Barriera Centro : a strategic project in Barriera, industrial suburb of Turin, Italy

Abstract

The subject of this work is the design of an urban project in one of the industrial suburbs, called Barriera, in the city of Turin.<br />Turin was one of the biggest Italian industrial cities - usually known through the press as "The Italian Detroit", due to the local car industry FIAT. The largest urban expansion of Turin is closely related with its industrial development. The then prosperous and powerful FIAT - and all its multitude of small related industries - overbalanced the urban system, attracting a huge number of immigrants and workers.<br />Parallel to its quantitative and economical growth, the city witnessed at the biggest expansion of its residential suburbs, designed to host the new workers and immigrants. Built close to the industrial plants, at the edge of the city, without any kind of urban facilities, those districts were characterized by a big sense of anonymity and repeatability, due to the huge blocks of public estate and social housing. The negative meaning used to describe those suburbs was the term "periphery", to emphasize the clear distinction between the historical city and its modern expansions. The concept "periphery" represented a place which was physically, functionally and culturally separated from the centre and it was characterized by a lack of connections with the city.<br />Despite the recent urban transformations and economical re-establishment of Turin, those districts still represent a physical and social ghetto.<br />The urban project, which is the subject of this paper, takes place in such a complex and sensitive context. This project conceives of the urban regeneration of the former railway entrenchment, which for over fifty years sharply separated the surrounding Barriera district into different parts. The railway line, unused for more than ten years, has strongly influenced the development of this part of the city: It was a quite impassable barrier, source of urban decay and neglect. With a new project, the intention is to turn such weaknesses into new strengths and finally to reclaim this urban scare.