1. CAN AN INDUSTRIAL URBAN STRUCTURE BE TRANSFORMED INTO A HYBRID NEIGHBORHOOD?
The neighborhood surrounding the City of Science is an attractive industrial urban structure. But, can just a group of factories become a new city structure? Originally this factories and warehouses were design to optimize the production of electronic material for the Italian army.
The width of the streets, the exterior spaces and the dimension of the buildings were planned according to these industrial requirements. In other words, can a productive structure be transformed directly into a hybrid neighborhood with new dwellings, museums, parks and commercial use?
We believe it is possible but after a deep strategic restructuring. Some of the factories need to be preserved while others need to be demolished. And of course, all the trees will be preserved.
2. REVERSING THE ACTUAL URBAN STRUCTURE: THE “INNEXTERIOR” LANDSCAPE.
We love the interior spaces of the existing warehouses. Probably because of their metallic structure, the skylights and over all the big volume of air. But, what happen if we just remove the roof from all the factories and we maintain the rest of the construction systems like the structure, the walls and the openings? We get an ambivalent space: the inner landscape.
Basically we propose to reverse the industrial urban structure. The interior spaces of the factories become an exterior landscape, a lineal park, while the actual street and open spaces among the factories will be transformed into new hybrid buildings.
A new pedestrian path will connect the MAXXI building with Piero della Francesca square, passing through the new innexterior landscape of the factories.
3. THE NEW HYBRID BUILDINGS BETWEEN THE FACTORIES: the community gardens and the commercial program.
The new hybrid buildings are located between the warehouses and preserving the existing trees. Their geometry represents on the one hand the reverse structure of the actual urban layout and on the other hand the clearings between trees. These hybrid buildings are divided in three levels: the ground floor level with the commercial program, the roof level with the community use and the upper level with the small tree towers. The innexterior landscapes of the factories are the main commercial and public pedestrian paths and rather than being a street they become a lineal park.
4. THE TREE TOWERS.
The residential and hospitality program is located in the tree towers. These small housing towers grow between the factories and the trees looking over the new landscape of the factories. From a sustainable point of view and due to its circular shape the volume of the tree towers is optimized.
5. THE FLEXIBLE AND SUSTAINABLE TYPOLOGY.
The tree towers are design with a highly flexible system. Three circular strips organize the housing program: the rooms strip, the bathrooms and kitchens strip and the solar chimney strip with the access to the houses. The strip system allows variability and flexibility in the housing typology. The solar chimney allows cross ventilation and high-performance air recovery (90%).
We propose a highly efficient neighborhood system with the centralization of all the installations and facilities. In this sense we optimize its maintenance and we reduce the energy consumption of the houses. Also this centralized neighborhood system will help to remove all the installations from the roofs for other purposes like: roof garden, solar panels and water.
6. THE HYBRID SECTION.
The hybrid section is a vibrant place. On the one hand the innexterior landscape of the warehouses become a public lineal park and on the other hand the spaces between the factories are a hybrid structure formed by the commercial program, the community gardens and the houses. The parking is located underground the lineal park. The roof of the tree towers and the city science could be used with photovoltaic panels. All the rainwater will be storage in the structural platform of the tree towers.
7. THE NEW REVERSE INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPE.
What do we see from the terraces of the tree towers? The nature has grown among the warehouses, the trees come out from the metallic structures, the people walk along the innexterior landscape and the life has become vibrant.
