Making Cities out of Industries
Text and photography by: Ar. M Sayem Ghayur
Italy is an ambiguous country, where you have information desks but no one in them, you have phone booths but no cheap phone cards available, and if you have coins for the booth, the engage tone doesn’t let you dial (dial tone in Italian phone lines is like the engaged tone and the vice versa). What more? You see shops but they are mostly closed (due to multifarious intervals Italians take during working hours), and most of all you see people but you can’t expect them to communicate, unless you know their language or you are really good at sign (or maybe body) language. This list of ambiguities continues; Italians take tea and coffee without milk, Italians never give you an option for having milk in your tea or coffee but they will give you options for water to drink, “frizante” (fizzy water) or “naturale” (natural). In this global age, Italian cities have internet connection but you can’t use it until you submit your passport at the internet provider’s desk (thus no concept of free Wi-fi connection anywhere). Further more, all Italian cities have dual names, an international name and the Italian name, like Venice is also Venezia and Florence is Firenze as well as Florentia! Much later on in my one month long trip I had to ask an old lady in my inter-city train if the next stop was of Florence and I had to utter the city name many times and in many different ways until I realized I should call it Firenze!
Our first stop in Italy was of Milan and the airport greeted us with all of these ambiguities. We had landed early morning, and so no information desk was open, we never found a foreign exchange or a place we could get some change for the phone booth. We did find a stall from where we bought a very expensive phone card and luckily our hotel manager knew English but our journey to it was still hours away.
What is good about Italy is its transportation network; however it was hard to understand how to get to Milan Central from the airport. There were many other tourists like us who were wandering around the airport just to understand the way out. When we managed to get to the right train, for our hotel, we got there with no problem at all.
Considering the fact that Italy is one of the world’s most toured countries, it strikes as odd to see tourists being treated without much care. In our country locals stand in a line while the tourists get a VIP treatment (with agents at their disposal), in Italy tourists are made to stand in long queues while the EU nationals get better treatment here as well. Still what pulls the globe to Italy is its history mainly. Besides the classic flavor of its cities Italy is home to the top brands of global fashion industry. Italy is the third largest producer of wine in the world and one of the leading in olive oil, various fruits, flowers and vegetables. Hence what you will see the most on streets are bars, pastecerias, gelaterias and pizzerias (no KFCs and Mcdonalds). All shops close down till six in the evening, while the bars stay open till customers stop coming. Italians are lazy for everything but their drinks.
Streets of Italian cities still maintain a very relaxed mood, people are never in a hurry, they walk for miles, they jog in their bazaars, and even old people cycle to get groceries. Italy’s economy was agriculture based until a major wave of industrialization occurred after the Second World War, now the country belongs to the Group of eight (G8) industrialized nations. The industrial setup mostly comprises of small and medium-sized family-owned businesses, thus it has been less successful in terms of developing world class multinational corporations. This aspect of their modern society distinguishes them from their earlier generations who used to think big and achieve equally too. On the other hand Italian culture is best explored in their own country as they are still much more indigenous than global.
Even when the economy of Italy happens to be multi-directional and multi-faceted, its Cityscapes wear a look that appears to be paused in time, its people have come into the 21st century but have not modernized culturally all that much. Many of them still make a living by putting to show the marvels their ancestors built, the contribution of modern day Italians is absolutely non-existent. I fail to understand why the people of such nations don’t realize the void their act of commercializing the past has created. A void of retrogression and backward thinking, putting exorbitant ticket fee for every monument they inherit doesn’t make them any more progressive than a third world nation stuck in its miseries. Present day Italians are too lazy to match the majesty their ancestors had possessed, this laziness shows in the lack of contemporary developments and the absence of physical and behavioral modernization.
However, Turin also called Torino is a city which did surprise me with its versatility, dynamism, charm, and strife for revitalization of its image every now and then. Besides being historically rich, it did prove to be trendy and modern with respect to its cityscapes, its development schemes, its activities on both city and street levels and the attitude of its people too.
