'Landscapes of Production'

LANDSCAPES OF PRODUCTION Steve Revill-Darton

LANDSCAPES OF PRODUCTION

SOUTH TO SOUTH Messina and Reggio Calabria Excursions on the border of the Mediterranean

THESIS

Steve Revill-Darton 12017786 STUDIO TUTORS Luca Garofalo - Davide Sacconi UCL | The Bartlett School of Architecture | MArch Urban Design 2012/2013

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CONTENTS 5

INTRODUCTION

7

THE PRODUCTIVE TERRITORY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN

11 12 14

ITALY AND THE ‘SOUTH’ Birth of the Southern Issue The Third Italy

17 18 21 26

THE CITIES AND THE STRAIT The Productive Landscape of the Strait Productive Landscape Determined by Infrastructure Messina: Between Landscape and Sea

31 32

THE SAN RANIERI PENINSULA The Post-Industrial Landscape of Neglect

41 42 48 51 53

DEALING WITH THE PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPE Preserving Landscape Through a New Centrality Approaches To Integrating Landscape Lafayette Park - Mies Van Der Rohe Villaggio Matteotti - Giancarlo De Carlo

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57 61 65 69

READING THE SAN RANIERI PENINSULA THROUGH THE CONTEXT: THE ROLE OF THE WALL La Real Cittadella Rail Infrastructure Industrial Production The Wall as a Territorial Structural Device

71 72 74 76 78 80 86 90 96 100

FOSTERING A NEW IDENTITY FOR THE SAN RANIERI The Wall as the Architectural Device Re-Use of Existing Structures Orchestration of Experiences Phasing Centre for Archaeological Education Parco De La Cittadella Re-Structuring the Productive Territory Connecting the San Ranieri Peninsula Public Space Interventions

107 108

APPENDICES Essay: Reimagining Messina’s Archaeological Spaces of Industry

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

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introduction

FIGURE 1 Shipwreck on the industrial coast of Messina.

1.

Harvey, D. (2001) Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography. New York: Routledge, pp. 247 2.

Sassen, S. (2000) Analytic Borderlands: Economy and Culture in the Global City, in: Bridge, G. & Watson, S. (Eds.) A Companion to the City, Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 168-180 3.

Knox, P. (2011) Cities and Design. Abingdon: Routledge 4.

Groth, J. & Corijn, E. (2005) Reclaiming Urbanity: Indeterminate Spaces, Informal Actors and Urban Agenda Setting. Urban Studies. 42 (3) pp. 503-526

Western cities have undergone tremendous social, cultural and political changes since the 1960s that have defined and shaped contemporary urban conditions. In the Fordist cities of Europe the Keynesian welfare state drove a modernist planning regime overseen by a state-led system of city governance. This created a space construction model of mass production and consumption for a relatively homogenous society. However, as a result of transient changes toward a flexible accumulation regime the Fordist growth model has become redundant as it failed in its ability to cater for the contradictions of capitalism. This has become increasingly evident particularly in relation to the fixing of capital to geographic locations through the built environment whilst capitalism continues to pursue a geographic locational advantage.1 Today’s European cities are centres of heterogeneous lifestyles and spatial practices, the post-fordist city is a city brimming with contradictory and contested individualities and the subsequent tensions, oppositions and polarisations that manifest through various social, political and intellectual movements.2 As a consequence cities have been forced to adapt to these new challenges through increasingly flexible urban development and diverse approaches to urban governance, planning and design, allowing for multiple and varied uses and functions. This has resulted in the regeneration programmes of the late twentieth and early twenty-first century such as Hafencity in Hamburg. These tools form an additional weapon in the process of capitalist accumulation, functioning to serve a neoliberal economy in which, as stated by Knox, the interests of the public and civil society ‘have been all but set aside’.3 The production of controlled, commodified and aestheticised spaces replaced the mono-functional zoning of modernist planning.

However, there are noticeable trends that have emerged in the since the late 90s that have contested neoliberal patterns of regeneration in the cities of northern European countries. Firstly cities are gradually awakening to their intricacies and particularities which has in-turn given rise to increasingly pluralistic urban development especially in the realm of revitalisation driven by cultural infrastructure and the cultural and creative industries; cultural regeneration. Additionally the evolution of the post-fordist model is increasing presented in re-appropriation initiatives, reconfiguring residual urban space that has been neglected by market led development, frequently encountered in the post-industrial city in the form of abandoned industrial sites.4 This thesis therefore explores the possibilities of these new modes of production and consumption of the landscape and their application to the neglected productive landscapes of the European cities of the Mediterranean, in particular that of Messina. This is necessary in order to explore a means by which those cities suffering from the conditions of dependence and decline, that the Italian scholar Cassano describes as that of the ‘South’, can achieve a new autonomy.5 This will be accomplished by examining the possibilities of the creation of a new productive landscape, reimagining the deindustrialised areas of the city of Messina on the island of Sicily with particular reference to the impacts of the current global economic crisis and the subsequent declining role of both state and market-led regeneration.

5.

Cassano, F. (1996) Southern Thought & Other Essays on the Mediterranean. New York: Fordham University Press

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THE PRODUCTIVE TERRITORY OF THE MEDITERRANEAN

FIGURE 2.1 The physical environment that encomepasses the Mediterranean sea defines a region with deep and hidden complexities that maniphests itself in a mutiplicity of forms.

The Mediterranean forms a liquid body that both unites and divides territories defining a network that transcends borders and becoming a place of trade and commerce. It serves as the unique interchange between the three worlds that make up the European geo-political condition, that of the capitalist core, periphery and socialist Europe.6 The Mediterranean represents a diverse and fragmented region in which the transition from feudalism to capitalism has not followed a single trajectory but rather a multiplicity of forms and rates. It is however possible to draw comparisons between the geo-political and socioeconomic development of Southern European nations, those which fall below the line drawn by Braudel as the upper limit of the olive tree which forms a delineation by which the productive territory of the Mediterranean can be defined (See Fig. 2.4).7 The landscape of the Mediterranean is defined by a unique set of characteristics of the natural beauty of the physical geographical condition, which sits in juxtaposition with the coexistence of modernity and informality in urban development. The dialectic between the natural and human ecologies is one that has determined the region historically as a network of towns and cities both united and divided by the natural environment. The Mediterranean has risen and fallen as the centre of empires, a precarious history that has seen it dominated by the ancient powers emerging from Athens, Constantinople and Rome but also a region that has passed through disarray, segregation and constant power struggles.

Today the Mediterranean is a territory that is seen through many lenses to project an image of itself that can be read and interpreted, but when the lens is shifted the richly complex and diverse region begins to reveal itself. The apposition of the Mediterranean as the back drop for the hoards of tourists who seasonally descends to lap up the beauty and fortunate climate and those to whom life in the Mediterranean is a reality, who’s roots descend into the dry and arid soils and deep into the blue of the sea.

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Leontidou, L. (1990) The Mediterranean City in Transition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 2-3 7.

Braudel, F. (1966) The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean world in the age of Phillip II. London: Collins

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FIGURE 2.2 The Mediterranean region is characterised by its relationship between the human and physical landscapes, immediately recognisable and often expressed through materiality and proximity to the natural environment.

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FIGURE 2.3 Rural agricultural production forms a basis upon which the productive territory of the Meditarranean was defined, it is however one of shrinking importance in contemporary society despite its ingrained connotations and memory.

FIGURE 2.4 Mediterranean Europe as defined by the northern extent of the Olive tree, adapted from Braudel’s interpretation of the ‘true’ Mediterranean.

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ITALY AND THE ‘SOUTH’

In the geographic centre of the Mediterranean sits the nation of Italy, extending its reach from the Alps that rise as a crown that perches atop Italy but simultaneously divides the nation from its Northern European counterparts. From here Italy reaches south and towards the northern shores of Africa. A relatively young nation in contrast with many states of Northern Europe, its turbulent past and path to a capitalist nation should not be viewed as a cultural peculiarity in contrast to the regularities of Anglo-American states, but rather as one that exists within the Mediterranean context. This is not to say that its socio-economic and political climate is not independent from that of advanced capitalism, it is in fact inextricable connected to the global economy, however the forces that exert themselves upon its people and its landscape do so in a manor that renders it closely related to the other Mediterranean systems of production and reproduction that are deserved of their own interpretation.

Italy is however a nation that finds itself divided, a victim of its own circumstance and history. A polemic condition that has emerged from and been exaggerated by unification and patterns of development. The emergence of an industrialised north rising above an agriculturally dependent south at the beginning of the 20th Century has continued to excerpt its influence upon the Italian nation to the present day.

It is the inability of the south to catch up, in any way, with the economic productivity of the north that continues to plague its existence as a region dependent upon and undeveloped in comparison with the north; GDP per person remains 40% lower in the south than the centre and northern regions.8 However, the foci of this division remains strictly confined to within and economic framework, a capitalist reading of a complex issue that paints only a tainted picture of a southern existence.

8.

Euro Stat (2010) Regional GDP per capita in the EU in 2010: eight capital regions in the ten first places. Euro Stat [Online] Available from: http:// epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/121032013-AP/EN/1-21032013-AP-EN.PDF

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BIRTH OF THE SOUTHERN ISSUE Throughout history Italy and the Mediterranean has had a constantly evolving relationship meandering between a realm of possibility and limitation. For four centuries the Mediterranean was the centre of the Roman Empire, a common market of trade, commerce and politics.

The subdivision of the Mediterranean began with the division of the Roman Empire in the 4th Century prior to its eventual collapse in the 6th Century.

Following the Roman Empire Italy found itself divided into a number of smaller states and kingdoms ruled by different linear-ages. This led to the Guerre d’Italia, a period of conflicts that defined the early Renaissance period. From this was born the ideology of a single Italian nation however this vision did not materialise until the eventual unification in 1861.

In juxtaposition to the Roman period whereby the sea was envisioned as a continuation of the land, uniting the territory, Italy’s period of division and conflict meant that the sea was seen as a barrier with negative connotations.

Following the unification of Italy it became immediately apparent that there were various inequalities that came to the fore that were largely determined by geographical location within the nation state. This became known as the ‘Southern Question’ and was recognition of the disparities in the quality of living between the north, dominated by its strong industrial economy and that of the agricultural south. This division was given further credence by the ideological politics of the Italian right wing whose presence increased the repression endured by the South. Combined with the advent of fascism these policies in many ways led to the conflict between Italy and other nations in the Second World War. Following the collapse of fascism and the birth of Italian democracy there was a sustained period whereby the welfare state was expanded to Italy as a whole under a programme known as Progressive Universalism. This soon became subject to increasing hostility as the south became increasing dependent on the north and organised crime came to the fore to play a central role. This in turn led to the promotion by northern regional parties of separation from the south.

The dominating paradigm that has emerged for the south is now one of autonomy whereby the south must emerge with its own identity through the mobilisation of local skill and resource.

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FIGURE 3.1 The north of Italy developed around large scale industrial projects in the post-war period leading to an economic boom.

(Image Source: http://www.eni.com/en_IT/company/history/photographs/photo-history-archive/ photo-history-archive.shtml)

FIGURE 3.2 The economy of the south failed to develop in the same way. Despite numerous state attempts to even the distribution of industry, the south remained largely agricultural.

(Image Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8a/Agriculture_(Plowing)_CNEv1-p58-H.jpg)

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THE THIRD ITALY If the internal division of Italy is defined as the large scale industries of the north and the agriculture based economies of the south then it is apparent that from the 1970’s a third model was born which began to define new possibilities for the productive landscape and began to define a new model for productive development that can be seen as unique to the Italian situation.

FIGURE 3.3 The location of Italian Industrial Districts defined by type still highlights the disparity between the north and south but exposes an alternative narrative of agglomoration economies and the productive landscape.

This model became known as the Italian Industrial District, based upon the principles of a Marshallian Industrial District the Italian variant evolved as a distinctive spatial distribution of economic activities. In the Marshallian model it was not necessary for the actors to consciously cooperate in order for the district to develop and exist, what has been noted in the growth of these districts in the Italianate model is the merger of a population of firms with the residents of the territory who in turn contribute the human, social and cultural capital to initiate a bottom-up industrialization process.

