MICROUTOPIA
FINALIST (restricted design competition)“Bella Fuori” Two-Phase competition for an urban regeneration project
Program Participatory design for urban regeneration and new public space
Team 2A+P Architettura (Gianfranco Bombaci, Domenico Cannistraci, Pietro Chiodi, Matteo Costanzo, Valerio Franzone), Yona Friedman, Id-Lab
Client Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna, Municipality of Bologna
Collaborators a.titolo (participatory process), Ove Arup & Partners (structural engineering)
Location Corticella - Bologna, Italy
Area 3.000 m2
Year 2006
Blog Yona Friedman - Utopies Réalisables
Microutopia is a project for public space, it is a public process. The design process was linear with some necessary loops, due to the participatory design process, it started with an observation operation based on three levels:
1- listening to the citizenship;
2- reading the urban context;
3- analyzing the relationship between the neighborhood of Corticella, the city center of Bologna, and the world in its widest meaning.
The strategy is based on linking the architectural object with the communication issue. A hanging garden, structured on more than one level, is inserted in a huge ball of steel (not of wool!).
Microutopia is designed and built with the best of the world wits and shown here in its version 1.0, but it will be modified and perfected with the help of the local citizens. The three parts (the cloud, the floor as a world, the paths) are meant as a plot, as a starting point of a common discussion.