Torino is the birthplace of Italian industries and it still is the center of Italian automobile industry. The city ranks second after Milan as an industrial city of Italy. To understand the highly innovative and super self-reconstructive nature of this city, its history will have to be briefly mentioned. Turin was the seat of the Savoy kings till the 16th century; later on it became the first capital of a unified Italy until it was shifted to Florence and then Rome. Through out the twentieth century, Torino was a typical one factory town, a town whose economy was completely dependent upon the auto-industry. Fiat (Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino) was the Italian auto industry with more than half of the market at home and a booming export business throughout Europe. It caused population to migrate from impoverished southern Italy, while getting transformed into an industrial city itself with a vast network of suppliers clustering around it. In no time Fiat dwarfed Italy’s other manufacturers and its political leaders, single-mindedly focused on profit, growth and market domination. With Fiat’s contribution Italy transformed from a country of farmers with huge families into a modern state with the fifth largest economy in the world. In the years that Fiat dominated the economy of Torino there was little development outside the physical and social parameters of the Factory. From this monopolistic footing Fiat exercised an almost direct power over the city through a network of social, cultural, sporting, and pensioners’ institutions under the Company’s control. Local political institutions were almost completely marginalized.
After years of industrial rule came its decline. Torino witnessed shutdown of factories, therefore the lay offs, abandoned sheds, old chimneys, and the company towns speaking tons of its historical past and a tale of sudden urban degradation. But the city did not take a long time to realize the need for its reinvention with the help of rethinking economic strategy, social planning and urban development schemes to help Torino rise to prosperity again.
The idea of urban renewal emerged for the very first time when The Fiat factory called the Lingotto Complex shut down 1n 1982. This was the largest car factory in the world and the first that was constructed on an American model in Italy in 1923. Its unusual design had five floors, with raw materials coming in at ground level. Cars were built on a ramp that went up through the building. Finished cars emerged at rooftop level, where there was a test track. The destiny of the avant-garde Lingotto building changed when in the 70’s it became outdated and finally it closed down in 1982. In the coming years, it was decided to convert the complex into a large multifunctional centre. Architect Renzo Piano won the competition to evolve the symbol of 20th century Turin’s identity into a 21st century landmark. The Lingotto Fierre is home to an immense convention centre, a concert hall, a conference centre, an art gallery, an auditorium, a hotel, a service centre, a shopping area, executive offices and also the Faculty of the Automotive Engineering of the Polytechnic Institute.
Turin saw this as one of the first examples of rethinking urban-identity for an old building without ignoring its glorious past. Besides the ever famous test drive track on its roof top which still exists, Piano chose to remodel only the inside of the building, thus leaving the outside unaltered, with its rhythm marked by large windows and pillars. The panes of glass in the floor-to-ceiling windows, for which the old factory was famous, have also remained unaltered.
In the 90’s Torino formally launched a rethinking process in order to build up an identity comparable to that of other cities of Italy and unique to it’s self alone. A major driving force behind speeding up this process of urban and economic reconversion came with the city’s selection to host the Winter Olympics of 2006. Many urban spaces of the industrial city were remodeled into the most contemporary of sporting facilities for the Olympics events. Other events endowing the city with some more international investment, diversified economic structure, creation of new jobs, better quality of life and most importantly a diverse cultural identity, include its appointment as 2008 World Design Capital, hosting the World Congress of Architecture UIA 2008, the World Air Games event in 2009 and being the European City of Science in 2010. However, most important of all the events that has already had the most impact on the city, once filled with sputtering smokestacks, is the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy in 2011. Torino is planned to play a leading role in the celebrations as it was Italy’s first capital. All the urban transformation projects have been directed to facilitate this next big event. A challenge that is no test for a city that has already reinvented itself into a center for contemporary art and design, while preserving its historical significance quite adeptly.
Turin has everything you’d expect to love about an Italian city. It is located mainly on the left bank of the Po River, surrounded by the Alpine arch, and is about an hour away from the coastline. Its history left quite a few moonlit piazzas, baroque churches, and fairy-tale castles all around it. Considering it’s the birthplace of Italian industry, today Turin seems surprisingly pristine. It has green parks, clean wide boulevards and snow-covered mountains in the distance that boast a network of ski resorts. On our train to Torino I befriended two Milanese girls, both of them mentioned they were going to Torino to see their boyfriends. So from the beginning of my journey it was hoped that the industrial city would have some kind of a twist to its image.
