Alice Martemucci

Thesis in Architectural Design

Thesis in Architectural Design

Thesis by Alice Martemucci

Contact Email: alice.martemucci@gmail.com
EU Architecture Degree – Faculty of Architecture “Valle Giulia” La Sapienza AY 2012-2013
Speaker: Prof. Arch. Alfonso Giancotti

Redevelopment of the ILVA industrial area in Taranto into a multipurpose park

The Rio Conference, held in 1992, declared the emergence of environmental issues as a major theme of national and international policies. The need for global governance for environmental issues was affirmed. environmental issues planetary (greenhouse effect(acidification, ozone layer depletion, biodiversity protection). It also called for integrating the objectives of resource protection and environmental quality into both national and local territorial and economic policies, as well as into the production strategies of economic groups. Ten years later, at the 2002 Johannesburg Conference, the environmental effects of a decade of globalization were quantified and three findings were analyzed: the effectiveness of global and national, public and private policies; the assessment of the state of environmental resources and risks; and the assessment of the direct and indirect effects of market globalization.

Over the past decade, structural changes in the economy, the spread of new technologies, and the development of environmental policies have consolidated the process of "dematerialization" and reduction of the environmental intensity of economic development that began in the mid-70s. All major environmental indicators have become decoupled from economic indicators. Globally, energy consumption has increased by 10,5%, CO2 emissions (from energy use alone) have grown by 8%, emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides have decreased, and iron consumption has increased by 3% (compared to an 11% increase in the previous decade).

In developed countries, especially in Europe, an absolute reduction in environmental impacts of 4% has been achieved in many respects. Air emissions, from sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides to heavy metals and dioxins, have thus been uniformly and consistently reduced. Water withdrawals in most European countries have decreased or stabilized and the polluting load released into water bodies, groundwater and the sea has decreased.

Over the course of this decade, the nature of environmental problems or conflicts has changed in most regions of developed countries, thanks to the regulation of water and air discharges and waste disposal itself. A few specific areas and locations are exceptions, such as the city of Taranto with ILVA, Europe's largest steel plant, the AGIP refinery, and the Cementir cement plant.

For this reason, Taranto is one of the most polluted European cities. The Ilva steelworks in Taranto releases into the atmosphere a quantity of dioxin equal to 8,8% of the European total, but there is no system for monitoring pollutants in the city. In fact, the data relating to deaths from neoplasms in Taranto have more than doubled from 1971 to 1996. The results of the Prevention Department of the local ASL, for the four-year period 1998-2001 in the Ionian province, record approximately 1.200 deaths per year, data which, for lung neoplasms, place Taranto among the areas of Southern Italy with the highest incidence above the national average.

98% of the benzo(a)pyrene produced in the industrial area comes from the Ilva coke ovens. It is, in fact, impossible to think of a compatibility between the coke ovens and a city that lives close to the industry. In Taranto many associations and committees have long supported the closure of the hot area.

What could be the solution? The goal is to transform the approximately 4.000.000 square meters of the hot area into a new part of the city that leverages its extraordinary environmental resources.

In this area, overlooking the Mar Piccolo, it will finally be possible to give space and boost to the tourism resource of the Magna Graecia Taras and the Latin Tarentum, given that many archaeological sites overlook this body of water, which could benefit from a variety of facilities: leisure, culture, and boating. The project's core is the creation of a large renewable energy park, which will feature industrial archaeology buildings repurposed for new uses, spaces equipped for sports and recreation, and commercial and service industries.

Goals:

1_ The measurement of space:

The aim of the project is to re-establish a structure in the space between things, allowing for a different interpretation, to preserve the memory of the factory and create a new environment for different activities.

2_ The park's relationship with the city:

The factory excludes the city from its perimeter. Its laws are different from those of an urban environment, made up of relationships, mediations, and slow transformations. The factory subjugates the land to its needs, bending the environment to its dimensions. The work required to restore the park to the city therefore consists in mending the rift caused by the factory.

3_Creation of a complex of parks of various types:

-recreational parks;
-cultural parks;
-nature reserves;

4_ New proposals for cultural activities The redevelopment of industrial complexes can lead to the use of spaces suitable for hosting cultural and social activities.