks scattered in open territories. The architectural panorama was enriched by a series of new architectural editions, expressly inspired by the principles of functionalism and rationalism of the Bauhaus. All this has been created on the foundations made by a group of architects who returned to Sarajevo, and in Bosnia Herzegovina in general, after they had been trained in the most important European schools of architecture. Work of the new generations of Yugoslav architects marked a shift at the architectural scene in the 1960s who experimented with the “modernist” interpretations of authentic local architectural expression. The paper intends to retrace some of the main stages of “modernization” of Sarajevo and highlight the singularity of architectural production that is, internationally, still unknown

La Sarajevo socialista: tra eredità e modernità

In the early 1960s, when Bosnia and Herzegovina was renamed to Socialist  Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo experienced an exponential growth and an economic and demographic boom that exceeded the availability of housing. To remedy this growth peripheral areas were occupied by newly built districts - “residential colonies”, which among other things reflected the gigantism of the socialist period, and proposed a system made up of blocks and super-blocks scattered in open territories. The architectural panorama was enriched by a series of new architectural editions, expressly inspired by the principles of functionalism and rationalism of the Bauhaus. All this has been created on the foundations made by a group of architects who returned to Sarajevo, and in Bosnia Herzegovina in general, after they had been trained in the most important European schools of architecture. Work of the new generations of Yugoslav architects marked a shift at the architectural scene in the 1960s who experimented with the “modernist” interpretations of authentic local architectural expression. The paper intends to retrace some of the main stages of “modernization” of Sarajevo and highlight the singularity of architectural production that is, internationally, still unknown.All'inizio degli anni '60 Sarajevo conobbe una crescita esponenziale e un boom economico e demografico tali da non riuscire a soddisfare la domanda di alloggi. Per rimediare a questa crescita, le aree periferiche, furono occupate da quartieri di nuova costruzione che riflettevano il gigantismo del periodo socialista e proponevano un sistema fatto di isolati e super-isolati sparsi in territori aperti. Il panorama architettonico si arricchì di una seriedi nuove espressioni architettoniche, inequivocabilmente ispirate ai principi del funzionalismo e del razionalismo del Bauhaus. Tutto questo è stato possibile grazie al contributo di un gruppo di architetti rientrati in Bosnia Erzegovina dopo essersi formati nelle più importanti scuole di architettura europee. Il lavoro della nuova generazione di architetti jugoslavi generò un significativo cambiamento nella scena architettonica degli anni '60. Il contributo intende ripercorrere alcune delle principali tappe del processo di “modernizzazione” di Sarajevo per sottolineare la singolarità di una produzione architettonica che, a livello internazionale, è ancora sconosciuta

Glitching. Processi dinamici e azioni evolutive per la rigenerazione urbana.

Santa Giulia area in Milan is characterized by multiple territorial and urban level relationships. This complex relational framework requires a reflection on the dynamics of environmental, economic and social evolution that could occur from the short to the long term, with significant implications on forthcoming urban regeneration processes. The unpredictability of changes in users, functions, climate scenarios, socio-economic assets and real estate market requires not a static and immutable project, but a system of interventions, capable of adaptation and evolution with respect to some emerging, open and constantly changing relationships. The project proposal for via Medici del Vascello settlement aims at a model that breaks the planning schemes perpetuated so far, generating a “mistake in the urban system”: a “glitch”. The idea of the glitch is to create a disturbance to alter the balance, to disrupt a settlement logic devoted to functional and formal completeness, hyper-efficient but unable to relate with the surroundings, aimed at closure, fated to isolation and self-exclusion. Coast2Coast team’s project proposal aims to invert the approach behind the planning practice of the last decades, no longer proposing a self-sufficient district but rather conceiving the chance to reactivate and reconnect different parts of the city through dynamic processes and evolutionary actions of urban regeneration

Glitching. Processi dinamici e azioni evolutive per la rigenerazione urbana

L'area di Santa Giulia a Milano è caratterizzata da molteplici relazioni a livello territoriale e urbano. Questo complesso quadro relazionale richiede una riflessione sulle dinamiche di evoluzione ambientale, economica e sociale che potrebbero verificarsi a breve e lungo termine, con implicazioni significative sui futuri processi di rigenerazione urbana. L'imprevedibilità dei cambiamenti negli utenti, nelle funzioni, negli scenari climatici, nelle attività socioeconomiche e nel mercato immobiliare non richiede un progetto statico e immutabile, ma un sistema di interventi in grado di adattarsi ed evolvere rispetto ad alcune relazioni emergenti, aperte e in costante cambiamento. La proposta di progetto per l'insediamento di via Medici del Vascello mira a un modello che rompe gli schemi di pianificazione utilizzati finora, generando un "errore nel sistema urbano": un "glitch". L'idea del glitch è di creare un disturbo per alterare l'equilibrio, interrompere una logica di insediamento dedicata alla completezza funzionale e formale, iper-efficiente ma incapace di relazionarsi con l'ambiente circostante, finalizzato alla chiusura, destinato all'isolamento e all'autoesclusione. La proposta di progetto del team Coast2Coast mira a invertire l'approccio alla base della pratica di pianificazione degli ultimi decenni, proponendo non un distretto autosufficiente ma concependo la possibilità di riattivare e ricollegare diverse parti della città attraverso processi dinamici e azioni evolutive di rigenerazione urbana.Santa Giulia area in Milan is characterized by multiple territorial and urban level relationships. This complex relational framework requires a reflection on the dynamics of environmental, economic and social evolution that could occur from the short to the long term, with significant implications on forthcoming urban regeneration processes. The unpredictability of changes in users, functions, climate scenarios, socio-economic assets and real estate market requires not a static and immutable project, but a system of interventions capable of adaptation and evolution with respect to some emerging, open and constantly changing relationships. The project proposal for via Medici del Vascello settlement aims at a model that breaks the planning schemes perpetuated so far, generating a “mistake in the urban system”: a “glitch”. The idea of the glitch is to create a disturbance to alter the balance, to disrupt a settlement logic devoted to functional and formal completeness, hyper-efficient but unable to relate with the surroundings, aimed at closure, fated to isolation and self-exclusion. Coast2Coast team’s project proposal aims to invert the approach behind the planning practice of the last decades, no longer proposing a self-sufficient district but rather conceiving the chance to reactivate and reconnect different parts of the city through dynamic processes and evolutionary actions of urban regeneration