The Italian industrial district relies upon the co-dependent small manufacturing firms alongside a suitable historic background that combines communitarian feelings of belonging with production activities. These conditions fostered regions that were not only conducive of achieving the economic aims of the district but often also with regard to the enhancement of the physical and civic environment of the district.

This production model continued to grow and prevail through till the late 1990’s spurred on by the success of the ‘Made in Italy’ label and the continual innovation that characterised the districts and their specialisation as agglomeration economies. However it is also widely accepted that the increasing specialisation of the districts is a major contributory factor in their continuing demise as the capitalist pursuit of geographic advantage in terms of labour and production costs continues to impact all but the luxury goods manufacturers. What is apparent though is that local employment is benefitted by a local production system of a network of diverse, flexible and small firms that are still able to benefit from and contribute to human and social capital.

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Rabellotti, R., Carabelli, A. & Giovanna, H. (2009) Italian Industrial Districts on the Move: Where Are They Going? European Planning Studies. 17 (1) 19-41

Food Industries Paper Plastics & Rubber Mechanics Jewelery Leather & Shoes Furniture Textiles & Clothing

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Sicily

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Calabria

Provence of Messina

Provence of Reggio Calabria

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Messina

Reggio Calabria

THE CITIES AND THE STRAIT

FIGURE 4.1 The location of Messina and Reggio Calabria as opposing sides of the Strait of Messina.

The cities of Messina and Reggio Calabria are situated on opposing sides of the Strait of Messina that divides the mainland of southern Italy from the island of Sicily. Both cities are provincial capitals and both function as the primary city of the province in which they are located. Messina is situated on the island of Sicily and Reggio Calabria is located on the western most tip of the southern mainland.

The geographical position of the cities of Reggio Calabria and Messina has meant that they have always played an important role in the Mediterranean. Any discussion on the cities, individually or together, cannot be undertaken with out the recognition of the strait that divides and unites the cities. This could be seen as recognition of the two cities as part of a singular metropolitan area; a border city.

The presence of different cultures, religions and ideologies is something that has characterised this city for century’s, this coexistence has been born from the complex issues of immigration, employment, resource management, hospitality, citizenship, tolerance that have manifested on a local, regional and international scale.

When examining the built form that constitutes Messina and Reggio Calabria it is impossible to escape the impact of natural disasters upon the cities. The location of the cities, straddling a fault line, has resulted in the regular destruction of large swathes of urban fabric by earthquakes. The most recent, occurring in 1908, led to the destruction of 90% of the city and the loss of 80,000 lives in Messina alone. Both cities were subject to large scale reconstruction plans; the Piano de Nava in Reggio Calabria and Piano BorzĂŹ in Messina. Temporary housing was built on the periphery but there was a continuous failure to meet the demand for housing and the quality of building led to a quick decline into a state of decay.

This problem was worsened by the bombing that the cities faced from allied forces during World War Two during which time the city again faced large-scale destruction. Despite extensive urban expansion projects beginning in the 1950s the housing situation in Messina and Reggio Calabria is still in a state of flux, some families still inhabiting the temporary housing built over 80 years ago.

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THE PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPE OF THE STRAIT The Strait of Messina is characterised by a prevalent linear development along the coast in as much as urbanisation is forced to exist in a narrow strip compressed between two different types of landscapes: the sea and the mountains.

These border conditions have historically defined two programmes of production; agriculture and industry. Despite the economic conditions that define the South as a region of underdevelopment both programmes have been subject to historic periods of relatively high production on a large scale. However the continuing decline of the South, enhanced by the recent global economic situation and its effect on the Italian nation, have resulted in the relocation of both large-scale industry and agriculture in the pursuit of geographic economical advantage. In the wake of this process are areas that have become archaeological relics of a past time of production.

The physical landscape of the strait characterized by the presence of different streams called fiumara that divide the landscape and connect two physicalities: the mountains and the sea.

Thanks to the fertility of the soil on the banks of these streams, the rivers have always been important areas for agricultural production and the subsequent urban development. Residential development, in fact, has been for centuries related to the presence of these water courses and the city has learned during the time to live with these streams using the existing dry bed as paths to organize the territory.

With the advent of industrial civilization the delicate relationship between place and human settlement, culture and nature, was partially compromised and also the agricultural sector started its decline.

The physical geographic conditions of the territory have historically defined its growth due to the very nature of the land appropriate for inhabitation in urban form which in turn has dictated the productive landscape both segregating the agricultural whilst simultaneously ensuring that the industrial and residential programmes are forced to co-exist.

The sea and the strait have defined the urbanisation of the region for centuries but the cities of Reggio Calabria and Messina have developed an interesting relationship with the coastline. The restructuring of Reggio Calabria following the 1908 earthquake showed an attempt to embrace the relationship between the city and the sea for the people with the construction of the promenade and the access to the main city beach.

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FIGURE 4.2 The land suitable for industrial production in the region is found within the narrow strip at the foot of the hills and the sea. Because of this many parts of the coastline have been segregated by these developments.

FIGURE 4.3 The same strip of coastline is also the most suited to urbanisation and the exploitation of the coastline as a tourist destination as an econmic producer.

There is an immediate conflict between these juxtaposing functions.

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FIGURE 4.8 The infrastructural system of the strait defines a border of the territory whilst simulatiously connecting those parcels of land that are suitable for urban or industrial development often acting as catalyst for these.

(Image Source: Jia You Wei, 2013)

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PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPE DETERMINED BY INFRASTRUCTURE State efforts to develop the south in order to bring it in line with the economic productivity of the north have mainly focused their efforts on infrastructural projects to boost both industrial activity and the connectivity of the wider region (Fig.4.4 & 4.5). Despite the fact that many of these projects have been plagued with delays, failures and corruption, this infrastructure has in turn impacted heavily upon the development of the productive landscape.

To the north and south of the central area of Reggio Calabria the access to the sea is cut off by infrastructure.

The presence of this infrastructure has also resulted in the growth of industrial areas along the coastline, as the infrastructure was able to connect those small areas amongst the foothills upon which construction could occur. This peppered the coastline with small, sparse industrial developments whilst exploiting the transfer of goods onto a distribution network of road, rail and sea. At the same time points of significant cultural and leisure production were sometimes maintained, the infrastructure providing a limit to much of the urbanisation

and also by passing many sites of historical importance that reflected the Calabrian relationship with the sea.

Messina shows a similar pattern, however the relationship with the Strait does not take in any form leisure, the port remains an infrastructural area for the transfer of people and goods. To the south of the port the railway forms an impassable border between the city and the water leading to the growth of a ribbon of industrial landuse along the coastline. This industrial land-use severs the city from the coastline, concentrating industrial manufacturing production in the central metropolitan area determined by its proximity to the infrastructural network along which it has developed.

FIGURE 4.4 The Italian highway network provides the only significant road connection between Sicily, the mainMilano

land and on to the north.

Verona

Milano

Venezia

Verona Venezia

Torino

Torino

Ancona

Firenze

Ancona

Firenze

Roma Roma

FIGURE 4.5 Bari Napoli

Bari

The rail network provides a more comprensive set

Napoli

of connections accross the country as a whole but remains a slow and inefficient system skirting the coastline in the south.

Catanzaro

Catanzaro

Palermo

Reggio Calabria

Reggio Calabria Messina

Palermo

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Messina

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FIGURE 4.6.1 Messina has developed into a long narrow city the geography of the coastline to the east and the mountains rising sharply to the west have forced the city to develop on a SW-NE linear direction.

The effect of the infrastructure in segregating the city from the coastline is evident along the eastern coast.

FIGURE 4.6.2 The road system in Messina reflecting the pattern of urbanisation above and bordered by the highway infrastructure which passes through the mountains.

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FIGURE 4.7.1 With similar geographical limitations Reggio Calabria has developed a similar urban profile.

Although the shallower slopes to the east have allowed the sprawl of the urban fabric to distribute in a more even manor accross the foothills as opposed to the concentration of development in the valleys that is found in Messina. It is also very clear that Reggio Calabria is dramatically disected by the fumara on their trajectory from mountain to sea.

FIGURE 4.7.2 The road infrastucture in Reggio is very similar with the same concentration of the grid in the centre, loosing its form through the urban sprawl. again the highway traverses the outskirts of the city forming a border with to the central city.

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FIGURE 4.8 The extent of the rail infrastructure in the city of Messina, which forges a physical divide through the landscape and determnes the location of industrial development.

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FIGURE 4.9 Highlighting the locations of Messina and Reggio Calabria’s industrial areas which are strung along the coastline as a strip that cut the cities from the strait. It is clear that this is a more pronounced condition in the city of Messina.

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MESSINA: BETWEEN LANDSCAPE AND SEA The city of Messina has historically benefitted from its geographic location as the crossing point of the Strait of Messina and the trade corridor between the island of Sicily and mainland Italy. Following the destruction due to the 1908 earthquake manufacturing and industry was quick to recover but none so much as the construction industry, a necessary result of the removal of debris and reconstruction of the cities. In contrast to the advanced industrial sectors of northern Europe, industry in Southern Italy consisted of largely small enterprises operating for the consumption needs of local populations for the first half of the twentieth century. Post-war governments prioritized the development of the Mezzogiorno beginning with public spending on infrastructural projects creating pre-conditions for development before expanding investment in 1958 to directly stimulate the industrial sector. State owned companies were specifically required to pursue national utility over profit-orientated goals. The result was a growth in large-scale manufacturing and a decline in small scale artisanal production as improved infrastructure increased imports to the region.

This, for example, halved the size of the food industry in the twenty years between 1951 and 1971. Suffering from the economic depression of the early 70s, industry in the south was forgone in favour of the north with high energy prices particularly affecting the petrochemical industries that had been located in the Mezzogiorno. Many companies were subsequently taken over by the state to limit job losses.10 The impact upon Italian fiscal policy that resulted from the Maastrict treaty of 1992 meant many public firms were privatised, a major contributing factor to the stagnation of economic growth in the Mezzogiorno. There was however growth in the manufacturing of consumer goods during this period. The largest decline has been in the heavy industry sector, such as the petrochemical industries in Messina and in large-scale industries in Reggio Calabria. This has been worsened by the divergence of port and city functions as both cities lose the industrial infrastructural role of the ports to the container port of Gioia Tauro and the new smaller commercial port in the south of Messina.11

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10. Helg, R., Peri, G. & Viesti, G. (2000) Abruzzo and Sicily: Catching up and lagging behind, EIB Papers, ISSN 0257-7755, 5 (1) pp. 60-86 11. Latella, F., Marino, D. & Timpano, F. (1998) Infrastructures of transport and regional development: the rediscovered centrality of the Gioia Tauro container port in the Mediterranean. 18th European Regional Science Association Congress.

Vienna, Austria.

FIGURE 4.10 The urban morphology of Messina is largely dictated by the landscape with the density of the built environment increasing as the topology flattens out towards the sea with the flatest areas becoming home to the industrial typologies.

FIGURE 4.11 (Following Page) Topographical map of Messina showing the topography as a skin upon which the urban form has developed.

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The San Ranieri Peninsula

FIGURE 5.1 The strip of industrial development along the Messina coastline culminating in the north at the San Ranieri Peninsula segregated from the city by the station and rail infrastructure.

The San Ranieri Peninsula forms the northern culmination of a strip of industrial development that has occurred along the railway lines, severing the city of Messina from the coastline of the strait. The peninsula can be seen as four distinct areas each with a distinct character and land use. The most northern part reflects the historical importance of Messina as a military port as it remains a naval base segregated from the city occupying the end of the peninsula.

The only central industry continuing to thrive in the metropolitan area is that of the boat yard in Messina, services that continue to hold a high reverence in that region of the Mediterranean. The boat yard occupies the western edge of the peninsula that flanks the inside of the Messina harbour. The south of the peninsula where the landmass meets the centre of the city of Messina is dominated by the train station and the mass of the associated rail infrastructure which also operates as the interchange between rail and shipping services which connect the rail infrastructure with the Italian mainland.

