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The research
The research project "Transport and Urban Quality.
The redevelopment of stations as an occasion for urban renewal",
conducted by OIKOS Centro Studi on behalf of the Emilia-Romagna
Regional Authority, was intended to reconstruct the scenario of
transformation under way in the stations and railway areas in the
medium-sized cities of Emilia Romagna.
The objective is to reveal the great opportunity for innovation
in the Regional territory in coming years and broaden participation
in it, with the aim of enhancing projects, investments and resources.
Since there are numerous processes of urban upgrading in course
and they all involve the areas of rail termini, it is deemed necessary
that they should aim in specific and coordinated fashion at raising
the qualitative and functional competitiveness of the cities and
hence of the whole regional system.
In this field there is inevitably a comparison with Europe,
where these operations preceded the current project under way in
Emilia-Roamagna by several years.
Precisely this comparison reveals that the greatest drive towards
urban innovation stems from the integration of functional enhancement
projects for stations and transport nodes with broad and diversified
actions within an overall strategy of upgrading.
In this respect, the comparison with Europe brings out the importance
of considering the renewal of stations as an opportunity to equip
cities with new poles that meet the (cultural, commercial, collective,
etc.) demands, whether belated or recently formed.
The research is articulated in three phases:
- The first stage produced an analysis of the public and private
projects planned and under way in thirteen medium-sized cities
of Emilia-Romagna: Cesena, Faenza, Ferrara, Fidenza, Forlì,
Imola, Lugo, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Ravenna, Reggio Emilia,
Rimini.
- In the second phase the research examined a number of European
cases, characterized by contexts and dimensions in some way
comparable with those of the cities examined by the study: these
were medium-sized cities in Austria (Graz, Innsbruck, Klagenfurt,
Linz), Belgium (Liège Guillemins, Antwerp, Namur), Holland
(Almere CS, Breda, s'Hertogenbosch, Hengelo, Tilburg, Utrecht),
Switzerland (Basle, Neuchatel, Nyon, Zurich).
- In the third phase certain guidelines were laid down
for four sample cases chosen on the basis of the significance
of the themes involved (Imola, Ravenna, Reggio Emilia, Rimini).
The guidelines, while leaving full autonomy to the cities' planners,
are intended to provide a contribution for the comparison and
above all to stimulate a concern and commitment with the quality
and effectiveness of the projects.
The Final Report on the research collects and organizes
the reflections stemming from the analysis of the regional cases
and the "best practices" in Europe, and traces some possible
directions for development, subsequently taken up and explored further
in the pages devoted to individual projects.
Starting from the morphological analysis and the study of
the urban contexts in which the stations are set, the report
deals with the central theme of access and the relation between
the station and its setting, a relation nearly always difficult
and discontinuous, above all with regard to the areas behind the
railway sites.
The close link between functional reorganization and renewal of
the architectural structures is evident when the report dwells on
the opportunities presented by freight stations now decommissioned;
it analyses the problems and opportunities of their internal
spaces (atriums, shops, platforms, etc.) and external spaces
(forecourts, access ways, etc.) of the public buildings.
It ends with some notes on the relations between the upgrading projects
and the planning instruments in which they are inserted,
whether traditional or complex new-generation plans.
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Download
- The
abstract of the final report |
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