Porta Susa is the train station I got off at and it was a surprise to see how many people were there just to attend the architecture conference that had brought me to Torino as well. Right after getting off the train, stalls could be seen giving free information to groups of tourists about the conference program, the accommodation, routes, tourist spots and history of the city in general. Getting out of the station did not discontinue the Torino-awareness program, as the exhibition banners and posters accompanied you everywhere across the city. The World congress of Architecture had been draped around the city like a party dress.
As ambiguous as other cities had proved to us Torino came as a comfortable and a tourist friendly city. Another thing that made it more cosmopolitan was its multi-ethnic populace. Throughout Europe, Turks, Arabs and Bengalis have opened up Halal fast food joints that say “Doner Kebab” outside. Doner kebab (rotating roast) is a Turkish dish like the Arabic shawarma made of meat cooked on a vertical spit and sliced off to order in pita bread or a bun. In Torino you will find these stores all along every street, due to the large number of Arab and Turk Muslims living here. Only in Torino I got “Muslim” discounts on these Kebab shops.
The hectic scheduling of the conference would have given one no opportunity to go around the city if it wasn’t arranged around the city itself. The opening ceremony took place at La Venaria Reale, a huge complex that includes the baroque Royal Palace, with breathtaking gardens and a 3000 hectare La Mandria Park. This extravagant palace was used as a Savoy residence. Located in Piedmont which happens to be in the suburbs of Turin, one has to go through different routes of public transport which bring splendid piazzas and stradas on the way. Most notable of the lot was Piazza Castello which is connected to a few more piazzas through Via Roma that is acclaimed as one of the best shopping streets around Italy.
The city with all its historical sites and future projects in the pipeline comes out to be very scattered, and in order to improve mobility across the city, citta di Torino has proposed setting up of a single, integrated metropolitan area system intended to become the backbone of transportation in Torino. This program intends to encourage the use of collective transport (trains, trams, the underground and buses) as opposed to individual transport.
Other works to be completed till 2011 are well documented in the new master plan of the city. According to the master plan, all development will be directed along three main axes of the city, namely the Po River Axis, Central Backbone Boulevard, and The Corso Marche Axis.
The Po River Axis is marked by natural as well as historical sites. The program for valorizing this area focuses on restoration of existing parks, rivers, landscapes, as well as villas, piazzas, palaces and abandoned factories of historical importance. In short, such projects are taken to be improved and developed that highlight the presence of Po as the axis of leisure and tourist retreat.
Notable projects include restoration of the beautiful Parco Del Valentino; restructuring of the contemporary National Automobile Museum; physical and functional refurbishment of the Luigi Nervi designed Palazzo del Lovoro; restoration and redefinition of the Regia Manifattura Tabacchi and construction of a new Humanistic Facilities University Centre, the team of architects working on which includes Sir Norman Foster.
The project that interested me the most out of these on the Po River Axis is that of Regia Manifattura Tabacchi. It is one of the oldest buildings in Torino, characterized by long wings and large courtyards, situated near the Po River. Only parts of the building remain, thus refurbishment sees radical changes as buildings are planned to be immersed in the landscape with terraces and courtyards stepping down towards the river. This complex plans to house teaching, sports training and recreational facilities in it.
The second axis called Central Backbone Boulevard is planned quite radically and targets construction of the crossrail system, directed by reunification of the two parts of the city separated by the railway line. Train tracks will be moved underground, and the free surface area will be converted into a large tree-lined avenue. The Spina Centrale will have cycle tracks and squares embellished with works of art by 11 famous contemporary artists. This area is targeted to become Turin’s new cultural and artistic district.
Projects along this axis include the Milanese architect Mario Bellini designed Central Municipal Library, to be constructed in the area left idle by the abandoned Nebiolo and Westinghouse Plants, parts of which will be preserved.