The remainder of the peninsula was formerly occupied by the heavy industrial programmes instigated by the Italian state namely an extension of the shipyard and a degassing station for petrochemical product shipping services. These industries have since left the area leaving a large landscape of former industrial structures that runs along the eastern sea front. This is an area of former heavy industry and is now a selection of vacant industrial typologies spanning the coastline over looking the strait towards Reggio Calabria. To the south are the remains of an 18th century fortress again reÂŹflecting the historical military significance of the peninsula. The site is bordered on one side by the road which divides the derelict from the active industrial areas and to the other side by the sea along which runs a sandy beach. The former docks for loading of boats with liquids dominates the coastline, its series of concrete plinths linked by bridges and pipes. In the south shipwrecks line the beach along side further remains of the fortress.

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POST-INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPE OF NEGLECT The landscape of the Strait of Messina can be read as a complex stratification of destruction and reconstruction of architectural artefacts, a landscape of abandonment where the political, economical and social shifts are recorded together with the dramatic natural events. The result of the decline of the productive industries on the San Ranieri Peninsula is a post-industrial landscape of neglect. This landscape appears in sharp juxtaposition to the romanticised image of the natural beauty of the Mediterranean, an environment in which it is immersed and yet so far from.

FIGURE 5.2 - 5.6 The condition of industrial decline has defined the post-industrial landscape of the San Ranieri Peninsula reflecting the psycho-geographic condition of neglect and disassociation.

FIGURE 5.7 (p.38-39) The relics of the failing of the large-scale industrial past of Messina lie abandonded on the peninsula

The prevailing condition is one that is characterised by the contrast between the care and neglect of the landscape. There is a certain condition of disassociation between the people of Messina and the coastline, physically segregated from it for the most part the city has turned its back on the sea. This has had a compounding effect on the post-industrial landscape upon which no attempt has been made to reintegrate the neglected area into the city. The relics of past industry stand as a reminder that both the Italian state and the private market have failed the cities productivity in the industrial sector.

The neglect extends beyond that of the industrial built environment to include both the historical and landscape attributes are also present in the area. These elements have been left to their own devices to decay and return to the landscape.

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defining the productive landscape of Messina.

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DEALING WITH THE PRODUCTIVE LANDSCAPE

FIGURE 6.1 The juxtapostion between the built form and natural environment, the two elements that constitute the productive landscape.

The aim of this thesis is to propose a way in which the post-industrial landscape of neglect could be reimagined and restructured as a productive landscape set to new parameters that learn from past mistakes and begin to offer an alternative model for ‘regeneration’ of the post-industrial landscape through the unique contextual reading of the Mediterranean and in particular that of the ‘South’.

The generic rhetoric of a mode of regeneration in pursuit of the materialistic commodity pursued through the lens of a Northern European ideology does not translate to the psychogeographic condition of the Mediterranean. The unique socio-political context of the South and its subjection to various economic forces have given rise to a landscape deserving of reinterpretation and full of possibility.

Having seen how historically the Italian productive landscape has been shaped according to economic and political determinates, what follows is an examination of two ways of dealing with the productive landscape through an abstracted application of design with the intention of testing these two possible treatments of the approach to the physical landscape. These in turn will feed into an approach that could be applied in approaching the restructuring of the productive landscape.

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PRESERVING LANDSCAPE THROUGH NEW CENTRALITY FIGURE 6.2

The pretence for this intervention is that contemporary cities have become subjected to an endless urbanisation, consuming the natural landscape at an unprecedented rate. It is therefore proposed that a new centrality is formed which contains urban development and as such preserves the limit between the urban and the rural.

The concept is to introduce a ‘super structure’ that acts as a single urban form to contain sprawl and introduce a new density to the inner city. This is seen as an act that preserves the physical landscape by minimising the impact beyond the borders of the existing built environment. The concept explores the possibility of concentrating residents into agglomerations that open up the possibilities of a new productive landscape that is segregated from the physical and natural landscape. The project defines a new territory within a single structure in which education, leisure, administration, residential and manufacturing programmes are contained.

Through an entirely abstracted ideological visualisation of the possibility of the project a structure is proposed that features a minimal footprint upon the existing whilst opening up entirely new spaces and concentrations through which the aspirations of a new productive network can be realised.

However the very nature of the super-structure concept completely segregates the physical and human landscapes and ignoring the context. This could be seen as an exaggeration of a condition that has already been experienced within the context of Messina where large-scale single function programmes have been inserted, such as those on the San Ranieri peninsula, with detrimental effects on the relationship between people and their environment that has led to the extreme condition of neglect.

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Considering the concept of centrality as a way of preserving the landscape and defining an urban limit.

(Image: Diego Vergara)

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FIGURE 6.2 Creating agglomorations of functions within a cone structure that minimises the imapct upon the landscape segregating the urban and productive uses.

(Image: Diego Vergara)

FIGURE 6.3 Creating a new productive landscape that is seperated from the physical environment that surrounds the city whilst containing urbanisation within the structure.

(Image: Diego Vergara)

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FIGURE 6.4 Situated on the strip of land between the rail infrastructure and the strait on the shores of Messina and Reggio Calabria it is possible to release the physical environment and return it to its natural condition.

(Image: Diego Vergara)

FIGURE 6.5 The creation of a new centrality such as this that ignors the context and imposes a new condition upon the city is a repetition of the process whereby monofunctional industry was imposed upon the Messina coastline.

(Image: Diego Vergara)

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FIGURE 6.6 Inserting two new centralities for the cities of Messina and Reggio Calabria could be seen as reinforcing the segregation of function from the physical lanscape, the same preposition that has led to the disparity between care and neglect.

FIGURE 6.7 (Right) Although disassociated the concept could open up a new relationship with the landscape through preservation whilst establishing an agglomoration of production activity that broadens the productive system beyond that of industrial manufacturing.

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APPROACHES TO INTEGRATING LANDSCAPE If a segregation of productive programme and physical landscape is seen as a factor leading to the decline of the San Ranieri peninsula and a divergence from a condition of care to one of neglect then it may be appropriate to incorporate an approach that integrates the physical and human landscapes, therefore defining a new productive landscape.

Through an exploration of two existing projects; Villagio Mattioti by Giancarlo de Carlo and Lafayette Park by Mies Van De Rohe, and their methods of integrating the built and natural environments, the possibilities of integration are critiqued. It is proposed that incorporation of the two will begin to foster more of a dialectic between the citizens and their environment.

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FIGURE 6.8 Meis’s project in Detroit attempts to establish a new urban landscape within the city, defying the immediate context.

(Image Source: http://farm8.static.flickr. com/7271/6908926784_831cc08788.jpg)

FIGURE 6.9 De Carlo attempted to establish an integrated landscape that worked upon a heirarchy of spaces within the project, defined along a linear logic.

(Image Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/82261333@N04/8434574407/)

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FIGURE 6.10 Through an extraction of Meis’s project and a reimaging in the city of Reggio Calabria it is possible to exchange the ‘prairy’ landscape that had been envisioned by Meis in Detroit for that of the Calabrian landscape. The homogenous programme however limits the extent to which the landscape can be integrated as a landscape of production rather than consumption.

(Image: Boaz Rotem)

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LAFAYETTE PARK - MIES VAN DER ROHE Lafayette Park is situated in the North American city of Detroit. Developed in a industrial boom period on the back of Americas ever expanding automobile industry, Lafayette Park was an inner city urban renewal project in central Detroit.

The area that contained traditional row houses was deemed to have deteriorated in quality and like many renewal schemes of the time was subjected to tabula rasa in order to be redeveloped. The new neighbourhood of Lafayette Park not only changed the urban fabric but also excluded the original population, instead targeting the young middle class families that had profited from the economic successes of Detroit.

Meis’s modernism is an example of the early avant garde modernism adapted to the context of post-war North America. The project can be conceptualised in modernisms aspiration to produce a new built character regardless of the context, applied on a tabula rasa. As well as this was the establishment of a dialectic between the abstraction of the architecture and the landscape

which served to produce a suburban typology in the inner city, bringing the prairie to the city.

The rationalism of the grid was captured in the architecture and served as a backdrop and reflection of the landscape. Van de Rohe attempted to produce a new architectural language through the relationship between the grid and nature.

Lafayette Park is successful in integrating the human and physical environments in a manor that fosters a relationship between the built form, that appears to be floating in the landscape, and the inhabitants. However, the homogenous programme that is applied to the project is not conducive to an inclusive neighbourhood with potential to develop a local productive system with rich human and social capital.

FIGURE 6.11 The material contrasts with the landscape but at the same time reflects it therefore reinforcing its presence in the built form.

(Image: Boaz Rotem)

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FIGURE 6.12 De Carlo employs a strict logic upon which the integration of the landscape is orchestrated and where appropriate segregated from functions such as vehicular circulation.

(Image: Valaria Piras)

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VILLAGGIO MATTEOTI - GIANCARLO DE CARLO Villaggio Matteotti is situated in the Italian city of Terni around 100km from Rome. The project was developed in order to house workers of the state run steel mill that dominates the city. Originally a much larger scheme was proposed to replace the social housing built in the 1930s but only one section of De Carlo’s plan was finally realised. Villaggio Matteotti is located on the fringe of Terni in an area that is characteristically low density and suburban. The area contains two or three family homes, that are typical of the area, set in large plots. There is also a variety of agricultural use in the land neighbouring the project.

Giancarlo De Carlo wanted to create a dense piece of city fabric with this project and we felt as though it was necessary to produce a drawing that highlighted the juxtaposition between the density and character of Villaggio Matteotti in comparison to its surroundings. De Carlo embarked on a collaborative process of design by which he consulted extensively with the families who would inhabit Villaggio Matteotti. As a result De Carlo produced a design of 5 fundamental types each

containing 3 different apartments, this resulted in 15 different apartment types which also had interchangeable internal layouts resulting in 45 possible permutations.

De Carlo believed that through a process coined by Aldo van Eyck called configurative process, one could combine a set of standard elements in differing ways generating an architectural hierarchy. Irregular massing employed so as to mitigate any sense of monotony that may be felt at this density and repetition of types.

These forms combine around the three dimensional grid of vehicular and pedestrian routes that make up the structure.

Through a restructuring and a semi-encompassing of the physical landscape De Carlo was able to foster a close relationship between the inhabitants and the landscape.

By providing a blurring of the boundaries between the private and public portions a sense of ownership has been nurtured leading to a high level of care that the landscape requires.

FIGURE 6.13 Envisioning the Villaggio Matteotti project in the context of Messina explores shows how the landscape can be integrated into the heirarchy of spaces between the linear elements and also how the project can be integrated with the context.

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READING The San Ranieri Peninsula THROUGH THE CONTEXT: THE ROLE OF THE WALL

FIGURE 7.1 The wall maniphests itself in different ways upon the San Ranieri Peninsula defining itslef as the primary aparatus for the structuring of the area, rich and complex in materiality and form.

The site of the San Ranieri Peninsula consists of a rich and complex set of forms and materiality that are deserving of a deep archaeological and architectural reading in order to begin to formulate a proposal that preserves the character and heritage of the site whilst simultaneously unlocking the potential of the productive landscape and a recovery of the physical environment.

With this in mind the site can be read as a multifaceted stratification and destratification of the landscape through the application of the wall as the raw architectural element used to structure the territory. The large-scale abandonment of the area has left these relics of a former period that has left the area as large swathes of industrial landscape in various states of minority occupation and dereliction, an archaeological site of industrial production.

The site can therefore be explored through the previous application of the wall in order to provide a reading of the site through its context. From this reading a re-appropriation of the landscape can be defined that articulates the reconstruction of the elements that constitute the physical structure of the context. For this three applications of the wall as a conceptual element have been defined; the ruins of the citadel, the metaphorical and physical wall of the rail infrastructure and the walls that define the former industrial programmes.

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FIGURE 7.3 Location on the San Ranieri Peninsula of the walls that remain as relics of the former La Real Citadella, the 17th Century Spanish fortress built as a strategic point of control over the city and the strait.

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LA REAL CITADELLA The perilous existence of the remains of La Real Cittadella still exerts a dominant presence on the landscape of the San Ranieri peninsula. Built between 1679 and 1682 whilst Messina was under Spanish occupation. The Citadel was constructed as a garrison from which the city of Messina could be controlled The structural properties of the citadel represent not only its capacity as a defensive building to protect the port of Messina from attack from the sea, but also reflect the significance of its ability structure the territory and exert the control and influence of the occupation upon the city of Messina and its inhabitants.

