AGRIGENTO SMART - Integration and sustainability in the regeneration of an urban public space. A case study.

Abstract

Agrigento, city of the Valley of the Temples, for a few decades it is only known for the "unauthorised development" (or sacco edilizio between the '50s and' 70s of the twentieth century). Today is trying to regain possession of those urban spaces subtracted from a foolish speculation, assigning to them a renewed urban and social connotation, beauty and utility, trying to heal some of the major wounds of the past. With the awareness that it is not a path easy, nor immediate. The issue of public space, and its renewed use today, assumes a crucial role in the process of urban regeneration. Our focus, of multidisciplinary approach, is aimed at the southern edge of the old town called "Square Ravanusella". The area, in recent years, welcomed numerous immigrant community, for residences and commercial activites. This space, once used as market square until mid '900, it is included between the historic buildings and newer ones, preserved by the "sacco" of '60s, which represent the ugly skyline of the city view from the sea and of the Valley of the Temples. The complex design solutions proposed, through a participatory management of the common heritage, have the objective of recovering aesthetically, functionally and economically the site, following a precise technical and cultural path of socio-economic integration, full of "beauty, but also useful, functional and for all”. In this sense, they want to engage and configure certain receptive/commercial services, car parks and public transport, for a multi-ethnic citizenship with complex needs and differentiated, and a severely degraded area of the city and underutilized, despite its central and panoramic.