A new Porta Susa Railway station will be built as well as a major exhibition centre in place of the OGR (Officine Grandi Riparazioni Ferroviarie), a surviving emblem of Torino’s industrial past and an agglomerate of industry buildings that used to construct and repair engines and carriages. This project of building preservation and functional transformation will be dedicated to the exhibition of contemporary art. Another of such projects in this area witnesses the transformation of the former prison complex. The Carceri Le Nuove will now hold the extensions of the law courts, judicial offices and notary archives alongside hosting various cultural activities. This complex along with the OGR and the New Cultural Centre by Bellini will form the contemporary cultural hub of the city.
Other projects along this axis include the construction of the new Intensa Sanpaolo Headquarters, a hi-tech skyscraper designed by Renzo Piano, recovery and extension of the Polytechnic Campus (originally built in the 1950’s), the construction of the large Dora Park in place of an area heavily occupied by the memory of various abandoned industrial sites, and the dynamic urban restructuring interventions in Savigliano area and Vanchiglia Railway Yards.
Developments on the Corso Marche Axis put an end to Torino’s urban transformation process. This area is getting planned to form the metropolitan area for the city. The urban and architectural facilities planned will particularly reflect the activities of sectors Torino has been successfully catering to for many years; cars, automation, the aerospace industry and electronics, alongside the training, research and health sectors. Projects like the New Alenia District and Mirafiori Design Centre Area will form the hub dedicated to the new economy, design and high level training.
On top of developments on these three axes, much uplift projects are underway to improve the quality of life and environment of the citizens and the tourists. Italians love basking in the sun in their public piazzas while they park their cars in shaded areas. Car parks in public places have been moved underground to liberate the piazzas and walkways from the menace of cars and their pollution, giving prominence to a better urban life, pedestrian flow and architectural heritage.
The example of Torino with all its rechristened industries and urban squares prove how dynamic efforts can shape up new directions for old cities. Other cities of Italy appeared conservative and indolent with respect to the coyness they had for contemporariness. Their strong identity brings people from around the world to them but cities with a penchant for progression never wear out.
Italy is an ambiguous country, where you have information desks but no one in them, you have phone booths but no cheap phone cards available, and if you have coins for the booth, the engage tone doesn’t let you dial (dial tone in Italian phone lines is like the engaged tone and the vice versa). What more? You see shops but they are mostly closed (due to multifarious intervals Italians take during working hours), and most of all you see people but you can’t expect them to communicate, unless you know their language or you are really good at sign (or maybe body) language. This list of ambiguities continues; Italians take tea and coffee without milk, Italians never give you an option for having milk in your tea or coffee but they will give you options for water to drink, “frizante” (fizzy water) or “naturale” (natural). In this global age, Italian cities have internet connection but you can’t use it until you submit your passport at the internet provider’s desk (thus no concept of free Wi-fi connection anywhere). Further more, all Italian cities have dual names, an international name and the Italian name, like Venice is also Venezia and Florence is Firenze as well as Florentia! Much later on in my one month long trip I had to ask an old lady in my inter-city train if the next stop was of Florence and I had to utter the city name many times and in many different ways until I realized I should call it Firenze!
Our first stop in Italy was of Milan and the airport greeted us with all of these ambiguities. We had landed early morning, and so no information desk was open, we never found a foreign exchange or a place we could get some change for the phone booth. We did find a stall from where we bought a very expensive phone card and luckily our hotel manager knew English but our journey to it was still hours away.
What is good about Italy is its transportation network; however it was hard to understand how to get to Milan Central from the airport. There were many other tourists like us who were wandering around the airport just to understand the way out. When we managed to get to the right train, for our hotel, we got there with no problem at all.
Considering the fact that Italy is one of the world’s most toured countries, it strikes as odd to see tourists being treated without much care. In our country locals stand in a line while the tourists get a VIP treatment (with agents at their disposal), in Italy tourists are made to stand in long queues while the EU nationals get better treatment here as well. Still what pulls the globe to Italy is its history mainly. Besides the classic flavor of its cities Italy is home to the top brands of global fashion industry. Italy is the third largest producer of wine in the world and one of the leading in olive oil, various fruits, flowers and vegetables. Hence what you will see the most on streets are bars, pastecerias, gelaterias and pizzerias (no KFCs and Mcdonalds). All shops close down till six in the evening, while the bars stay open till customers stop coming. Italians are lazy for everything but their drinks.
