Joseph Marchica

Thesis in Architectural Design

A new threshold between city and sea: Trapani Waterfront project

Thesis by Giuseppe Marchica
Email: giuseppe.marchica@hotmail.it
Master's Degree in Architecture - Polytechnic University of Milan
School of Architecture and Society
Speaker: Prof. Roberto Spagnolo
Co-rapporteur: Arch. Andrea Fradegrada 
Academic Year 2013 - 2014

The thesis project aims to redevelop the southern seafront of the city of Trapani; it is closely connected to a local reality, to a complex and problematic urban fabric.
The case of Trapani presents the problems of a non-integrated set of two different water fronts: the northern coast, strongly characterized by pre-existing historical structures such as the Mura di Tramontana, of sixteenth-century origin, and the southern coast, characterized by the presence of artisanal activities linked to the ancient culture of fishing, however in danger of extinction; the latter are located in close relation with the areas of the historical center, closer to the sea, and with large areas of environmental value, where they are threatened by the coexistence of shipbuilding and industrial activities.
The project aims to reconfigure the Lungomare Sud through a process that enhances the tourist image of the city and adapts to new growth needs, such as the construction of a cruise terminal or new docks for mooring a larger number of vessels.
The primary purpose of the work is the design of a new form of living that, starting from the primary historical nodes of the north coast, relates to the rest of the city creating a seam. A new architectural language that closely relates the pre-existing historical structure, strongly stratified and discontinuous, with the tourist port.
The project is configured as a new design of measures and cornerstones that, in relation to the road axes connecting the two coasts, “reorders” the Trapani waterfront.
A large square intended for the sale of fish located at the end of the Trapani seafront and a new architectural complex of artistic and cultural value that, replacing the old bastion of the sixteenth-century walls now destroyed, stands as the primary cornerstone of the project. A system of shelters, designed with the aim of hosting functions of public interest but above all to generate covered and shaded paths, connect these two nodes.