A new identity for Boario Terme's former square

Darfo is a spa resort located in the lower Valle Camonica, surrounded by an extraordinary mountainous setting and internationally known as a thermal centre. The proposed project reflects on the objective need to have spaces suitable for the transit of buses and cars and to have a large number of car parks for parking vehicles, but at the same time on how to positively characterise the arrival of the railway station, involved in a process of valorisation and enhancement as an urban and territorial gateway to the Valcamonica district, of which Darfo Boario Terme is one of the most significant and strategic points. In this direction, the new flow system becomes central, which is redefined by separating pedestrian flows from those of buses and cars. Pedestrians will find upon leaving the station the pedestrianised square completely at their disposal, except for the crossing of the road from which only buses transit and for which a level crossing is hypothesised, separating the flow with suitable barriers. Buses will be able to access from a specific access lane at the north end of the square, and will be able to pass in front of the bus station and access the current platforms. The access lane will be shared with cars going to the temporary parking area, the exit lane will be reserved. There will be two dedicated car parks: one for temporary parking to the north and one for long-stay parking to the south. The car park to the south will be used as a market area on the appropriate day. The definition of the central pedestrian space starts with the configuration of three platforms with an irregular perimeter towards the centre and regular outside. The platforms are characterised by a stone perimeter with an 80 cm deep seat on the side facing the square. Their upper height slopes outwards until they are 20 cm high, the height of a kerb. The three platforms have on their north and south sides a double row of Acer Platanoides type Emerald Queen, particularly suited to the local climate, and towards the west, on Via De Gasperi they contain a single row. These plant elements, together with the transformation of the station whose future layout is now being hypothesised, give back, together with the redefinition of the ground, a definitive new identity to the space of the former square. The flooring is made of slabs of Tonalite dell'Adamello, a material present in the natural context of the project and which makes up part of the surrounding reliefs. The chromatic, material and structural characterisation of the material is found with homogeneous characteristics in various Italian and foreign quarries. It will therefore be up to the contractor to identify the product that most closely matches the characteristics identified in the project, which will have to be sampled and approved by the works management. The stone will have a flat flamed surface measuring 132x40 cm, 6 cm high and laid in a grid pattern with joints and joints aligned in both directions, on mortar and placed on a concrete screed with double electrowelded mesh 17 cm high lying on 40 cm of compacted and rolled gravel. The concrete areas are cut at the paving joints. The stones are laid on the screed with 5 cm of bedding mortar and one centimetre of grout and grouted, leaving the joint lowered by half a centimetre with respect to the stone plane. At the joint the lowering is one cm in order to emphasise the design of the field and to be coplanar with the water inlet. The seats have a 3 cm thick vertical stone covering, flamed like the seat, laid on one cm of glue and anchored to the underlying concrete. Two 'cuts' allow a north-south pedestrian crossing not only from the corners of the square but also about two-thirds towards the station, with a protected passage connecting and crossing the car park and bus station. The car park with a surface area of 1910 square metres can also be used as a market area according to a scheme that allowed the precise location of the technical turrets. There are also 960 square metres of pavements in relation to the car parks. Around the parking area, Carpinus Betulus trees with parallelepiped geometrically cut foliage are arranged in a grid pattern. Also important is the arrangement of the 1860 square metres of the bus yard and the new tree-lined traffic island separating the parking area and the new bus access lane. Near the station is a fountain made of a system of spouts that can be adjusted to different heights and equipped with a chromatically variable lighting system. The water from the fountain is collected and recirculated. In relation to this there is a flat portion of the square to allow for its collection. The lighting of Piazza Einaudi is realised with Ewo-type poles, arranged between the square and the parking area to ensure proper illumination of the open space as a whole. Small light poles type EWO FA170 or equivalent are placed under the trees. To complete the seating of the platforms, a hollowed-out shell contains a LED strip towards the central paving, in order to allow continuous light over the entire edge of the square.