EFA studio di architettura

Piazza della Pace

PLACE
Parma

STATUS
Achieved

CHRONOLOGY
2019

CATEGORY
Public space, landscape.

The rediscovered space.
A project that aims to radiate ordering energy to its surroundings,
encouraging the spread of a civic thought that is on the verge of extinction.

As part of the debate on the reconfiguration of the post-modern city, the piazza and the public space promote the search for a new identity, in an attempt to recover the vital significance that has always been recognised within the Italian cultural context.
The square as an urban archetype and a space where the most significant social nuclei come together, the geographical, organisational and morphological centre of the city, and a nodal element of its natural growth and interpretation module.
The linguistic, functional and organisational characteristics of open spaces, no longer interpreted as negative areas in the urban fabric, return to characterise the main transformation proposals of the main European metropolitan systems, delegating to the square the role of amplifier of the values and contradictions of an architecture that is no longer mono-directional from a morphological and functional point of view.
The aim of the project is to stimulate the practice of architectural design as a unique opportunity to transform urban waste into resources for the city and the territory. The need to produce a sense of place and local identity in the processes of urban morphogenesis and redevelopment of settlements, pushes the contemporary designer to constantly reinvent the role and content of public space, acting on its vocation to identify the place of social aggregation and connection between road flows and urban elements.
The re-appropriation of space and of the city represents an ethical issue of primary necessity: the square and the open space as places of aggregation of urban history, and nodes of social, economic and cultural development.
Piazza della Pace intends to radiate orderly energy to its surroundings, encouraging the spread of a civic thought that is in danger of extinction: it traces the furrow of an idea capable of measuring itself against the deepest concepts of the European square as an urban component structuring our cities, and in which history, architecture and culture come together in a daily dimension of community and sense of belonging.
In the work, the renewed attention paid to the north-south axis along Via Verdi emerges, making it possible to physically connect the monumental thematic areas: the porticos of the Guazzatoio, the monument to Giuseppe Verdi, the fountain of San Pietro Martire, the monument to the Partisan: a diagonal path called the Sentiero delle lettere (Path of letters) that intersects the Viale dell'incontro at a barycentric point.
The idea of making the lawn areas more permeable to crossing, reinforces the new route, electing it as the primary connection axis with the railway station, also creating a new entrance door that overturns the traditional frontal perspective of the Farnese monumental complex.
The "word" plays a noble role, elected as the main element of the route; a word that is both informative and poetic. In particular, the Sentiero delle lettere (Letters' path), which connects the iconic system of the three existing monuments, is proposed as an ideal narrative path, punctuated with hints, stories and suggestions concerning places, events and historical figures of the city.
In correspondence with the main interconnection nodes of the routes, the Epigraphs of Memory have been placed which, in addition to introducing the pre-existing monuments historically, report the entire texts of the poems by Attilio Bertolucci, which unfold along the poetical path parallel to the Path of Letters.
History and contemporaneity chase each other in an urban theatre returned to the city: the architecture and its grammar represent its narration.

CREDITS

CONSULTING FOR ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY
Prof. Arch. Emilio Faroldi

LIGHTING PROJECT
ERCO lighting

GRAPHIC CONSULTANCY
Silvia Battaglia, Marta Cognini

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR
Ing. Albino Carpi, Parma Infrastrutture S.p.A.

SINGLE PROJECT MANAGER
Ing. Sara Malori, Parma Infrastrutture S.p.A

WORKS MANAGEMENT
Geom. Luigi Campanini, Parma Infrastrutture S.p.A.

OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT
Ing. Gianluca Corradi, ART Environment Resources Territory

PHOTOGRAPHS

Municipality of Parma
Marco Introini
Emilio Faroldi
Luca Faroldi