Educational Project for the urban regeneration of the city of Comacchio-Italy Implementation oftheTr

Urban Design Education

CNU 22 Buffalo NY, 2014

Educational Project for the urban regeneration of the city of Comacchio-Italy Implementation of the T ransect and the Urban Code for the reconquest of urban spaces

Abstract The effects of the most impressive economic crisis since the second war that plagues the Italian cities is also the result of an insane planning that has deeply undermined the quality of urban life .

In particularly are affected small and medium cities : for several years at the Faculty of Engineering, University of Ferrara, the theme of eco- urban sustainability is discussed and taught through an understanding of the planning instruments related to the movement of New Urbanism .

The theme of the paper concerns the design of the transect and the Urban Code for the city of Comacchio and their application in three case studies.

The areas identified relate to the redevelopment of a former industrial district , an area plagued by suburbanization and a central area to be redeveloped with an action of Urban Infill .

20 students in 60 hours of academic work followed by a teacher : these are the data of the course that gave the work presented in the paper .

The city andits landscape Comacchio is an Italian town of 22,403 inhabitants in the province of Ferrara and is spread over an area of 280 km ² ,with a population density of 76 inhabitants / km ² .

Comacchio is , from the point of scenic and historic , one of the major centers of the Po delta.

Urban Design Education

CNU 22 Buffalo NY, 2014

Its origin distant describe it as a water town built on several islands connected by bridges and canals that give its characteristics of true lagoon city, almost a little Venice , also for its cultural and architectural emergencies .

Comacchio is at the center of a complex of high landscape value and valleys surrounded by a rural landscape and natural beauty of great natural value .

The city's economy has been until the seventies rural and commercial : with the planning of its seven seasides, with wide beaches along the coast from the mouth of the River Rhine to the Po , has had a significant increase as a tourist destination.

Aerial view of the Comacchio's valleys, natural Park of the Po river

View of Tre ponti, qualifying architectural element of Comacchio

Urban Design Education

CNU 22 Buffalo NY, 2014

View of the city center of Comacchio, city of water, islands and bridges

With the increase of the tourist season on the coast, the activities industrial and commercial suffered a slow abandonment. The local planning activities are destined exclusively to the use residential by applying the most elementary rules of zoning. With the increase of the tourist season on the coast, the activities industrial and commercial suffered a slow abandonment. The local planning activities are destined exclusively to the use residential by applying the most elementary rules of zoning. The architectural quality and the mixed use suffered an unstoppable decline.

View of sub-urban areas of expansion

The morphological analysis and the Transect The first act of the research has focused on the morphological analysis of the city: with the comparison of the Positive, Negative, Public Buildings and General morphology were put in evidence the consistency of the urban blocks, the hierarchy of streets and public spaces, the location of green and public buildings.

Urban Design Education

CNU 22 Buffalo NY, 2014

Urban Design Education

CNU 22 Buffalo NY, 2014

Urban Design Education

CNU 22 Buffalo NY, 2014

The stylistic characteristics of the buildings The second act of the research has focused on the stylistic characteristics of the buildings.

The objective is to collect as much data on the regional characterization of buildings, the size of the components and their layout in the prospectus on the urban street.

The Transe ct approach Harvested all the necessary information, the students, have jointly carried out the design of the Transect by identifying the morphological examples and placing them in the appropriate category (T1/T6).

Urban Design Education

CNU 22 Buffalo NY, 2014

The Urban Code Identified the Transect areas they have been reported as morpho-typological referenceT to the various sections and have been included form-based the elements: plan, intended use and height of buildings, roofs, placement of the typology in the lot, possibility of extension, lot, corresponding road section, road crossings, bridges and canals, parking , windows, doors, eaves and the main colors of the facades.

Urban Design Education

CNU 22 Buffalo NY, 2014

The urban rene wal proje ct After analyzing and discovered the urban characteristics of Comacchio the goal is to use all the information gathered to intervene with design ideas consistent to achieve the purpose of the research: the urban redevelopment.

The three urban areas cover three different topics: the redevelopment of an abandoned industrial site, the redevelopment of a sub-urban low-density housing without services and neighborhood businesses and the redevelopment of an central area where insist several ecclesiastical buildings in disuse.

Urban Design Education

CNU 22 Buffalo NY, 2014

Redevelopment of an abandoned industrial site

Urban Design Education

CNU 22 Buffalo NY, 2014

Redevelopment of a sub-urban low-density housing

Urban Design Education

CNU 22 Buffalo NY, 2014

Redevelopment of an central area where insist several ecclesiastical buildings in disuse

Urban Design Education

CNU 22 Buffalo NY, 2014

Comments It 'a fact that the quality and sustainability of Italian cities is in decline.

From the middle of the last century the only urban technique taught in schools of architecture and engineering that has been attributable to the "modern"movement The General Regulatory Plan with their rules produced non most recognizable places, suburbs sub-urban wastelands, the cancellation of the commerce of the neighborhood and the exponential growth of shopping malls already obsolete.

These facts have produced how results that small and medium-sized Italian cities are free of recognizable architectural beauty.

Se quence made up of urban blocks, squares and civic buildings has been replaced by one made homes for low-density housing, big mall, public transport in disuse and bad architecture pseudo-global seamless.

If a person enters a medium or small Italian cities will have to travel a very long stretch of road sub-urban area before reaching a recognizable place that has the look of the city that was believed to be found.

The European city and the Italian city and have been for a long time pleasant places where you found all those principles of architectural and urban composition that has often been imitated in other parts of the world.

The global crisis did the rest.

Places full of history and rich experience as the city of Comacchio fights in solitude like other reality in other coastal urban decay against this.

The eco-sustainable urban design should explore new approaches and learn other languages more worthy to propose to the people and the places that host them 20/60 h / 1 The teaching experience exposed in this paper aims to demonstrate that by applying the method of the Transect, using the rules of the Urban Code, you can create a pleasant urban environments, with appropriate density that allows the use of public transport by reducing car use and consequently of Co2.

The European directive 20/2020 requires Member States, including Italy, to put in place all necessary actions within its territory to drastically reduce Co2 emissions by specifying as the main cause, the excessive use of urbanized land.

The European Commission with the Horizon 2020 program made available to sovereign states, a considerable budget to pursue this through the concept of holistic interventions on the cities.

We are on track.