The Gates

Problems and connections:

Before we began, we were troubled with the potential sensitive territory conflicts and how to make an effective connections between the present market nearby the river and historical heritage from Renaissance.

Based on discussion with local institutions with in-depth understanding of the natural circumstances and historical landscape, Florence in Renaissance period was identified as our main topic and background of our workshop. Our target was to reconstruct local historical landscapes and find an effective approach to redesign their urban life in the future.

About the Arno River:

Design based on sharing and communication:

We focused on built a public workshop and rezone a more sustainable living space by collaborating with residents. We also know more information about Arno River by searching historical data from local library and taking field investigations.

Arno River suffered the most terrible flooding in 1966. Although local ecological environment had been revived, both residents and wild animals’ living habits had been totally changed after this tragedy.

Our workshop finally brought a series of decorations and shows to local people and became an essential facility for local community. Participants including local residents and refugees are able to show their creativity and skills in a natural way. Temporary practices at workshop also provided the possibility of cultural integration, which leads another vision for local residents to see the whole region.

The Memory of Flooding Arno River Project focused on rethinking about our future and reconstruction of a new urban life. As a beautiful city, Florence suffered blooding in 50 years ago and the heritage of Renaissance was almost terminated at that moment. Many people organized spontaneously to save those valuable heritage in our history

In the natural areas of the city’s riverside, we would try to be inspired from the history of Renaissance. As the birthplace of Renaissance, the prosperity of Florence came from a famous story: The emperor expected to confirm the design of the gate of the central church by a public bidding, and this event attracted plenty of well-known artists, craftsmen, and architects all over the Europe. The consequence of the event was not important in comparison with their influences, an epic cultural revolution had been made due to the substantial reward.

Public discussion can be an instruction of positive policies, urban life would be gradually changed along with the implementation of those policies. An outstanding temporary landscape would provide an unique way to analyse and understand the public memory of a certain region.

River stands for the flow of human history and life. All participants from Nigeria, Mali, Italy, Syria, Mexico, and Armenia made our workshop to be a boarder platform by constant sharing and engagement. We must say thankyou for all designers and consultant team for their support. MCM international has accumulated significant practical experience on community redesign and cultural landscape reconstruction.

The rage

Therefore, we decided to use the gate as a metaphor to think about the connection between our current urban life and history. We simplified gates to various frames, visitors could know more about urban design development and transition.