Parco Spina 3, Investigating the Present through the Past and the Future
A genuine example of a contemporary urban park, Spina 3 takes in the underground structures of the Michelin area, the FIAT steelworks warehouse, the Vitali chimney and the road that links the area to the original workers’ residences
Andreas Kipar
New functions in post industrial buildings, Duisburg, masterplan by Peter Latz
The challenges that contemporary cities face increasingly revolve around capitalizing on the natural and cultural heritage present, in order to create a convincing image to export, a brand identity that characterizes the area in a structural, strategic manner.
We are increasingly discovering our past in the wounds left by industry, bits of history left partially intact or still partially recognizable, in a contemporary era ready to seize on every trend beyond strict ideological limitations. Postmodern cities need to be explored using new forms of perception, not by means of new designs, as the psychologist and philosopher James Hillman, key exponent of the reworking of urban landscapes, has long asserted.
Sustainable practices in the management of environmental resources such as land, water and vegetation are now a factor that contributes enormously to determining the quality of life in our cities
This spirit is also evident in the Leipzig Charter signed by Europe’s environment ministers on 25 May 2007. The Charter contains a series of important statements and commitments in terms of innovations in urban policy: the quality of public space, the urban landscape, architecture and urban development are set to acquire increasing importance when it comes to city living. Considering things from this perspective means attributing particular importance to the specific characteristics of places, and seeing the “existing” as a resource to rehabilitate, enhance and connect. This is even more relevant when it comes to green areas and open spaces, where it is increasingly necessary to think in terms of what must be taken away rather than added, capitalizing on empty spaces and underused urban areas and giving them a new ecological/environmental role. We need to increase the “permeability” of our cities and forge connections with the rural landscape in order to enable all citizens to use public space.
We cannot determine the quality of a city only in terms of the value of its historic and architectural heritage, or the technological infrastructures it offers the people who live there: we must also assess how public space is treated, both in terms of green areas and the built environment. Sustainable practices in the management of environmental resources such as land, water and vegetation are now a factor that contributes enormously to determining the quality of life in our cities.
Like all big cities, Turin too has willingly accepted the challenge of transformation, and has been engaged in major urban makeovers, which signal the city’s transition into the new post-industrial era. Strolling around the city you immediately become aware of new
elements cleverly integrated into the still-recognizable urban fabric, which formed and settled during the years of growth and development. As a testbed for post-industrial city issues, Turin is already celebrating its own ongoing process of change, calling on the big names in international architecture to make a tangible and creative contribution to its resurgence after the irreversible process of industrial decline.
Parco Spina 3 is probably one of the most important elements in this structural renovation process, which poses questions and raises issues linked to reinterpreting the urban landscape and how it works. Of late, in the wake of initiatives in other countries where abandoned industrial areas have been the focal point for the urban transformation process, the post-industrial landscape and its landmarks have acquired a value and a historical/cultural identity that would have been unthinkable just a few years previously.
We need to increase the “permeability” of our cities and forge connections with the rural landscape in order to enable all citizens to use public space
The inter/multi-disciplinary approach adopted with Parco Spina 3 shows how an open space can become a positive feature in a revisited urban landscape, taking up all the challenges dictated by environmental issues, sustainability and economic feasibility.
Converting vast swathes of urban land once devoted to heavy industry into a setting for leisure activities and free time means creating a dialogue between the past and the present, between historic stratification and the demands of our flexible, technologically advanced society which seeks to forge a new relationship with nature in a man-made setting. Working to interpret the post-industrial landscape and grant it a new urban role inevitably means looking for a new approach to landscape, an approach that blends ‘macro’ demands (connecting with the ecological/environmental network) with ‘micro’ demands (creating a system of usable spaces), with the aim of constructing a tangible element in people’s everyday urban environment.
The end of industrial activity is only a superficial closure, freeing up land which has lost its given physiognomy. The appeal of this challenge lies in the promise of things to come, in selecting specific facets of the existing situation, and in acknowledging the traces which are significant parts of community history. These structures have an identity which, like in the cities of antiquity, shapes the intensity of social relationships, an individual, intellectual rapport between what exists and what could exist in the future.
Parco Spina 3 represents one such opportunity: to explore the present by considering the past and the future.
The complete transformation of the Ingest, Vitali, Paracchi and Valdocco plants, all based around the Dora River, is not a simple – albeit complex – matter of environmental rehabilitation, but a bold reinterpretation, converting an area dedicated to production into a setting for leisure and recreation. The park does not aim to be a “soft” element to compensate for the hard reality of brick, and it does not lie within a static, frequently insurmountable perimeter. It does not see demolition as some kind of ‘act of faith’, but aims to be a symbol of change, an element in a new, original urban landscape which is open to a new social role, interactive, flexible and receptive to the process of change, and in line with the wider designs of the city. A seminal example of a contemporary urban park.
The end of industrial activity is only a superficial closure, freeing up land which has lost its given physiognomy
The design of the park effectively highlights the two dimensions which inform the use of space and its relationship with the city: the ‘macro’ dimension which springs from the context and surrounding fabric in search of greater ‘permeability’ with the local area, and the ‘micro’ dimension which focuses on the evidence of the past and uses this as the basis for a new approach to landscape design.
The elements which most characterize the aesthetics of the park are obviously the abandoned industrial buildings present, and the traces of these on the ground. Those held to be most representative of Turin’s industrial history will be kept and restored, given various functions within the park. These include the cooling tower and the underground structures in the Michelin area, the FIAT steelworks warehouse, the Vitali chimney and the road that links the area to the original workers’ residences. These elements, which represent segments of the industrial production system, fragments of the manufacturing process, form the backbone, the constant around which the green areas, pathways and facilities are organized.
Watching the park gradually maturing and following the stages in its evolution in the context of the broader debate on the future of the city, is a process set to elicit large scale public participation.
