Near and far future of Feltre district
Temporary and permanent visions to bring locals together
It has been a month since the co-design meeting. During this period, we received further feedback form professors, professionals, and our friends on how to make our concept more feasible, concrete and attractive. In the meantime, we entered a new phase of our project: the ideation a permanent solution for year 2030.
As we may know from the previous articles, tactical urbanism allows the city to meet the needs of current society on a micro scale and has the potential to consider long-term planning and urban design strategies. Therefore, it is extremely important to meet the objectives also on long-range visions. The purposes of our project have always been the same from the beginning: creating a “little village” and enhancing the social interactions between the inhabitants of the district. In order to realise our wish also in a long-term plan, we outlined a more complex, large and ambitious urban design concept for the Feltre district that involves the entire park surrounded by the residential 9-storey buildings.
During these months, many people witnessed and supported the growth of our project. As with the last article of our journey, we are glad to summarize and share with everybody our final outcomes of this semester.
Temporary solution for 2020 - Borgo Feltre
In order to create the idea of “little village“ and give the same importance to all of the targets, each of our solutions is thought to involve the different generations frequenting the district.
The main elements of the intervention are a series of games painted on the ground such as chutes and ladders, campana, hide and seek, biglie and 1,2,3 stella. These games from the past can help parents or grandparents to feel part of the activity. Besides of looking at children having fun, here they have the chance to teach kids how to play or even play together with them. These games are equally distributed on the main path nearby the primary school. In order to respond to the current situation caused by covid-19, all the games are redesigned to encourage social distancing. Moreover, the paths are covered by a pattern composed by squares and lines which are one meter wide to fulfil the same purpose.
Along these paths three other zones are located: a social area filled with tables with games (chess and draughts); a relaxing area composed by comfortable seating, a bookcrossing case and a wishing tree, where people can hang their wishes about the future of the community; finally, a community garden with didactic purposes for the children of the Bruno Munari primary school.The meeting point of the two paths is marked by the sun of Munari painted on the ground, which symbolizes the connection of generations and at same time recalls the name of the primary school.
Aside from the physical interventions, the community activities are also essential for this “little village”: during those moments the entire community gathers and thus has a chance to create connections. Therefore, we developed a clear list of possible events as well as a detailed schedule. For the opening we thought of a party with snacks and sport tournaments, for the whole period of intervention we imagined outdoor cinema nights, a flea market and workshops, whereas for the ending party we opted for a neighbourhood lunch. We also ideated a community podcast, available on Facebook and YouTube, where teachers, different associations and elderly can talk about the district history or other cultural topics voted out by the residents on a notice board.
Some issues presented in the district, such as illegal parking and unsecure pedestrian crossings, are solved through coloured slowing-down lines which then transform into zebra crossings. Moreover, a little roundabout is positioned to optimize the car flow.
Permanent solution for 2030
Compared to the temporary concept, we had less limitations and more possibilities to create the idea of “little village” in 2030. Since our world is becoming more digital everyday, we adopted both physical and digital solutions to help the interaction between people.
The most significant intervention is the creation of a community square in front of the school gate. It is composed of a system block seating and an interactive fountain which, during hot summers, allows people to change the water level and play with water splashes. The materials used are concrete, both traditional grey and white, bricks and oak wood, recalling the facades of the residential buildings and the oak trees along the Lambro river. Other important modifications are the ideation of the community garden (which can be considered an upgraded version of the vegetable garden of the 2020 concept), an open air gym and a new cycle path, connecting the already existing ones to the district and the Udine and Lambrate metro stations.
In order to promote the energy saving in the city, we also added many elements that can increase the energy efficiency of the district. For instance, we thought of installing a piezoelectric flooring system that can transform footsteps into energy. Moreover, a motion sensor will be integrated in the streetlights and will adjust their brightness according to the presence of pedestrians or cyclists. Finally, we also opted for the use of electric cars and added two car sharing stations.
The last, but not least, important innovation is the introduction of an app of the community. Through its multifunctional features, people will be able to control remotely the state of their plants in the community garden, register for local events, reserve a car from the car sharing or share needs and comments in a community forum.
We would like to thank the professors and all collaborators for their patience, sincerity and professionalism during this course.
It was a pleasure to collaborate with the Municipality of Milan and to contribute in the development of the Feltre district. This experience challenged us to push ourselves further and to learn more. The emergency situation caused by covid-19 is for sure unpleasant, but we did have the unique experience of developing a project at a distance. Finally, we hope everybody is staying safe!
For those who want to know more about our project, we will upload plans, maps and every detail on our Facebook page, and we will also have a webinar on June 15th, together with all of our classmates.
Group n° 03
Bai Xiaoman, Cattani Carlo Leone, Eugeni Marco, Masini Nicolò, Volpato Eleonora
