The project for the redevelopment of the center of Taglio di Po comes from the recognition of the strong urban value of the long sequence of public spaces that cross the village from the churchyard of San Francesco d’Assisi, keeping together institutional offices and collective life, such as the parish center, town hall, library and civic hall, up to the intersection with Via Roma, full of high-traffic commercial activities. These are spaces full of potential and meaning for everyday life but today the lack a real identity and recognisability, the result of operations that have happened over time with a rather disjointed outcome from the point of view of language and materials. The project’s ambition is to order what is already present, strengthening the unity of this number of spaces and, making them a single narration, to make them a decisive resource for the urban quality of Taglio di Po. The sequence of public spaces, which was the object of the call, was interpreted in the course of the design as a long basin able to contain and enrich the possibilities of using the various squares, resulting in a compositional layer capable of giving unity to a distinct logical use of space. The scan of the urban axis is indicated by slight movements of land from the fluid lines that accompany the crossing of the user and signal, even from a certain distance, some areas, underlining their particular aggregative function. The design as a whole evokes the course of the great river, opposing the solidity of the built edge and the strong axiality of the track, the soft lines of an “urban river”, a void that flows through the blocks and binds to the roads leading to those that are the real banks of the Po. The characteristic of Taglio di Po being a fluvial country thus becomes a matter of redevelopment, without being reduced to a simple graphic or formal play; the curvilinear trend of the composition accurately identifies the only natural grafts (grassy banks, arboreal masses, surfaces planted with ground cover essences). The parts emerging from the country level, break the paved surfaces of the actual state, articulate and enrich the sequence of squares, identify areas with a defined role, suggest new uses and ways of experiencing urban spatiality. The light embankments, devices that build a new topography of the place, create glimpses and underline the visual relationship between areas, open and close part of the road to view, protecting pedestrians and cyclists. In the simplicity of their language and in the fluidity with which they are shaped, the complexity of the existing environment increases, favouring the construction of an identity of the urban space. While Piazza IV Novembre is made with flower beds, seats and paved steps, Piazza Venezia is recreated with the modelling of the natural grassy ground and with the creation of the two green banks that emphasise the idea of a protected garden, a safe, shaded, resting place. The hub of the new garden square will remain water, fundamental for the life of Taglio di Po, protagonist of its founding history, also represented in its civic coat of arms; the existing fountain will be maintained and loaded with a new role and the meaning underlined by the seats that turn towards the center. The outcome is that of a new urban scenario, diversified and generating unprecedented possibilities for assembling citizens and interpretation of the city center.
Vittorio Massimo - Elena Cecchetto - Silvia Rispoli
Taglio di Po - Rovigo
2015
6400 m2