Changes in mobility are radically transforming urban dynamics and the structure of cities, accelerating a rapid transition in cities traditionally shaped by infrastructures that prioritize private vehicular traffic.
Val Bisagno in Genoa is an area not yet served by efficient and fast public transport lines, where the main issues are related to the fragmentation of the urban fabric, the lack of green public spaces, areas for social gathering, and especially oversized infrastructures and problems associated with vehicular traffic.
The planned introduction of electric bus lines and an elevated extension of the metro (Skymetro) presents an opportunity to rethink the configuration of the street, which is currently strongly categorised and car-centred, in a city where “empty” space holds immense value.
The reconfiguration of the street suggests strategies for developing spatial projects from its interface with different urban areas and contexts — spaces that are currently latent, hidden, or inaccessible — transforming the street into a continuous framework that supports and connects public space.
The “zero level” is the layer of the city where these transformations take place, allowing for a reversal of a planning process focused on traffic flow toward one oriented around the public space system, where infrastructure serves as support. These transformations are taking place in a valley where the construction, now in progress, of a drainage tunnel will help avert the hydrogeological risk that has been a concern for years.
In the three selected urban areas, identified near the public transport stops, the project reclaims a cross-section dimension of the Bisagno river, capable of stimulating collective life and active mobility, creating continuous cycle-pedestrian routes, 30 zones, shared and school streets, pedestrian areas and new squares near schools and city markets, starting with the redesigning of the ground to ensure accessibility and universal use.
Bibliography
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- Gehl, J. (2010). Cities for people. Island Press.
- Urban@it. (2023). Ottavo rapporto sulle città. Mobilità & città: verso una post car city. Il Mulino.