Having survived various attacks during its existence as well as the earthquake of 1908 La Real Cittadella

eventually succumbed to the expansion of the port of Messina and the shipyard in the late 1950’s. Today only three arms of the original structure remain although much of the Citadel still exists underground. The remainder of the Citadel has been ravaged by time and neglect, with no attempts to restore or preserve one of the finest fortresses in the Mediterranean. It has been subjected to industrialisation surrounding it and including the building of an incinerator in the 1970’s between sections of the built structure.

The Citadel still commands a dominating presence over the peninsula but is currently at the mercy of the natural landscape which is steadily reclaiming the remains of this striking structure.

FIGURE 7.2 Highlighting the remaining sections of the original structure hich now lie as ruins in the landscape.

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FIGURE 7.5 The remaining structure of the citadel has become a forgotten territory, abandoned to the elements and disassociated from its heritage. The presence of the derelict incinerator, built in the 1970s, highlights the lack of respect of industrial interventions.

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FIGURE 7.6 The use of the citadel as a disposal ground for construction debris has begun to envelope the structures forming a new landscape in the voids between the structures.

FIGURE 7.7 The historical significance of La Real Cittadella has been neglected and the landscape now eats away at what was once a beautiful construction.

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FIGURE 7.8 The monumental presence of the two interconnected railway stations and the associated infrastructure forms a metaphorical and physical wall cutting the peninsula from the city.

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RAIL INFRASTRUCTURE The point at which the peninsula joins with the city of Messina is dominated by the presence of the rail infrastructure that consists of two adjoining stations and the rail tracks.

The built form consists of the Messina Centrale and the Messina Marittima stations. These are the main connections to the Sicilian rail network and also serves as an interchange between rail and ferry services to the Italian mainland.

The station buildings were built between 1937 and 1939 and designed by the architect Angilolo Mazzoni in the typical fascist/futurist style that accentuated the vertical proportions. The scale of the building and its

orientation towards the city of Messina, turning its back upon the San Ranieri Peninsula define both a physical and psychological wall between the city of Messina and the peninsula. The impenetrable nature of the mass of rail infrastructure strengthens the segregation of the territory and reaffirms the sense of disconnection of this forgotten area.

There currently exists only one connection from the front of the station to the rear which is a pedestrian pathway somewhat hidden within the structure of the station that traverses a bridge that hugs the rear of the buildings curve. Vehicular access is further prohibited with the first bridge across the rail tracks some 1km to the south of the station.

FIGURE 7.8 The complex mass of rails and overhead cables that must stands as a inaccessable territory that must be negociated to access the coastline.

?

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FIGURE 7.9 The interchange between the rail and ferry services has created a complex environment that has become an inhospitable border to the city centre that must be negociated.

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FIGURE 7.10 The station building itself has its back turned to the peninsula, reinforcing the lack of relationshiop between the peninsula and the centre of the city which lies to the front of the station.

FIGURE 7.11 Access to from the station is uninviting and has come to act more as a limit than as a threshold between the city and the peninsula.

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FIGURE 7.12 Location of the walls that defined the internal and external boundaries of the industrial functions and landuses that were imposed on the landscape of the San Ranieri Peninsula.

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INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION The industrial function of the San Ranieiri peninsula has been split over two primary industries; shipbuilding and repair and that of the degassing and cleaning of oil tankers. Both industries were developed under regional funds with the shipyard being developed in 1957 as an expansion of Messina’s historical significance as a ship building area.

In order to define the programmes and the areas of industrial activity the construction of a network of concrete walls was employed that defined both the external and internal boundaries of the industrial landscape. The walls served to delineate the private industrial sectors and also the individual functions within the area.

In doing so the physical landscape of the Peninsula also became increasingly segregated. The industrial development completely excludes access to the coastline compounding the similar effect of the of the rail infrastructure to the south, depriving the city of Messina of access to the sea.

Industrial activity on the Peninsula ceased as of 2006 after the company that controlled both the shipyard and the degassing facilities suffered numerous environmental and economic catastrophes leaving the area to slip deeper into dereliction. As of yet no significant progress has been made towards either the clearing or redevelopment of the remaining structures.

FIGURE 7.13 The walls served as a segregating device to separate industrial functions as well as to enforce the boundaries of the private territory occupied by the industries.

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FIGURE 7.14 The former de-gassing station exemplifies the role of the wall in segregating and defining the physical structure of the industrial landscape.

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FIGURE 7.15 The walls reinforce the pscho-geographic condition of marginalisation, inhibiting circulation and lines of sight.

FIGURE 7.16 Circulation is constricted to the narrow strip of road that runs between the walls that section off the industrial uses.

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FIGURE 7.17 The single trajectory of circulation, featuring very narrow pavements and mostly limited to vehicular traffic. The road separates the active industry on the inside shoreline of the harbour from the remainder of the peninsula.

FIGURE 7.18 The network of open spaces and yards that currently exist on the site but are isolated from each other by the presence of the wall.

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THE WALL AS A TERRITORIAL STRUCTURAL DEVICE It is clear that in all three applications the wall works not only as the physical structure of architectural elements but also functions in way to structure the territory on an urban scale. The wall is therefore the device that controls the way in which the site is experienced defining access, permeability and function as well as operating on a cognitive level defining a psychological boundary between the city and both the industrial and physical landscape. In this way the wall creates a psychogeographic condition of abandonment and neglect, for the most part the San Ranieri Peninsula is out of site and inaccessible for all but those who venture into it with a purpose. It is a forgotten territory, reflected in its current state and reinforced by the physical boundaries imposed by the current structuring.

Levels of access and permeability are therefore a direct consequence of the application of the wall, circulation; both pedestrian and vehicular along the peninsula are confined to a single trajectory through the centre (Fig. 7.17). The road serves to delineate between the postindustrial landscape of abandonment on the side of the strait and the active productive industries on the inner shoreline of the harbour.

The existing landscape consisting of the archaeological components of both the citadel and the former industries separate a network of open spaces across the site, a series of concrete yards and more natural wastelands lie within the existing stratification of the landscape (Fig. 7.18). The presence of the walls currently prevents a coherent reading of these spaces and their possible interrelationships.

The existing walls have also been used in the past as a structuring device for the illegal appropriation of the area as a home for small industries on a workshop scale (Fig. 7.19). These structures have since been removed due to their illegality but this does however reflect the ability of the wall as the element through which to restructure the territory, rescaling production to meet the current demand. The presence of these illegal workshops and small industries can be seen as an indication on the form of productive space that is needed in Messina to meet existing demand. Cheap land with immediate access to the infrastructural network and the ability for firms to agglomerate in close proximity, with the over-riding structure provided on an urban scale.

FIGURE 7.19 Illegal construction amongst the remains of the citadel which formed the structural device around which the construction was orientated.

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FOSTERING A NEW IDENTITY FOR THE SAN RANIERI PENINSULA

FIGURE 8.1 The identity of the San Ranieri Peninsula is deserving of reinterpretation as a new landscape of production in terms of manufacturing, culture, education and leisure to overcome the marginalisation of the territory.

It is evident that a post-fordist model of regeneration through a large-scale regeneration initiative is not appropriate in the current economic climate and the context of Messina in the Italian south. The generic rhetoric of a mode of regeneration in pursuit of the materialistic commodity pursued through the lens of a Northern European ideology does not translate to the socio-economic or psycho-geographic condition of the Mediterranean. The unique socio-political context of the South and its subjection to various economic forces have given rise to a landscape deserving of reinterpretation and full of possibility. The region of Messina and Reggio Calabria is characterised by a contrast between care and neglect: a traditional care of the landscape, embodied in millennia of sophisticated agricultural practices, juxtaposed with the large-scale abandonment of industrial areas developed through state interventions and under the speculation of European Union funds.

From this point it is possible to begin to imagine how a new identity for the San Ranieri Peninsula may be forged and nurtured. Making full use of the rich reading of the context on all scales, from that of the Mediterranean to that of the site, to address the postindustrial landscape of the South, using the San Ranieri Peninsula as the case study.

After the archaeological reading it is deemed appropriate that the elements that constitute the physical structure of the context will provide the starting point for the appropriation of the landscape. It is proposed that the project provides a restructuring of the productive landscape through the systematic use of the wall as the spatial and urban device.

Accounting for the increasing failure of specialisation in Italian industrial districts and the lack of a coherent cultural identity and association with heritage; an integration and juxtaposition of spaces for manufacturing, artisan industries, education, culture and leisure as modes of production is will be explored. This reflects an attempt to reconsider the way in which post-industrial landscapes are construed in the context of the Mediterranean.

In addition the proposed project will investigate the incorporation of both the human and physical landscapes to propose a new reading of what it means to give the territory the term of productive landscape.

From the reading of the current condition and the context a set of tools will be proposed upon which the speculative intervention will be based.

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1. THE WALL AS THE ARCHITECTURAL DEVICE The potential of the role of the wall as the device through which to re-structure the territory is evident through its existing role within the immediate context. The insertion of the wall as the elementary architectural element restructures the productive landscape and provides the permanent foundations of a flexible growth structure.

The physical characteristics of the walls to be inserted build upon that of the reading of the context. The volume of the walls represent their capacity to restructure the territory whilst their emptiness and the open-ended nature of the striped organisation exposes the potential and embraces the possibility of reappropriation by the user.

A stark juxtaposition in materiality between the productive space of the ground floor and the residential units expresses the ability of the structure adapt to demand and providing access to a low-cost live/ work arrangement. The structures are arranged to enable a hierarchy of streets with varying frontages whilst the end units provide space for commercial and civic functions that animate the central spine to which the elements are attached.

Building upon the linear typologies of the warehouse structures remaining from the ship building industry and utilising an architecture of emptiness, developed through a striped organization of space, the intervention refrains from prescribing over-baring programmes that would inevitably destroy the rich complexity of the site. Instead providing a structuring device for appropriation and agglomeration of firms, knowledge and social capital.

Alternating the facades provides a hierarchal approach to the organisation of space and a street network allowing for a simultaneous segregation and integration of functions and experience of the street level.

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FIGURE 8.2 Using the wall as the archaetectural element to restructure the territory, defining new spaces of production on a linear logic that allows for a multiplicity of appropriations.

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2. RE-USE OF EXISTING STRUCTURES The complexity of the remaining context invites an innovative approach for the appropriation of the site. By operating in contrast with the severe logic of the intervention of the walls an unlocking of the potential of the existing structures within a coherent spatial framework should be examined. The utilisation of the physical structures on the site provides a rich materiality and spatial complexity that can contribute to the intervention on the urban scale.

The understanding of existing structures can be extended to include that of social structures and accumulations of human capital that are pre-existing within the wider context of the city of Messina. In fitting with the ideological view of the civic appropriation of the site and a reclaiming of the landscape by the citizens of Messina, popular movements such as Teatro Pinelii Occupato who are already undertaking the occupation and re-use of derelict buildings in Messina.

By incorporating uses for civic purposes they are building a network of social capital and exploiting it in a way that could be appropriate in order to facilitate initial interventions within the existing physical structures on the site.

An initial exploration into the possibility of re-using of industrial relics by defining a new programme that completely changes their function demonstrates the capacity to redefine the productive nature of the context whilst maintaining and even enhancing its existing character to provide a rich experience of the intervention (Fig. 8.3 - 8.5).

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FIGURE 8.3 Location of the tank structures, the re-use of which was explored using the model shown.

FIGURE 8.4 Using a model to explore the possiblilty of re-using existing industrial structures such as the tank structures.

Maintaining the industrial character

and form but defining a new spatial programme.

FIGURE 8.5 Generating new relationships between the structures previously isolated and segregated from human activity giving them new purpose and meaning.

