“A Red SteelCircle. A ring that embraces – passing under the new bridge – an area made ofiron, water, cement and asphalt. The “Red Circle” symbolising the powerfullocal tradition of blast furnaces, cranes, and overhead cranes, runs along thelocations where the tragedy of 14 August 2018 occurred. It embraces themwithout separating them from their context, linking them together, […] joiningthe separate sections through bike/pedestrian path and distributing therenewable energy generated by the solar collectors – thermal and photovoltaic –located on the roofs of the buildings, by the Wind Tower and by thepiezoelectric flooring (which symbolically contribute to the energy balance)converting into energy the traffic flows that run through the new Bridge andthe Circle. Energy and movement that flow into the Wind Tower“. This is howStefano Boeri, group leader of the team that won the competition, opens thepresentation that summarises the key points of the project.
The urban project, named “The Polcevera Park and The RedCircle” has been thought out as a system of parks with different ecologies andinfrastructures for sustainable mobility and smart buildings for R&D andmanufacturing with the aim of reversing the current image of the Polcevera valley,from a complex and tragically devastated place to a territory of sustainableinnovation for the rejuvenation of Genoa itself.
The Red Steel Circle – a symbolic element and embodiment ofthe “urban sewing” of the two sides of the valley – develops changing itsnature: it becomes a walkway, a raised square, an access and exit ramp, acorridor between the buildings or an underground path and connects all thedifferent territories, highlighting the great urban botanical park: thePolcevera Park. A new regenerated site that will run under the new bridge,designed by Renzo Piano to replace the Morandi Bridge that mostly collapsed inAugust 2018 causing a tragic accident and several deaths.
“Rebuildingfrom an architectural and urban point of view but above all from a social pointof view. For this reason, the rebirth called for a project that first andforemost would be a hymn to life. Joyful, with quality services, designedprimarily for people, people who live and work there. We strongly wanted thevision to embody the colours and scents of the Mediterranean, of which Genoa isa symbol in the world. In fact, the goal is to rebuild a cohesive urban system,socially active, innovative so as to revitalize not just the area but also theneighbouring ones by turning it into an attraction. The architectural projectproposed consists of the design of World Buildings that is large clusters ofbuildings with a multi-functional role and a streamlined yet recognisablearchitectural language. Inspired by industrial architecture and the blue colourof the Mediterranean, the new buildings are built with sustainable materialsand the large roofs offer surfaces for the production of renewable energy. Thebuildings open up to the park and are intersected and connected by the RedCircle,” adds Andrea Boschetti, founding partner of Milan-based Metrogramma.
The Red Steel Circle is first and foremost arelationship-building structure: it is a bike-pedestrian road 1570 meters long,6 meters wide and 250 meters radius, equipped with a 120-meter-high Wind Towerfor the production and distribution of renewable energy that connects thedistrict just in front of the new station. The latter houses a system of windturbines and belongs, like the Red Circle, to the new energy network of Polceveracreated thanks to the contribution of the German firm Transsolar.
The Red Circle is part of a sustainable mobility grid wherebike and pedestrian paths, smart mobility lanes, shared surfaces andintelligent parking spaces all come together inside a strategy developed withMIC | Mobility in Chain, with the goal of creating a safe public space on ahuman scale.
The Polcevera Park, basically consists of a system of parksthat gather in the overall vision the variety of plants and trees typical of theMediterranean basin, designed by Inside Outside | Petra Blaisse and built withthe contribution of agronomist and landscape designer Laura Gatti and geologistSecondo Antonio Accotto.
“Thelandscape project presents itself as a structure of parallel stripes thatorganises the entire site, giving rise to a botanical park where each strip,whose width varies from 7 to 20 meters and is marked by an aligned path,represents a different type of garden, thus increasing the degree ofbiodiversity of the entire area. And of the experiences for the citizensthrough the typologies themselves and the equipment (it will be possible to userecreational, educational and socialisation areas as for playing sports,collecting flowers and fruits, using animal dedicated areas). Runningperpendicular to the linear gardens there is a further zig-zag path thatbecomes the only connection between East and West until one reaches the RedCircle that intersects all the stripes and creates connections that werepreviously impossible, allowing cyclists and pedestrians to move everywherewith previously unimaginable ease. The Red Circle, together with this system ofpaths puts available in a very efficient way all the green spaces and areas ofthe Park, giving to citizens and visitors an experience of the landscape thatis both beautiful and intimate […]. All green areas and the squares will becreated so as to absorb rainwater, extra water will be collected and used forirrigation and such. The efficiency of this new landscape does not only have apractical function such as the sustainability of the water management, but alsoembodies the symbolic value of Genoa’s comeback after the Morandi Bridgetragedy“. These are the words used by Petra Blaisse and her Inside OutsideDutch studio to describe the Park.
In the heart of the Park stands Genova in the wood: an artinstallation featuring 43 trees, designed by artist Luca Vitone, dedicated tothe memory of the victims of the suddenly collapsed Morandi bridge as well asto the timeless memory of the pain and faults of mankind but, at the same time,a symbol of the indomitable strength of a city.
“Each treewill be dedicated to a Ligurian figure from every period of the cultural scenefrom Montale to Pivano, Germi, Villaggio, Strozzi, Scanavino, Alberti all theway to Coppedé. Figures that were born in the region or that have found in theregion the right environment for their growth, individuals who, with theirimagination, were able to contribute and export in the world the image of Genoaand Liguria. Each name of the author will be hidden by its anagram that willgive the title to the plant and it will be up to the visitor, as in any puzzlegame, to discover the person to whom the tree is dedicated. Paths that can befreely explored inside the “Forest”, where benches with peculiar shapes, suchas wheels or crosses make the perfect place to read and rest in the shade ofthe trees. Visitor’s curiosity will be satisfied by the botanical data sheets –symbolic – biographies that for each tree/author will have an explanation ofthe affinity, pairing and relations. This information, with the related anagramsolution, will be available through an app designed on purpose for the project.Also, a library is planned dedicated to books on botany and on the authors whoare protagonists of the Forest,” says the artist Luca Vitone.
The Parco del Polcevera will become a new centre: all aroundit, the district will be reborn, understood as a community of life,relationships and exchanges. The BIC buildings in the Green Factory area, theNew Forts and the ex Mercato Ovaivicolo become new hubs of productivity andinnovation, essential ingredients for a sustainable rebirth also from theeconomic-financial point of view as studied in depth by H&A Associati.
The project will be built through an open participatoryprocess (for the month of October 2019), with the active involvement of theadministration, inhabitants and other local stakeholders. Called “The PolceveraTable 2.0”, it will be a tool that will accompany all phases of the work, fromthe design to the construction, also using tools such as temporary structuresfor the start, implementation and finalization of the process, as defined in thetender by Temporiuso.
“The RedCircle, the Tower, the World Buildings, and the Polcevera Park with its vitalchromatic and botanical variety will act as Genoa’s welcome to the passers-byof the future – says Stefano Boeri – A welcome to the world that crosses it andreaches Genoa from a network of infrastructure that stretches from east to westconnecting Italy to Europe, parks perched on vertical walls, workers andnoblewomen, singers-poets and naval engineers. A Superb City, even though it isafflicted by poignant melancholy; beautiful, even if in the harshness of itseverlasting contradictions. A city of steel and sea, sculpted by wind andtragedy, but always able to stand tall“.
SEE MORE Stefano Boeri Architetti