Openfabric

The campus establishes new relation of mutual interest and inter-dependence by binding human settlement with sustainable exploitation of ecosystem services generated by the rural context.

At the same time, reckless urbanization, if not downright illegal buildings, defaced this heritage making the ‘Bel Paese’, for large part a continuous ‘widespread’ city where the net boundary between town and country, the main quality of historic towns, has vanished. Our plan has the ambition of creating a new model of urban development in rural areas that can serve as an example. Starting with the urban vision carried out by the English Garden City movement lead by Ebenezer Howard at the end of 1800s, the design shares some of the movement’s principles, but takes into consideration the strong criticism that the movement has received over time. We made a move away from the very reasons that dragged the Garden City to a generic suburban ‘green’, which has lost over time its theoretical force, to propose a post-rural approach. An approach that is not an undefined hybrid between the two conditions urban-rural, but a defined system that establishes a new relationship between the urban area (the Science Park) and the rural areas. The relationship is one of mutual interest and inter-dependence, binding human settlement with sustainable exploitation of ecosystem services generated by the rural context. The proposed Science Park is a new urban model that has as its main objective the preservation of Italian landscape heritage and indissolubly binds technological development to a sustainable use of natural resources.

Anti Sprawl

‘Sprawl’ is the product of the ‘diffuse city’. It is the endless built space that has blurred the division between city and countryside, redefining cities as metropolitan areas. In the medieval city, for example, this separation was defined by city walls that divided the inhabited areas from the countryside serving as defence from foreign attacks. In our project we apply the same principle of the ‘functional limit’ which the purpose clearly not being for defence, but rather to satisfy the need for infrastructures and sustainable mobility.

The Science Park is conceived at the center of a network that links research institutes, the university and industries in a system of mutual benefit. Priority will be given to the companies dealing with renewable energy production.

The park is, though, in close proximity to, and will develop strong relationships with, the surrounding areas in which it will be located in order to become a driver of innovation far beyond its borders. The nearby cities and villages will take advantage of and benefit from the Science Park through job creation and improvement of (mobility) infrastructures.

Reduce, reuse, recycle.

Each company located in the Science Park will produce a programmatic document to reduce CO2, employ energy saving measures, and develop a system to create awareness and training courses for employees, including classes and incentives.