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3. ORCHESTRATION OF EXPERIENCES The landscape is read as complex and contrasting combination of the natural and the built environments that exist on the San Ranieri Peninsula. The rich materiality that defines existing elements is explored as a means through which the open spaces can be orchestrated as a series of differing and complementary experiences in order to integrate the interventions with the existing spaces and buildings. This allows a restructuring of the territory through interventions that operate upon the three main principles: the wall as spatial structure, re-use of existing structures and connectivity through experience orchestration. A pedestrianised spine is inserted through the centre of the site connecting the area to the city whilst tying the elements together along a linear path. This is supplemented by a treatment of the landscape through a logic that rejects the former stratification of the area, maximising permeability.

By imposing a new layer of pedestrian connectivity existing spaces are revealed and coordinated taking on new purpose whilst respecting archaeological and industrial heritage and memories. Autonomy and possibility are embraced through the merger of juxtaposing functions whilst engaging with existing elements of the landscape to give new purpose and defining new amenities for the wider region as a network of public space is unravelled integrating the San Ranieri peninsula with the immediate hinterland.

Fig. ? demonstrates the schematic connections between the existing built form and open spaces along the spine anchored at either end by significant nodes; to the north the Torre di Lanterna, a site of military and historical significance it marks the municipality of Messina to those arriving by sea and to the south by the Messina Centrale station which forms the connecting point with the city of Messina.

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FIGURE 8.6 Schematic masterplan of the orchestration of experiences between the existing built form, spaces and yards, integrated with the new structures utilising a new network of circulation.

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PROJECT PHASING The project is envisioned as a gradual process of appropriation that evolves and grows over time. The phasing process is seen more as a guideline for growth that allows the site to manifest itself according to the needs of the end-users, anchored by the public programmes and circulation.

Beginning with the archaeological education centre focused around the reuse of the tank structures of the former de-gassing station, acting as a catalyst for both the built and landscape strategy. The project then develops around the new layer of circulation that unlocks spaces and structures and provides the logic from which the site develops.

This evolves over time eventually, re-appropriating the entire site of the San Ranieri peninsula into a cohesive and rich piece of the city.

1. Centre for archaological education connecting with historic site of the citadel.

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4. Structures grow along spine responding to demand for

5. Linear structures establish a new structure for the productive

productive space.

territory.

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2. Establishing connection with the city and extending the spine

3. Beginning to establish the new structures plugging into the

through the site activating the existing warehouses.

spine.

6. Circulation is expanded to the north continuing the spine and

7. The linear model is replicated along the spine in the north

an additional connection to the station is made in the south un-

expanding the productive landscape across the enitre site.

locking a possible site for beach front development.

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CENTRE FOR ARCHAEOLOGICAL EDUCATION Forming the catalyst for the project and utilising many of the structures from the former de-gassing plant, the centre for archaeological education occupies the centre point of the site. The centre for archaeological education is proposed to exploit the presence of the citadel as an archaeological heritage site that can provide a study site appropriate for practical education through both examination and restoration.

The centre combines three primary programmes; educational facilities, public programmes and student accommodation, all contained within a light frame that demarcates the project but refrains from inhibiting permeability or restricting access.

The two larger former tanks house the more public programmes whose purpose is reinforcing the rich cultural and historical character of the San Ranieri Peninsula and the Strait of Messina. One tank houses an auditorium on the ground floor serving both the educational facility as well as allowing for public lecture and speaking events.

This combination is extended to the remainder of the space within the larger tank structures. By remaining open plan they provide space for exhibitions, workshops and event spaces of both an educational and public nature for the purposes of reflecting and building knowledge upon the archaeological heritage of the Italian south. The remaining two smaller tanks are used as social and informal learning spaces for the students and public alike.

The main building , which is made up of three buildings connected by the external frame, features a ground floor orientated to define the eastern edge of the complex. This building houses the primary educational spaces and the associated auxiliary functions, the proportions remain large so as accommodate the workshop and laboratory functions associated with archaeological study and restoration. On the first and second floors student accommodation is found housing up to ninety-six students in single rooms orientated in groupings of twelve around a communal living space. Between each cluster is an external space shared by the student residents allowing for social functions and exploiting the pleasant climate of the region.

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FIGURE 8.8 Groundfloor plan of the centre for archaeological education demonstrating the relationship between teh elements involving educational and public programmes.

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FIGURE 8.9 The project redefines the de-gassing station as a centre of production focused around archaeological knowledge and public programmes to broaden the histroical significance of the peninsula and the wider region of the strait.

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FIGURE 8.10 The centre is defined by its frame which replaces the exisitng walls that contained the former industrial functions. The frame remains permeable and open inviting a merger of the educational and public programmes.

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FIGURE 8.11 The main new structure houses the educational workshops and laboratories on the ground floor (bottom) with the student accomodation arranged over the first and second foors above (middle), all of which is encased by the frame which connects the buildings and external spaces (top).

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FIGURE 8.10 First floor plan of the centre making full use of the tank volumes and representing the clustering of the student accomodation around communal facilities and shared external spaces.

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PARCO DE LA CITTADELLA Respecting the authority of the ruins and the landscape that has begun the envelope them the Parco de la Cittadella is formed by allowing the existing landscape to remain whilst defining the ruins of the Citadel by carving them out using a network of paths that circumnavigate its external walls. The concrete expanse that surrounds the incinerator situated amongst the ruins is removed and the natural landscape allowed to develop as it has elsewhere in the park. The incinerator remains as a relic to the industrial past, a study object for decay and a reminder of past mistakes but an appreciation is made of the grandeur of the structure itself.

The park serves two purposes that are intrinsically interconnected.

The first is that the ruins of the citadel become a live archaeological site for the students and academics of the educational centre.

Secondly, through their increased importance and emphasis placed upon the site and the restoration work done as part of the educational process the ruins take on the function of an amenity for the city. This manifests both through the evolution and recovery of the structures and landscape as a leisure destination that continues to reinforce the sense of place and memory held within La Real Cittadella and also as the development of a signifier of the historical importance of Messina in the wider Mediterranean region.

Given time, consideration and the correct restoration the Parco de la Cittadella could evolve to include the internal spaces of the citadel giving further meaning to site.

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FIGURE 8.11 The plan of the archaeological park of the citadel, leaving the remaining structures floating in the landscape creating an archipelago of forms boardered by the circulation.

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FIGURE 8.12 The incinerator is left as a relic to the heavy industrial programmes imposed on the site but reimagined as a centre point to the park taking on a new functional role which could in time become an interactive feature of the park.

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FIGURE 8.13 The Parco de la Cittadella becomes an amenity for the city helpng to reestablish its identity and relationship with Messina’s heritage, both historical and industrial.

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RE-STRUCTURING THE PRODUCTIVE TERRITORY The re-structuring of the productive territory occurs primarily through the employment of a strict linear logic that is enforced by the presence of the wall structures and extended into the landscape encompassing the chaotic nature of the context. The central spine provides the anchoring point for the structures to plug into before extending the logic of the intervention into the landscape and existing built environment.

The ground floor of the built interventions remains open plan to enable the maximum multiplicity of productive appropriation but also enables the possibility to subdivide the space according to the proportions of the structure. The intention is that the end units where the structures plug into the spine take on a retail or civic function that reflects the internal activity whilst simultaneously providing a rhythm and animating the pathway.

By providing a hierarchy to the streets that separate the structures through the alternation of their facades and primary functions it is possible to segregate the different traffic patterns and provide a suitable street environment for both the productive space and the residential quarters above. It is also intended that the streets are given further animation and character by reflecting the internal activity and projecting it into the street in an appropriate manor that limits conflict in activities.

The ground floor structure provides a growth foundation for the residential units above. These units are formed by the repurposing of shipping containers as the living unit. The use of the container unit is considered appropriate as it reflects the existing condition and character of the site and reflects the reinterpretation of this landscape. The proximity of one of the largest container ports in the Mediterranean, Gioia Tauro, ensures a ready supply of the units and minimises construction and transportation costs. The use of the units also provides the possibility of providing an industry focused on the fabrication of these units within the production space. This would utilise the abundance of construction knowledge in the area as well as being a location ideal for the distribution of the units beyond that of the project itself.

The extension of the logic into the existing built environment begins to integrate the context whilst maintaining the contrast with the intervention. This enables the orchestration of the differing experiences of the project and unlocks the existing structures for reappropriation as part of the new productive territory.

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FIGURE 8.14 Ground floor plan of the linear structures and their architecture of emptiness emphasising the possibility of appropriations and refraining from prescribing over-baring programmes that would inevitably destroy the rich complexity of the site.

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FIGURE 8.15 The linear logic is extended into the existing built environment providing a coherent spatial framework for the productive landscape and unlocking the potential of the structures.

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FIGURE 8.16 The heirarchy of streets allows for a softer frontage and narrower pedestrianised street with access to the residential units above whilst also reflecting the nature of the productive space inside.

FIGURE 8.17 There is a segregation of vehicular traffic that services the internal ground floor functions from the alternate facade reducing conflict between users and activity.

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FIGURE 8.18 The alternate facedes reflect the primary activity of the street whilst also servicing the structure in an appropriate manor, ensuring circulation limits conflicting activities whilst also unifying residential and productive programmes.

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FIGURE 8.19 The containers are arranged to form a composition that has the ability to grow, or in fact shrink, to respond to the demand for accomodation.

FIGURE 8.20 The container arrangement allows for one, two and three bedroom typologies arranged around private and semi-private external spaces and covered courtyards as seen in the section below.

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CONNECTING SAN RANIERI PENINSULA An integral part of the project is to reconnect the San Ranieri Peninsula to the city of Messina that has turned its back on the area and reinforced the psycho-geographic condition of neglect. The mode in which this will be conducted is through the use of the existing structure of the station building and an enhancement of the pedestrian connection that currently exists.

The current elevated connection that skirts the rear of the station building above the rail infrastructure will be enhanced in several ways.

The existing steps from the front of the station, currently hidden from view, will be opened up and widened to provide a feature stair-case leading up from the station entrance. This could be further enhanced through the conversion of the current vehicular ferry waiting area into a new station square. The addition of ramps at either end of the connection will also allow cyclists and those physically impaired to access the connection and thus opening up the peninsula to them.

The intervention does not impair or disrupt the current functions of the station building or the rail – ferry interchange but rather negotiates the complex arrangement to increase the permeability of the structure and improve access. Where the intervention descends onto the San Ranieri Peninsula again the ramps are employed as well as a feature staircase that aligns with the spine of the project.

The intention therefore is to connect the elements of the project using the most simple and direct method of creating the pedestrianised spine extending from the new connection. By removing the obsolete obstacles the spine connects the spaces and remaining buildings through which a new accessibility and coherent spatial framework is created. The autonomous nature of the site is maintained whilst simultaneously activating the spaces and structures facilitating reappropriation and a reading of the structure of the place.

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FIGURE 8.21 Plan of the station emphasising the new connections to the site and utilising the tops of the existing tank structures to provide a veiwing platform accross the site. The plan also shows the possible addition of a new station square extending the site into the city.

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FIGURE 8.22 The project utilises and exaggerates the exisiting connection whilst also providing an additional bridge negociating the extensive rail infrastructure and providing a direct pedestrian connection to the sea front and the beach.

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FIGURE 8.23 The introduction of ramps improves the level of access by enabling otherwise impaired forms of transport such as bicycles and wheelchairs the possibility of access.

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PUBLIC SPACE INTERVENTIONS The project attempts to redefine the notion of public space in the context of the landscape of production. The interpretation here is that the open spaces within the project take on a productive role in the facilitation of educational, cultural and leisure production. They attempt to reimagine the production and consumption of public spaces by combining these two notions as interchangeable concepts.

Therefore the spaces within the site as they are depicted in the project are not a finite solution but rather a gesture to the possibilities held.

These spaces are in fact open to interpretation; they are autonomous in their nature, mostly empty expanses that should be appropriated by the user in a manor that means that their production and consumption is in no way finite but an on-going process.

The gestures made here are to facilitate new modes of leisure production that are not currently catered for in the city of Messina.

These interventions should extend to the existing warehouses, unlocked by the cutting and penetration of the spine, re-imagined as civic spaces controlled and managed by popular interest groups such as the Teatro Pinelli Occupato, unmotivated by capital gain, but rather concerned with enhancing community and societal functions. This will enable the possibility of the pursuit of a new ‘Southern’ identity and form of political subjectivity in keeping with its context.

