Like many post industrial European towns today, Piacenza has a collection of military and industrial zones that have been left disused and abandoned leaving expansive holes in the urban fabric. Furthermore, large infrastructural systems have disconnected the city from the river and the greater agricultural zone surrounding the city. In an attempt to reconnect the city to its periphery, as well as transform underutilized spaces into productive landscapes, a green system of parks, waterways and gardens is grafted onto the existing structure of the city.  

       Rather than infilling and redeveloping these abandoned properties our aim is to reestablish ecosystem stability and programmatic flexibility. In doing so the site allows for different carrying capacities of the city, both expansion and contraction. The majority of the site is left as open space or urban forest which doesn’t require maintenance. Existing buildings are re-appropriated for research, spatial prototyping and productive systems such as greenhouses or recycling centers. A system of water channels, pools and purification systems is to help with irrigation as well as providing a visual link to the river.  

        As seen in the diagram the web of paths are linked to nodes that connect to key crossing points or other green spaces. These nodes are projected onto the main path as agricultural parks or urban forest. Green zones are expanded into play-scapes, energy fields or outdoor laboratory spaces. 

Landscape Architecture Studio, Politecnico di Milano

Piacenza, Italy - 2013

professors: Elisa Cattaneo + Ferran Sagarra

with Stanislava Georgieva + Teodor Hristov