Call for concept // step 1

(CALL CLOSED)

The arcades design, design for the arcades. Via Sacchi in Torino, an experience of urban regeneration.

The Call for Concept asked the students to outline a concept of approach to the re-generation of "via Sacchi”, as an area of creativity, inclusiveness and sustainability.

Today the street is characterized by three paths: the west porticoed side which features via Sacchi, the middle, a road travelled by public and private transportation and the east side barrier to the railway, where there is a pedestrian and cycle path. The northern edge consists of the facing towards the station central square (p.za Carlo Felice). The south edge (on its east side) has a narrow band in conditions of abandonment (below the c.so Sommeiller overpass).

The arcades of via Sacchi are part of the wider historical path of Turin’s arcades (12 km). Due to the commercial decrease, even the arcades on the opposite side of the station, corresponding to Via Nizza, suffer a significant level of urban degradation.

The Call for Concept has required, as a contribution, a design concept (not a project in detail) upon one or more of the axes indicated for Via Sacchi, with the aim of triggering processes of re-generation and attraction for this area.

Identifying:

functions and ways of use of the streets: encouraging the establishment of new creative activities and proposing ways to communicate them (i.e temporary shops and showrooms, venues for cultural associations and social, spaces for information point and collective interest services, co-working areas, spaces for craft activities and makers); increase physical access for all in safe conditions (public transportation stops, cycle path and pedestrian on the east side, pedestrian connection between via Sacchi and via Nizza); enhancing the paths on the railway side (spaces for social activities, relational and communicational spaces, walls, bus stops).

Involving:

the components of the urban scene, respecting the historical values: arcades (i.e. architectural elements, shop windows, signs, sunshades, inter-pillar windows, furnishing and communication equipment); the middle road (i.e. pedestrian barriers, sidewalks, public transportation stops); railway side (i.e. tree-lined and low-rise, road signage, furniture and communication equipment).

Developing:

analogical and/or digital solutions for the use and communication of paths; permanent or temporary equipment systems; light & soundscape and communication tools.

BEST PROJECT SELECTION

V.S.R. Via Sacchi Regeneration

by Miriam Sandalo, Piero Tarozzo (Polytechnic University of Turin).

Motivation: Able to outline a concept of approach to the functional and identity re-generation of via Sacchi, understood as a portico axis of creativity and design, through local brand factors that can connote future reuse, in respect of historical values