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FIGURE 8.24 The existing warehouses, unlocked by the cutting through of the central spine and opened to appropriation for civic uses.

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FIGURE 8.25 Poccible additions to the landscape could include the addition of leisure facilities such as swimming facilities on the beach and in the exisiting yards youth facilities such as a skatepark may be appropriate. These may also be interventions made by popular groups, for example the addition of a community theatre.

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FIGURE 8.26 The beach becomes the largest public space on the site, returning the natural landscape of the strait to the city of Messina and becoming a public leisure amenity with structures on the beach taking on a new form.

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FIGURE 8.27 What has been presented here is a speculative solution for dealing with the post-

Contained within this are a set of principles and actions that are articulated as a re-

industrial landscape and the accompanying psycho-geographic condition of the San

sponse to the generic condition of neglect that is more wide spread across the Mediter-

Ranieri Peninsula. The intervention is born out of a rich contextual reading that proj-

ranean and known as the condition of the ‘South’. It may be possible to carry these

ects a site-specific proposal accounting for all of the intricacies and complexities of the

through and employ them in the reimagining of the productive landscape in other cities

residual urban space of Messina.

exhibiting this condition.

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APPENDIx

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REIMAGINING MESSINA’s ARCHAEOLOGICAL SPACES OF INDUSTRY

ABSTRACT Messina, a city on the Italian island of Sicily, is one that has long suffered from the conditions of dependence, neglect and under-development that have plagued the south of Italy. The state-led development of industry in the city as a result of state investment subsequently declined after being sold to the private market. This resulted in a post-industrial landscape of vacant typologies and empty plots. The inability of the state and the demise of capitalism as a driver of regeneration in the region, compounded by the current global financial crises, means that in order for this landscape to become a functional piece of the city again a new model for development is required.

This essay explores alternative models of the production of the built environment in postindustrial landscapes, theorising this as the formation of heterotopias forming in residual areas in the transitional state following the failure of the dominant social order; in this case capitalism. What is presented is an analysis utilising case studies that enables the development of design tools suitable for the reappropriation of Messinas post-industrial landscape. This is accompanied by initial proposals as to how these may be employed and sets the conceptual and theoretical parameters for which these proposals can be fully explored.

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INTRODUCTION

Western cities have undergone tremendous social, cultural and political changes since the 1960s that have defined and shaped contemporary urban conditions. In the Fordist cities of Europe the Keynesian welfare state drove a modernist planning regime overseen by a state-led system of city governance. This created a space construction model of mass production and consumption for a relatively homogenous society. However, as a result of transient changes toward a flexible accumulation regime the Fordist growth model has become redundant as it failed in its ability to cater for the contradictions of capitalism. This has become increasingly evident particularly in relation to the fixing of capital to geographic locations through the built environment whilst capitalism continues to pursue a geographic locational advantage.1 Today’s European cities are centres of heterogeneous lifestyles and spatial practices, the post-fordist city is a city brimming with contradictory and contested individualities and the subsequent tensions, oppositions and polarisations that manifest through various social, political and intellectual movements.2 As a consequence cities have been forced to adapt to these new challenges through increasingly flexible urban development and diverse approaches to urban governance, planning and design, allowing for multiple and varied uses and functions. This has resulted in the regeneration programmes of the late twentieth and early twentyfirst century such as Hafencity in Hamburg. These tools form an additional weapon in the process of capitalist accumulation, functioning to serve a neoliberal economy in which, as stated by Knox, the interests of the public and civil society ‘have been all but set aside’.3 The production of controlled, commodified and aestheticised spaces replaced the mono-functional zoning of modernist planning.

However, there are noticeable trends that have emerged in the since the late 90s that have contested neoliberal patterns of regeneration in the cities of northern European countries. Firstly cities are gradually awakening to their intricacies and particularities which has in-turn given rise to increasingly pluralistic urban development especially in the realm of revitalisation driven by cultural infrastructure and the cultural and creative industries; cultural regeneration. Additionally the evolution of the post-fordist model is increasing presented in re-appropriation initiatives, reconfiguring residual urban space that has been neglected by market led development, frequently encountered in the post-industrial city in the form of abandoned industrial sites.4 1. Harvey, D. (2001) Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography. New York: Routledge, pp.

247 2. Sassen, S. (2000) Analytic Borderlands: Economy and Culture in the Global City, in: Bridge, G. & Watson, S. (Eds.) A Companion to the City, Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 168-180 3. Knox, P. (2011) Cities and Design. Abingdon: Routledge 4. Groth, J. & Corijn, E. (2005) Reclaiming Urbanity: Indeterminate Spaces, Informal Actors and Urban Agenda Setting. Urban Studies. 42 (3) pp. 503-526 5. Cassano, F. (1996) Southern Thought & Other Essays on the Mediterranean. New York: Fordham University Press

The question that is proposed is therefore whether these new modes of production and consumption, that have manifested with varying degrees of success in northern European post-industrial cities such as Amsterdam and Berlin, can be transferred to the European cities of the Mediterranean. Thsi is nessecary in order to establish a means by which those cities suffering from the conditions of dependence and decline, that the Italian scholar Cassano describes as that of the ‘South’, can achieve a new autonomy.5 This will be accomplished by examining the possibilities of the regeneration of deindustrialised areas of the city of Messina on the island of Sicily with particular reference to the impacts of the current global economic crisis and the subsequent declining role of both state and marketled regeneration. Firstly an examinination of the emerging orthodoxy of regeneration rhetoric will be examined before utilising an analysis of case studies in order to define success in a social, political and economic design framework for Messina, will be explored.

This will be done through the analysis of two specific design solutions; the rescaling of

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the internal space of vacant industrial typologies and the adoption of flexible spatial and structural frameworks to propose a new industrial archetectural language.

This will enable a critical assessment of the appropriateness of the adaptation of a northern model for the south. Or conversely and in order to reverse the assumption that knowledge, and in fact time, moves from north to south, an alternative southern model can be developed that could in-turn be translated to the north.

A NEW ORTHODOXY AND HETEROTOPIAS It is necessary to establish a basis upon which the case of urban intervention in the south of Italy can be examined. The past two decades have witnessed an emergence of a new orthodoxy in the development and redevelopment of the built environment through cultural regeneration. Initially a process subordinate to the influence of capital and the markets, these same economically dependent factors have driven a divergence from both state and market-led regeneration as a result of the current global financial climate.6 It is, at this point, essential to define what we mean by culture as beyond that of the elitist indulgence in the fine-arts and as both modes of production and consumption, complex embodiment of processes, products, ways of life, meanings, values and behaviours. 7 The relentless pursuit of geographic locational advantage by market led industrial manufacturing has had two defining impacts upon the built environment. Firstly it has resulted in the abundance of decaying industrial infrastructure in post-fordist cities as industries are relocated to more economically efficient localities. Secondly it fuels urban competitiveness in order to attract capital and drive economic development through post-industrial sectors. This emergence of a set of vacant typologies triggered by deindustrialisation, and the associated structural economic and social changes, manifests in often large extents of the city fabric deemed in contraction to the competitive edge sought by urban areas. This then gives rise a need for these areas to take on a new vitality, which is largely enabled by the emergence of culture as an economic driving force for urban development. This regeneration process evolved through the 80’s and 90’s from city image improvements through cultural interventions to a full-blown shift towards cultural and creative production driving a new ‘creative’ economy.8 This evolution is reflected in the emerging policy rhetoric, often seeking immediate solutions for local struggling economies through the multiplier effects and flexible employment, drawn in by the allusions made by the likes of Richard Florida.9 The realisation of this rhetoric carries with it complex realities, often manifesting with negative implications including the widely documented effects of gentrification. This has resulted in regeneration as a defining process forging a link between the re-appropriation of the deindustrialised built environment and the attraction of capital.

It is therefore inevitable that this regeneration process has been dominated by a narrative of market driven interventions, generating wealth for developers and investors. This has developed close ties between culture, urban policy and business that has resulted in a regeneration model pursuing the spectacle of the commodity.

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6. Evans et al. (2009) 7. Montgomery, J. (1990) Cities and the art of cultural planning. Planning Practice & Research, 5 (3) pp.17-24.

8. For a full reading of the current importance of micro interactions and networks between creative practitioners, the publicly supported cultural sector and the cultural infrastructure of the city see: Comunian, R. (2011) Rethinking the Creative City: The Role of Complexity, Networks and Interactions in the Urban Creative Economy. Urban Studies 48 (6) pp.11571179 9. Florida, R. (2002) The Rise of the Creative Class. New York: Basic Books 10. Helg, R., Peri, G. & Viesti, G. (2000) Abruzzo and Sicily: Catching up and lagging behind, EIB Papers, ISSN 0257-7755, 5 (1) pp. 60-86 11. Latella, F., Marino, D. & Timpano, F. (1998) Infrastructures of transport and regional development: the rediscovered centrality of the Gioia Tauro container port in the Mediterranean. 18th European Regional Science Association Congress. Vienna, Austria.

It is however evident that this model has been detrimentally impacted upon by the global economic situation, the withdrawal from speculator-led large-scale regeneration and the withdrawal of private and state capital. This has, in turn, affected the very nature of regeneration producing various challenges to the dominant political discourse upon which this essay will attempt to build. The framework that will be developed through this essay for the re-appropriation of deindustrialised areas can be theoretically contextualised as the formation of heterotopias; the development of locations in the urban environment that are the reaction to the transition between dominant orders of society. The existing dominance of the capitalist model has been broken and that there must be an attempt to establish an alternative discourse of regeneration whereby an autonomous production of space is forged as a reaction to the failure of the existing order.

The current situation in Messina will be briefly outlined before an examination of two case studies, one examining a northern European approach and the other looking towards South America, will enable the exploration of two design tools which may be utilised in the regeneration of the post-industrial landscape of Messina. The use of case studies will root the adoption of a design approach in concrete examples, the evolution of which may enable the emergence of a new heterotopia.

MESSINA AND NEGLECT OF THE SOUTH The city of Messina has historically benefitted from its geographic location as the crossing point of the Strait of Messina and the trade corridor between the island of Sicily and mainland Italy. Following the destruction due to the 1908 earthquake manufacturing and industry was quick to recover but none so much as the construction industry, a necessary result of the removal of debris and reconstruction of the cities. In contrast to the advanced industrial sectors of northern Europe, industry in Southern Italy consisted of largely small enterprises operating for the consumption needs of local populations for the first half of the twentieth century. Post-war governments prioritized the development of the Mezzogiorno beginning with public spending on infrastructural projects creating pre-conditions for development before expanding investment in 1958 to directly stimulate the industrial sector. State owned companies were specifically required to pursue national utility over profit-orientated goals.

Fig 1, 2 & 3 - Depicting the decline of heavy industry on the Messina coastline, the pictures show the reminents of the degassing station that ceased to operate in 2006.

The result was a growth in large-scale manufacturing and a decline in small scale artisanal production as improved infrastructure increased imports to the region. This, for example, halved the size of the food industry in the twenty years between 1951 and 1971. Suffering from the economic depression of the early 70s, industry in the south was forgone in favour of the north with high energy prices particularly affecting the petrochemical industries that had been located in the Mezzogiorno. Many companies were subsequently taken over by the state to limit job losses.10 The impact upon Italian fiscal policy that resulted from the Maastrict treaty of 1992 meant many public firms were privatised, a major contributing factor to the stagnation of economic

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growth in the Mezzogiorno. There was however growth in the manufacturing of consumer goods during this period. The largest decline has been in the heavy industry sector, such as the petrochemical industries in Messina and in large-scale industries in Reggio Calabria.

This has been worsened by the divergence of port and city functions as both cities lose the industrial infrastructural role of the ports to the container port of Gioia Tauro and the new smaller commercial port in the south of Messina.11 The only central industry continuing to thrive in the metropolitan area is that of the boat yard in Messina, services that continue to hold a high reverence in that region of the Mediterranean. The result of this decline is large swathes of industrial landscape in various states of minority occupation and dereliction, the archaeological sites of industrial production. These conditions are the result of the collapse of a dominant order be are therefore a spatial framework from which a heterotopia can be forged. It is therefore proposed that a reappropriation of the existing vacant typologies and the establishment of design tools for the development of a model that mobilises local resources in terms of social capital and skill in order to define a new heterotopic model of regeneration promoting the autonomy of ths south.