Streets of Italian cities still maintain a very relaxed mood, people are never in a hurry, they walk for miles, they jog in their bazaars, and even old people cycle to get groceries. Italy’s economy was agriculture based until a major wave of industrialization occurred after the Second World War, now the country belongs to the Group of eight (G8) industrialized nations. The industrial setup mostly comprises of small and medium-sized family-owned businesses, thus it has been less successful in terms of developing world class multinational corporations. This aspect of their modern society distinguishes them from their earlier generations who used to think big and achieve equally too. On the other hand Italian culture is best explored in their own country as they are still much more indigenous than global.
Even when the economy of Italy happens to be multi-directional and multi-faceted, its Cityscapes wear a look that appears to be paused in time, its people have come into the 21st century but have not modernized culturally all that much. Many of them still make a living by putting to show the marvels their ancestors built, the contribution of modern day Italians is absolutely non-existent. I fail to understand why the people of such nations don’t realize the void their act of commercializing the past has created. A void of retrogression and backward thinking, putting exorbitant ticket fee for every monument they inherit doesn’t make them any more progressive than a third world nation stuck in its miseries. Present day Italians are too lazy to match the majesty their ancestors had possessed, this laziness shows in the lack of contemporary developments and the absence of physical and behavioral modernization.
However, Turin also called Torino is a city which did surprise me with its versatility, dynamism, charm, and strife for revitalization of its image every now and then. Besides being historically rich, it did prove to be trendy and modern with respect to its cityscapes, its development schemes, its activities on both city and street levels and the attitude of its people too.
Torino is the birthplace of Italian industries and it still is the center of Italian automobile industry. The city ranks second after Milan as an industrial city of Italy. To understand the highly innovative and super self-reconstructive nature of this city, its history will have to be briefly mentioned. Turin was the seat of the Savoy kings till the 16th century; later on it became the first capital of a unified Italy until it was shifted to Florence and then Rome. Through out the twentieth century, Torino was a typical one factory town, a town whose economy was completely dependent upon the auto-industry. Fiat (Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino) was the Italian auto industry with more than half of the market at home and a booming export business throughout Europe. It caused population to migrate from impoverished southern Italy, while getting transformed into an industrial city itself with a vast network of suppliers clustering around it. In no time Fiat dwarfed Italy’s other manufacturers and its political leaders, single-mindedly focused on profit, growth and market domination. With Fiat’s contribution Italy transformed from a country of farmers with huge families into a modern state with the fifth largest economy in the world. In the years that Fiat dominated the economy of Torino there was little development outside the physical and social parameters of the Factory. From this monopolistic footing Fiat exercised an almost direct power over the city through a network of social, cultural, sporting, and pensioners’ institutions under the Company’s control. Local political institutions were almost completely marginalized.
After years of industrial rule came its decline. Torino witnessed shutdown of factories, therefore the lay offs, abandoned sheds, old chimneys, and the company towns speaking tons of its historical past and a tale of sudden urban degradation. But the city did not take a long time to realize the need for its reinvention with the help of rethinking economic strategy, social planning and urban development schemes to help Torino rise to prosperity again.
The idea of urban renewal emerged for the very first time when The Fiat factory called the Lingotto Complex shut down 1n 1982. This was the largest car factory in the world and the first that was constructed on an American model in Italy in 1923. Its unusual design had five floors, with raw materials coming in at ground level. Cars were built on a ramp that went up through the building. Finished cars emerged at rooftop level, where there was a test track. The destiny of the avant-garde Lingotto building changed when in the 70’s it became outdated and finally it closed down in 1982. In the coming years, it was decided to convert the complex into a large multifunctional centre. Architect Renzo Piano won the competition to evolve the symbol of 20th century Turin’s identity into a 21st century landmark. The Lingotto Fierre is home to an immense convention centre, a concert hall, a conference centre, an art gallery, an auditorium, a hotel, a service centre, a shopping area, executive offices and also the Faculty of the Automotive Engineering of the Polytechnic Institute.
Turin saw this as one of the first examples of rethinking urban-identity for an old building without ignoring its glorious past. Besides the ever famous test drive track on its roof top which still exists, Piano chose to remodel only the inside of the building, thus leaving the outside unaltered, with its rhythm marked by large windows and pillars. The panes of glass in the floor-to-ceiling windows, for which the old factory was famous, have also remained unaltered.
