Emergencities

San Pier d’Arena is a district of Genoa (Italy). It is characterized by an extraordinary historical and social identity but it has long been living in a serious state of environmental, social and economic degradation. From the analysis of these current conditions comes a project for the development of Lungomare Canepa, and is an opportunity to rethink together and constructively the future of San Pier d’Arena and to react to the economic and social crisis from the recent pandemic of Covid 19.

The proposal PACO is presenting aims at solving the complex problems of Lungomare Canepa not only from the point of view of viability but also from the multiple elements that make up the urban ecosystem: factors such as health, mobility, liveability of spaces, quality of public and cultural functions, which are closely related to each other and are the main elements of competitiveness for the most advanced European metropolitan areas as they contribute to their sustainable development: economic, demographic and environmental.

The proposal does not represent a closed project but identifies an approach and an open method of intervention on which to implement ideas through the involvement of different stakeholders in a collaborative process of collective intelligence. The project is divided into two main phases of intervention:

The first phase consists of rethinking a new road system for Lungomare Canepa: The new elevated road will be screened by a soundproof tunnel that will accommodate an extensive photovoltaic cover able to power the new buildings of the neighborhood and will accommodate a panoramic promenade at high altitude.

The second phase of the project is the construction of the new park: Chilometro Verde. The area that will be freed up in the current site of Lungomare Canepa will be transformed into a large linear park. Great importance will be given to the relaunching of San Pier d’Arena as a cultural hub: for this reason the project proposes that the current Salt Warehouses be converted into the Cultural Centre of the City and the Port of Genoa.

The project for San Pier d’Arena is focused on people, because without people there is no city.