“The architectural strategy of reconnecting the context through a network of slow mobility that enhances the experience of movement as an opportunity to immerse oneself in the countryside is not just the chance to create new protected, pleasant, and social routes to offer an alternative to home-work commutes required by companies and that the Public Administrations of the municipalities of Fiorano Modenese, Formigine, Maranello, and Sassuolo want to implement by including them in new-generation Plans. The ‘Green Heart’ of the District is above all the recognition of a historical identity that can once again become contemporary; it is an opportunity to restore the original meaning of urban regeneration as the foundational relationship between settlement and nature.”
This is how Dario Costi and Simona Melli, founders of Studio MC2, authors of the regeneration plan together with Studio BScape, which instead handled the landscaping and renaturation aspects, speak about the “Green Heart” project.
The work began with the first intervention on Via Ancora and the boundary wall of Marazzi Group, and will continue in the coming years. We discussed it with the designers.
This new green and mobility infrastructure will change the urban fabric. At what scale did you work?
In 2023, our studio was commissioned to develop the Masterplan for the Union’s municipalities, outlining a strategy to reconnect slow connections between the centers by linking urban green infrastructures, dirt roads in the countryside, little-used routes, existing parks, and regeneration areas.
At the territorial scale, the proposed scenario designs a series of green routes connecting the cities, offering a network conceived comprehensively and across municipalities, to make it pleasant, safe, and social to move by foot and by bicycle in the District, reconnecting urban spaces with the surrounding territory.
The first intervention focuses on the boundary wall of the plant, which becomes a linear park. How did you work on this part of the project?
Starting from the railway embankment of the line to Reggio Emilia, a long green strip will be created to replace the current concrete boundary with a continuous succession of different natural species, studied from a landscaping perspective by Studio BScape, to completely change the way the neighborhood interacts. We transformed the limit of an industrial plant into a landscape that is both natural and urban, a vision perfectly in line with the values of the company that this year celebrates its ninetieth anniversary. What better occasion to design the future.
The relationship with the company and its products is tangible even in the installations you will create in the area…
We have designed a series of outdoor installations in which the material and spatial quality of large ceramic slabs will play a leading role, even in their conceptual dimension.
In particular, “The Dairy Door” will become a pedestrian entrance on the southern edge of the site near the railway embankment, while “The Folds of Production” will recall the historic entrance of the plant with the presence of some architectural elements.
The large slabs suspended over the linear park, the environmental system in constant evolution, the anticipation for the growth of greenery that may come to envelop the installations, the reference to the gaze of photographer Luigi Ghirri, and the presence of artworks, are all actions through which the project can become, over time, a living interpretation of this regeneration project.
The masterplan aims to restore the original conditions of the natural environment with high biodiversity standards. How will the spaces change?
The western edge of the industrial site will become a linear park running alongside the road.
Actions include renaturation with the planting of many new trees, removal of paving with the creation of a long strip of permeable ground, and the definition of greater urban and perceptual quality, as the back of an industrial facility will be transformed into a natural and vibrant edge.
There will also be noticeable acoustic improvements: the removal of existing barriers will greatly reduce the noise from vehicles along Via Ancora. Last but not least, new relationships with the residential context and the upgrading of the street will be activated, with positive effects for the neighborhood, local businesses, and the parish.
Sustainabilities
A new urban landscape
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The intervention on Via Ancora is the first carried out in the Sassuolo District as part of the “Cuore verde” Masterplan and focuses on the western edge of the industrial site, transforming an existing wall and an asphalt border into a linear park that runs alongside the road with a system of transitions and several areas for physical and visual connection with the residential spaces.