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1

2

3

4

Fig. 4 - Location of Industry in Messina

Location 1 - High number of vacant typologies, former location of heavy industry.

Location 2 - Mostly workshop units, small to medium size; light manufacturing, construction and mechanics.

Location 3 - Large distribution centres, wholesale and railway yards, very low vacancy rate.

Location 4 - Concentration of vacant illegal constructions on coastal land segregated by railway.

Fig. 5 - Locations of vacant industrial typologies

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RE-SCALING OF INTERNAL SPACE

The analysis of the industrial areas of Messina shown in Figures 4 & 5 reveals various vacancy rates that can be related to the intended uses of the buildings and their age.

Figure 5 shows that areas further south along the coastline have a lower vacancy rate, this can be attributed to the location of the heavy industries of ship building and chemical processing that developed on the San Ranieri peninsula. These were both industries established by the state and by 1980 were all subsequently sold to private ownership as a result of state withdrawal. By 2006 all industrial activity on the eastern side of the peninsula had ceased to function resulting in a number of vacant industrial typologies highlighted in Figure 6.12 The former ship building yard can be likened to the Netherlands Shipbuilding and Dock Company (NDSM) Wharf , located to the north west of the centre of Amsterdam in the Amsterdam Noord (North Amsterdam) area on the banks of the River IJ. Since the end of the nineteenth century this was the home of the NDSM. This was an active shipbuilders until the eighties when the geographic shift of industrial manufacturing to more economically efficient locations resulted in the bankruptcy of NDSM and the area was left in a state of vacancy.

What NDSM Wharf represents is the re-appropriation of a deindustrialised area driven by the initiative of end-users and facilitated through the cooperation of city governance. Despite its proximity to central Amsterdam, neither commercial developers or the municipality of Amsterdam showed any initial interest in redeveloping the expansive former shipyard.

Following the closure of the yard the area was gradually occupied by various individuals and informal organisations who used the large warehouse buildings and open spaces to stage a variety of cultural interventions including exhibitions, concerts and theatre productions.

Upon the proposal of a comprehensive development plan for NDSM Wharf in 2000, the various stakeholders and actors involved in the pioneer occupation of the area formed the organisation Kinetisch Noord.

Kinetisch Noord is a citizen initiative of craftsmen, artists, architects, skateboarders and non-profit organisations who presented an alternative development proposal, positioning themselves not as passive consumers of the built environment, but as equal partners with the local city council (who owned the NDSM site) taking responsibility for the production of the space. Kinetisch Noord won a competition for a 10-year contract with the local council to develop the 20,000-sq m NDSM hall and the surrounding open space of the NDSM dockyard through the initiation of temporary cultural uses.13 The development was undertaken on the basis that the actors and stakeholders of Kinetisch Noord undertook the responsibility of the re-appropriation of the site. This was a conscious decision by the municipal government to counteract an extremely expensive trend of land reclamation for commercial development despite expansive unused former industrial space such as NDSM. This cooperation and divergence from the existing paradigm of development, shifting towards an alternative model and tipping the power balance away from market led private development, manifests in the creation of an urban environment that can be likened to a heterotopia; a lived space of change and new societal order.14 This is reflected in the development of the NDSM hall, the catalyst for the site and the philosophical hub of the development. Using an open source model, Kinetisch Noord worked

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12. E.A.P.M. (2013) Ente Autonomo Portuale Messina. Available from: http://www.enteautonomoportualemessina.it/, Accessed: 24/03/2013 13. For an extensive review of temporary use stratergies including that of NDSM Wharf see: Oswalt, P., Overmeyer, K. & Misselwitz, P. (2013) Urban Catalyst: The Power of Temporary Use. Berlin: JOVIS Verlag 14. Foucalt, M. (1997) Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias. Leach, N. (Ed.) Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory.

NYC: Routledge. pp.330-336

17th Century Citadel Building

Large Groundscrapper Shed Unit

Small Warehouse Unit Fig. 6 - Vacant industrial typologies in Messina

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with Dynamo Architects in order to redefine the internal space of the 20,000m2 (see Figure 7) building into a functional working neighbourhood of social and cultural entrepreneurs.

This established a tool that rescaled the internal space of the warehouse volumes. This can be seen as an appropriate tool that could be utilised in the transformation of the vacant typologies found in the Messina shipyard, particularly the groundscrapper typology shown in Figure 6, similar to the NDSM Hall. Dynamo designed an internal framework of steel and concrete floors, dividing the internal space into over 100 unit frames equipped with the basic facilities of electricity, water and sewage. These units were arranged and divided by a hierarchy of ‘streets’ and internal courtyards (Figure 8), the process for which was defined by the existing structure and then modified to create a network of circulation spaces that place emphasis on exhibition, meeting and exchange, as is demonstrated in Figure 9.

The units in the framework were then allocated to various artists and cultural entrepreneurs who took on the responsibility for each unit completing the construction and actively engaging in the wider community they were forging.15 By establishing a framework for a fragmented ownership and responsibility with an overarching vision for the development it was possible to develop over 100 units across 2 floors on a relatively small amount of capital. This participatory method of the civic restructuring deindustrialised space means the NDSM hall can be seen as a development framework through which the end-user control both the production and consumption of their own space within the wider realm of the social and entrepreneurial network they have established as the commonality of NDSM. Figure 10 demonstrates how the subdivision of the space has been designed in a manner that achieves a number of qualities within the development. The singular unit type which manifests in various volumes serves to both diversify the uses whilst ensuring that the occupants do not become homogenous in their activities or dominated by a particular usage. The limit of the unit sizes also helps to maintain the role of the NDSM hall as an entrepreneurial incubator for artistic and cultural initiatives. The responsibility of the unit occupiers in the completion of the unit’s construction has resulted in an aesthetic appearance and materiality that reflects the diverse nature of the occupants their uses as can be seen in the unit facades in Figure 8. The formation of the internal space of the NDSM hall represents the primary values of the site; the relationship between the elements (Figure 11) and the network of ‘streets’ and common spaces, highlighting the projects public and participatory nature. In turn this has enabled the construction of a common identity between the occupants, the process of both space production and consumption serving to bolster the values of ownership in order to protect against the encroachment of commercial interests.16 Building upon the successful application of rescaling principles that have been applied in the rescaling of the internal space of the NDSM Wharf Figure 12 demonstrates a proposed plan for the a similar action to be carried out upon the former warehouses of the Messina shipyard. The linear arrangement of the warehouse complex lends itself to a new circulatory framework utilising the two narrower units in order to form common covered streets along which the smaller units are arranged. A connecting element cuts through all of the larger units that unites the internal spaces and creates a new axis connecting to the wider area. This formation of a new internal network of street like common spaces reflects upon the effective use of this strategy in NDSM whilst adapting to relate to the context of the Messina shipyard creating spaces for meaningful exchange and increasing possiblities

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Fig. 7 - Origninal internal space of NDSM Wharf, Amsterdam.

Fig. 9 -Formation of internal sub-division arranged according to skylights and access configuring a new internal circulation

Fig. 8 - Rescaling of internal space through the provision of a framework as found in NDSM Wharf, Amsterdam.

Fig. 10 -Floor plan of NDSM Wharf; re-scaled units surrounded by larger units to ensure multiplicity of uses

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for cross collaboration between occupants. NDSM is a framework in which the users undertake responsibility for the production and consumption of their urban environment.

This is an essential factor in the development of a heterotopic built environment and should be reflected in the proposed re-appropriation of the Messina shipyard reflecting this new model of regeneration based around a re-scaled internal framework, Figure 13.

It is made possible by the relationships established between users, private capital and the state whereby the state acts a facilitator of development and the users become the primary common stakeholder. By negotiating these relationships through the architect and urban designer and developing an interaction between user as planner and developer and the state and capital as facilitators, a heterotopia fusing public, private, culture, business, leisure and everyday life can be realised.17 The pioneering nature of the development model demonstrated by NDSM also serves to highlight some of the issues that can be encountered following the adoption of an alternative model, the most significant of which is the threat of increased commercialisation by larger market forces. The initial success of NDSM hall proved to act as a catalyst for the wider area of the shipyard, quickly identified as a potential media hub by commercial developers.

Following this the area has witnessed the arrival of several large media companies, such as MTV, re-appropriating other areas of the site following a traditional development model.18 This presents a threat to projects such as NDSM which, having been established on an alternative model, lack the economic power to compete for geographic location, this in turn means that the users are at risk or marginalisation or exclusion from the area they established. This fragility also represents the diverse nature of those who make up the cultural and creative ‘class’ and the need for a development model that is able to cater for both the affluent and powerful sectors as well as those wielding less financial power. This effect may be limited in the regeneration of the Messina shipyard as the intended users are less likely to come from the cultural or creative service industries but rather a larger representation of small scale manufacturing such as furniture and garment making and artisan construction industries and food production which mobilise local resource in terms of raw material, skills and social capital.19

15. Marijnissen, R. (2009) Web 2.0 and the Emergence of a New Planning Culture. The 4th International Conference of the International Forum on Urbanism. Amsterdam/Delft 16. Metze, T. (2010) New Life for Old Buildings: Mediating Between Different Meanings.

Colebatch, H., Hoppe, R. & Noordegraaf N. (Eds.) Working for Policy. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 17. Andersson, Lasse. Urban Experiments and Concrete Utopias – Platform4 a ‘Bottom Up’ Approach to the Experience City. Available from: http://vbn.aau.dk/files/18229114/Andersson_Urban_experiments_and_concrete_ utopias.pdf Accessed: 01/03/2013 18. Bontje, M. & Musterd, S. (2009) Creative industries, creative class and competitiveness: Expert opinions critically appraised. Geoforum. 40 pp. 843–852 19. Helg, R., Peri, G. & Viesti, G. (2000) Abruzzo and Sicily: Catching up and lagging behind, EIB Papers, ISSN 0257-7755, 5 (1) pp. 79

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Fig. 11 -Exploded elements of NDSM Wharf, Amsterdam

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Fig. 12 - Ground and first floor plans for the re-appropriation of the Messina Shipyard warehouses showing the re-scaled units and new circulatory street network.

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Fig. 13 - Section of the proposed re-appropriation showing the internal framework around which the users dictate their

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ADOPTION OF FLEXIBLE SPATIAL AND STRUCTURAL FRAMEWORKS

In order to create a heterotopic environment as a reaction to the failure of the dominance of capital it is essential to develop a model of space production that diverges from reliance upon either the state or private capital. Instead local resource and the active engagement of social capital in order to create an autonomous model of space production should be mobilised. This is not to say that the state or the private market have no role to play in the formation of a heterotopic built environment but rather that the development model must mobilise the possible capacity of both financial models whilst at the same time ensuring that the emerging dominant societal order is not subservient to either forces. This must be applied to the production of the common external spaces as well as the built forms in order to prevent the production of controlled, commodified and aestheticised spaces and ensure a multiplicity of uses and users. It is therefore essential that an exploration of the possibilities held by flexible spatial and structural frameworks takes place in order to assess the appropriateness of adoption in the proposed alternative regeneration model of the San Ranieri peninsula.

The advancement of industrial manufacturing first separated work from home before removing work from the neighborhood creating monofunctional zoning and increasingly homogenous neighborhoods. This is reflected in the San Ranieri peninsula Developed under a state expansion of industrial infrastructure into the south of Italy, the area became designated to heavy industrial use and large-scale manufacturing. The subsequent collapses of both state and then privately owned industries have meant that the area is now a depopulated enclave without even the temporal occupation patterns of the working industries. The presence of vacant structures has however, enabled some of those marginalised by traditional societal structures to find shelter and even develop live-work environments in a state of illegal occupation (Figure 14 & 15). What is presented is a fertile context for the creation of a model for development that provides a flexible spatial framework combining space for industrial manufacturing and residential functions. As well as this common spaces of work, community and recreation could be established that reflect the same values of commonality, shared responsibility and stakeholder space production that are represented above. It is important at this point to examine how public-private-citizen stakeholder relationships can be utilised in order to create such a model of regeneration.

