Login
Registered users
Recovering significant emergencies, improving integration with the urban, landscape and social context of the new park, and triggering processes of participation and re-appropriation of the site by citizens are the overall objectives of the intervention, implemented through the definition of a flexible and adaptable architectural, urban and landscape system, capable of satisfying the different needs for renewal and preservation of the context. An intervention conceived in this way makes it possible to "read" the park space through different keys and at different levels of depth, responding adequately to transversal and inclusive expectations of use, offering spaces for visitors without architectural barriers and strongly devoted to environmental responsibility.
All the elements that make up the Park are designed to ensure respect for the 'genius loci' by recovering traditional techniques for architectural works and working on the vegetation with targeted and measured interventions. Using local materials and plant species; tracing and recovering the physical paths (main avenues, pedestrian paths, themed and equipped paths, pathways); rediscovering the "visual paths" for a dynamic perception of the park spaces; enhancing the waterways; building a light walkway and reshaping the terrain with terracing contained by stone-clad walls are the actions that allow visitors to properly understand the park within the historic village and the surrounding landscape.
The area is characterised by steep relief that forms a narrow gorge where the Torrente Niola flows. This presence has made possible the development of productive activities related to the water resource, identifiable through the remains linked to the system of water collection, channelling and exploitation. Agricultural use has left terraces that have reshaped the slopes, but the abandonment of the productive activities has led to the degradation of the artefacts linked to them, while the settlement has grown in a disorderly manner with unauthorised buildings along the margins. The project brought beauty and healthiness to the site through the naturalisation of the riparian areas, the green transition of the remaining structures and the rehabilitation of the mill and its aqueduct system.
The redevelopment of the Piedichiusa Park, within the historic centre of Nicastro (one of the three centres that make up the Lamezia Terme district), covers an area of approximately 30,000 square metres with an elongated shape that follows the bed of the Coschino stream. Access to the area is from two significant areas for the urban centre, the Don Milani Elementary School and the Piedichiusa mill, while work on the redefinition of the margins and the creation of longitudinal and transversal paths to the stream allows the visual restitution of the entire park from all around. The recovery of the mill and the elements connected to it took place with the elimination of the existing superfetations, freeing the original construction: in this way, the arched structure that carried the water and the mill room itself came back to light. A nature trail that runs parallel to the stream facilitates a close perception of the riverbed; the footbridge across the stream is designed as a place to stand beyond the crossing, to listen to the flowing water and to experience total immersion in the nature of the stream. The structure of the footbridge, in corten steel, does not constitute a visual barrier to the perception of the entire gorge, offering a privileged viewpoint over the stream and the surrounding area.
"(...) amidst spontaneous vegetation and dwellings clinging to the gables, the park is ready to be enjoyed by the community. (...) In a place of identity where the landscape speaks and the houses speak and everything refers to a glorious history, the community can take action to ensure that this immense heritage is not lost. Recovering, remembering and handing down to posterity, this could be the post-modern philosophy to preserve treasures and beauties of an ancient time in a millenary place".
T-studio is a working and research group that draws inspiration from constant confrontation on shared themes. Founded by Guendalina Salimei, it is now enriched by a multidisciplinary and research team; the group finds a specific field of investigation and activity in the complex relationships established between design methodologies and modes of intervention in the built and natural environment, often in conditions of urban decay and social discomfort, combining innovation and tradition with a sensitive awareness of the local habitus. Their research and projects, which have won awards in Italy and abroad, been exhibited on numerous occasions, and have been presented in national and international scientific journals and publications, are characterised by a holistic approach that brings together the study of form, knowledge of materials, and reinterpretation of urban and natural contexts in integrated systems that are attentive to aesthetic, social, historical and ecological urgencies.
