Passaggi aerei: suggestioni per un progetto

Abstract

The paper reports some suggestions useful for designing the small footbridge in the Archaeological Park named "Valle dei Templi" in Agrigento. The aim of the collection of different kinds of examples related to the design of bridges, footbridges and "aerial passageways" between buildings is to describe in which way -by using contemporary architectural "languages"- it is possible to solve the problem related to the necessity of climbing over an obstacle like a river, a street, a bunch of railways and so on, without interrupting the continuity of the pedestrians passage. Different kind of structures and materials are shown by underlining their potentialities in order to solve the pro¬b¬lems related to the workshop theme: finding the best way to improve the use of the archaeological area of the Valle by designing an "aerial passageway" able to connect the two areas of the park divided by the 118 Street. The special characteristics of the archaeological area are shortly underlined by describing its "fragile" nature, due to the parti¬cular configuration of the hill on which the temples are located and of the rock of which it is made. This last one is cut by the 118 Street gi¬ving origin to a little "canyon" that interrupts the continuity of the pe¬destrian routes inside the park. This continuity can be restored by de¬signing an "aerial passageway" by using new structural configurations and new materials.