A heterotopia formed upon a post-industrial landscape such as that of the San Ranieri peninsula will depend upon the creation of a new architectural language deployed through the formation of a public-private-citizen partnership. This could be facilitated through the creation of a design tool that enables diversity and the multiplicity of use and function through a civic restructuring and flexible growth framework. The concept of combining functions in a single building or development is not new.20 The existing orthodoxy of developments of this nature has been developed in the climate of market-led developments that have occurred on a fixed structural framework, often with an explicit allocation of uses and functions developed and controlled in a capitalist model of property development and management. The emerging failure of this dominant order opens the door for an alternative model to be established through which a new order can be realised. This means that a spatial framework must be established that enables a flexible use pattern as well as possible diversity of the growth of the built form rather than finite structures.

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Fig 14 & 15- Evidence of marginal occupation in vacant structures on the San Ranieri peninsula.

There is evidence that this new way of thinking has been employed in South America and can be seen through the formation of design tools that begun to explore the possibilities of a flexible structural framework. A widely recognised example of this is the Quinta Monroy neighbourhood by Chilean architects Elemental (Figures 16 &17). Elemental resisted from designing a prescribed finished built form, instead leaving the building intentionally open to further interventions and completion by the residents. By providing a structural framework for the expansion of their property through the utilisation of self-construction to suit their individual needs of appropriation.21 It could be claimed that many settlements in South America form a neighbourhood heterotopia, existing on the urban fringe and establishing a new set of realities that emerge as a transition between the dominating social orders.22 This is in effect a heterotopia that exists as a transition towards the private market led model of development and regeneration that exists in a northern European context. The design tool employed by Elemental provides a structural framework that attempts to formalise and direct the use of self-construction as a way of developing the built environment in the context of an informal development model that prevails on the urban fringe. Figure 18 shows the built form controls the extent to which appropriation by the residents is contained to certain constraints that helps to maintain a consistent architectural language. This in turn leads to a question regarding the extent to which a reversal of this operation is appropriate when looking at a way of deviating from the prescribed development of European cities and creating possibility through a flexible framework that works to direct but not prescribe a finite built environment.

The neighbourhood of Quinta Monroy consists of a gesture by the architects to the the formation of an alternative model for development, but the gesture does not extend to a flexible framework through which multiple functions could be appropriated. Rather the framework acknowledges the requirements of an expandable structure whilst simultaneously constraining the extents of intervention and function. It is also rooted within a homogenous population and functionality that operates to serve a limited population, in this case social housing, this in turn results in a lack of civic and social infrastructure beyond the provision of shared open space. The gestures and acknowledgements made by Elemental can be used and built upon to develop a heterotopic development of vacant lots on the San Ranieri peninsula.

Fig 16 & 17- Quinta Monroy on the day of completion and then a short while later showing the residents interventions.

It is here that a new public-private-citizen relationship may be formed in order to facilitate such a development. The design tool that is proposed, demonstrated in Figure 19, provides the flexible structural framework which is outlined above. This tool requires the input of a variety of actors and stakeholders working in collaboration. Again a civic restructuring occurs, that detracts from a traditional industrial manufacturing development model, instead proposes to adopt an existing linear architectural language to become a structural framework that allows a flexible development through self-construction combining a residential function. An ownership model, that ensures multiplicity of uses of production whilst creating a shared responsibility for the built environment, is facilitated by the creation of a basic infrastructural and structural framework through a public-private partnership providing the physical agenda of the development and provision of services. From this point the end-user becomes the primary stakeholder for the continued development, utilising a

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Fig 18- The model presented by Elemental of a strructure that provides a framework for expansion and then the appropriation of these areas into the structure.

Fig 19- Proposed model for a flexible structural framework for the development of vacant lots on the San Ranieri peninsula.

Fig 20 - Possible development of plots over time as additions and expansions are made according to the needs of the population.

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self-construction methodology as well as an appropriation of the shared ground floor area for manufacturing and civic functions.

The flexibility of the model allows a continued development over time as the needs of the residents change allowing for a growing family or an increase in employment opportunities.

Figure 20 demonstrates how the concept could develop over time as interventions are made on the individual plots. The open-ended nature of the tool allows for an increased flexibility in the appropriation of the structural framework resisting the prescription of a given form. It may however, be necessary to construct a loose set of rules complement legal construction standards and construct a continual working relationship between the users and designers to facilitate an aesthetic and maximise functionality.

CONCLUSION The purpose of this essay is to critically assess developments in the production of the built environment that have diverged from the traditional models and present new possibilities for the creation of a heterotopic space between dominant orders of society. It is evident that the decline of the areas of heavy industry that once dominated the San Ranieri peninsula in Messina depicts the transition from an industrial economy within a wider context of the economic neglect of the south, a condition that is now being compounded by the global economic climate. It is clear that the capitalist model of reconfiguring residual urban space to pursue the spectacle of the commodity is broken and an alternative discourse of regeneration must be established. The case studies explored in the rescaling of internal space and the adoption of a flexible framework indicate that through continued development an alternative set of tools can be established through which a heterotopia can emerge upon a re-appropriated post-industrial landscape.

20. For an in-depth reading of mixed-use development in the northern European context see: Coupland, A. (1997) Reclaiming the City: Mixed-Use Development. London: E & FN Spon 21. These interventions can be seen in more detail in: Gallanti, F. (2005) Elemental, Aravena! Domus. 886. pp. 34–41 22. For another reading of informal settlements as a form of heterotopias see: Quici, F. (2011) The Interpretation of the Informal City, in: Marini, S. (Ed.) My Ideal City: Scenarios for the European City of the 3rd Millennium. Venezia: Università Iuav di Venezia pp. 138-147

The rise of new forms of partnerships, relationships and power balances are essential in order to reduce the state and private market to a facilitator role allowing the development of the built environment to become a reflection of the new realities of the user. There is a front-line position that must be taken by the architect or designer that negotiates these complex relationships and ensure that the principles of a new societal order and autonomy are upheld. The role goes beyond the built form and becomes integrated into the facilitation of multiple uses and new realities that mobilise local resources, skill and social capital. The culturally driven initiatives found in northern Europe may not be directly translated into the context of Messina and the heterotopias that exist in South America represent a different transitional state. However, both situations must be acknowledged as setting the groundwork for the formation of a toolset for a new development model. At this point a theoretical and conceptual basis has been established for a form of heterotopic development to be proposed through design responses, there is now the need to refine the details further in order to precisely define a design solution built upon this basis.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY MAIN BODY Braudel, F. (1966) The Mediterranean and the Mediterranean world in the age of Phillip II. London: Collins Cassano, F. (1996) Southern Thought & Other Essays on the Mediterranean. New York: Fordham University Press Euro Stat (2010) Regional GDP per capita in the EU in 2010: eight capital regions in the ten first places.

Euro Stat [Online] Available from: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/cache/ITY_PUBLIC/1-21032013AP/EN/1-21032013-AP-EN.PDF Groth, J. & Corijn, E. (2005) Reclaiming Urbanity: Indeterminate Spaces, Informal Actors and Urban Agenda Setting. Urban Studies. 42 (3) pp. 503-526 Harvey, D. (2001) Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography. New York: Routledge, pp. 247 Helg, R., Peri, G. & Viesti, G. (2000) Abruzzo and Sicily: Catching up and lagging behind, EIB Papers, ISSN 0257-7755, 5 (1) pp. 60-86

Helg, R., Peri, G. & Viesti, G. (2000) Abruzzo and Sicily: Catching up and lagging behind, EIB Papers, ISSN 0257-7755, 5 (1) pp. 60-86 Knox, P. (2011) Cities and Design. Abingdon: Routledge Latella, F., Marino, D. & Timpano, F. (1998) Infrastructures of transport and regional development: the rediscovered centrality of the Gioia Tauro container port in the Mediterranean. 18th European Regional Science Association Congress. Vienna, Austria.

Marijnissen, R. (2009) Web 2.0 and the Emergence of a New Planning Culture. The 4th International Conference of the International Forum on Urbanism. Amsterdam/Delft Metze, T. (2010) New Life for Old Buildings: Mediating Between Different Meanings. Colebatch, H., Hoppe, R. & Noordegraaf N. (Eds.) Working for Policy. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press Montgomery, J. (1990) Cities and the art of cultural planning. Planning Practice & Research, 5 (3) pp.17-24.

Knox, P. (2011) Cities and Design. Abingdon: Routledge

Oswalt, P., Overmeyer, K. & Misselwitz, P. (2013) Urban Catalyst: The Power of Temporary Use. Berlin: JOVIS Verlag

Latella, F., Marino, D. & Timpano, F. (1998) Infrastructures of transport and regional development: the rediscovered centrality of the Gioia Tauro container port in the Mediterranean. 18th European Regional Science Association Congress. Vienna, Austria.

Quici, F. (2011) The Interpretation of the Informal City, in: Marini, S. (Ed.) My Ideal City: Scenarios for the European City of the 3rd Millennium. Venezia: Università Iuav di Venezia pp. 138-147

Leontidou, L. (1990) The Mediterranean City in Transition. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 2-3 Rabellotti, R., Carabelli, A. & Giovanna, H. (2009) Italian Industrial Districts on the Move: Where Are They Going? European Planning Studies. 17 (1) 19-41 Sassen, S. (2000) Analytic Borderlands: Economy and Culture in the Global City, in: Bridge, G. & Watson, S. (Eds.) A Companion to the City, Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 168-180

Sassen, S. (2000) Analytic Borderlands: Economy and Culture in the Global City, in: Bridge, G. & Watson, S. (Eds.) A Companion to the City, Oxford: Blackwell. pp. 168-180 APPENDICES IMAGE REFERENCES All images authors own except: Figure 7: Unknown. ‘Untitled’. Photograph. Iamsterdam. Available from: http://www.iamsterdam.com/~/ media/Living/News/ndsm_lasloods_header.jpg?mw=510&crop=1 Accessed: 03/03/2013

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Figure 8: H. A. de Wit. ‘Untitled’. Photograph. Picasa. Available from: https://picasaweb.google. com/109591038197375122667/NDSM#5260826027474544978 Accessed: 05/03/2013

Andersson, Lasse. Urban Experiments and Concrete Utopias – Platform4 a ‘Bottom Up’ Approach to the Experience City. Available from: http://vbn.aau.dk/files/18229114/Andersson_Urban_experiments_ and_concrete_utopias.pdf Accessed: 01/03/2013

Figure 16: Elemental ‘Untitled’. Photograph. Elemental. Available from: http://www.elementalchile.cl/ proyecto/quinta-monroy/ Accessed: 12/03/2013

Bontje, M. & Musterd, S. (2009) Creative industries, creative class and competitiveness: Expert opinions critically appraised. Geoforum. 40 pp. 843–852

Figure 17: Elemental ‘Untitled’. Photograph. Elemental. Available from: http://www.elementalchile.cl/ proyecto/quinta-monroy/ Accessed: 12/03/2013

Cassano, F. (1996) Southern Thought & Other Essays on the Mediterranean. New York: Fordham University Press Comunian, R. (2011) Rethinking the Creative City: The Role of Complexity, Networks and Interactions in the Urban Creative Economy. Urban Studies 48 (6) pp.1157-1179 Coupland, A. (1997) Reclaiming the City: Mixed-Use Development. London: E & FN Spon E.A.P.M. (2013) Ente Autonomo Portuale Messina. Available from: http://www.enteautonomoportualemessina.it/, Accessed: 24/03/2013 Florida, R. (2002) The Rise of the Creative Class. New York: Basic Books Foucalt, M. (1997) Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias. Leach, N. (Ed.) Rethinking Architecture: A Reader in Cultural Theory. NYC: Routledge. pp.330-336 Gallanti, F. (2005) Elemental, Aravena! Domus. 886. pp. 34–41 Groth, J. & Corijn, E. (2005) Reclaiming Urbanity: Indeterminate Spaces, Informal Actors and Urban Agenda Setting. Urban Studies. 42 (3) pp. 503-526 Harvey, D. (2001) Spaces of Capital: Towards a Critical Geography. New York: Routledge, pp. 247

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