In the 90’s Torino formally launched a rethinking process in order to build up an identity comparable to that of other cities of Italy and unique to it’s self alone. A major driving force behind speeding up this process of urban and economic reconversion came with the city’s selection to host the Winter Olympics of 2006. Many urban spaces of the industrial city were remodeled into the most contemporary of sporting facilities for the Olympics events. Other events endowing the city with some more international investment, diversified economic structure, creation of new jobs, better quality of life and most importantly a diverse cultural identity, include its appointment as 2008 World Design Capital, hosting the World Congress of Architecture UIA 2008, the World Air Games event in 2009 and being the European City of Science in 2010. However, most important of all the events that has already had the most impact on the city, once filled with sputtering smokestacks, is the celebrations for the 150th anniversary of the Unification of Italy in 2011. Torino is planned to play a leading role in the celebrations as it was Italy’s first capital. All the urban transformation projects have been directed to facilitate this next big event. A challenge that is no test for a city that has already reinvented itself into a center for contemporary art and design, while preserving its historical significance quite adeptly.
Turin has everything you’d expect to love about an Italian city. It is located mainly on the left bank of the Po River, surrounded by the Alpine arch, and is about an hour away from the coastline. Its history left quite a few moonlit piazzas, baroque churches, and fairy-tale castles all around it. Considering it’s the birthplace of Italian industry, today Turin seems surprisingly pristine. It has green parks, clean wide boulevards and snow-covered mountains in the distance that boast a network of ski resorts. On our train to Torino I befriended two Milanese girls, both of them mentioned they were going to Torino to see their boyfriends. So from the beginning of my journey it was hoped that the industrial city would have some kind of a twist to its image.
Porta Susa is the train station I got off at and it was a surprise to see how many people were there just to attend the architecture conference that had brought me to Torino as well. Right after getting off the train, stalls could be seen giving free information to groups of tourists about the conference program, the accommodation, routes, tourist spots and history of the city in general. Getting out of the station did not discontinue the Torino-awareness program, as the exhibition banners and posters accompanied you everywhere across the city. The World congress of Architecture had been draped around the city like a party dress.
As ambiguous as other cities had proved to us Torino came as a comfortable and a tourist friendly city. Another thing that made it more cosmopolitan was its multi-ethnic populace. Throughout Europe, Turks, Arabs and Bengalis have opened up Halal fast food joints that say “Doner Kebab” outside. Doner kebab (rotating roast) is a Turkish dish like the Arabic shawarma made of meat cooked on a vertical spit and sliced off to order in pita bread or a bun. In Torino you will find these stores all along every street, due to the large number of Arab and Turk Muslims living here. Only in Torino I got “Muslim” discounts on these Kebab shops.
The hectic scheduling of the conference would have given one no opportunity to go around the city if it wasn’t arranged around the city itself. The opening ceremony took place at La Venaria Reale, a huge complex that includes the baroque Royal Palace, with breathtaking gardens and a 3000 hectare La Mandria Park. This extravagant palace was used as a Savoy residence. Located in Piedmont which happens to be in the suburbs of Turin, one has to go through different routes of public transport which bring splendid piazzas and stradas on the way. Most notable of the lot was Piazza Castello which is connected to a few more piazzas through Via Roma that is acclaimed as one of the best shopping streets around Italy.
The city with all its historical sites and future projects in the pipeline comes out to be very scattered, and in order to improve mobility across the city, citta di Torino has proposed setting up of a single, integrated metropolitan area system intended to become the backbone of transportation in Torino. This program intends to encourage the use of collective transport (trains, trams, the underground and buses) as opposed to individual transport.
Other works to be completed till 2011 are well documented in the new master plan of the city. According to the master plan, all development will be directed along three main axes of the city, namely the Po River Axis, Central Backbone Boulevard, and The Corso Marche Axis.
The Po River Axis is marked by natural as well as historical sites. The program for valorizing this area focuses on restoration of existing parks, rivers, landscapes, as well as villas, piazzas, palaces and abandoned factories of historical importance. In short, such projects are taken to be improved and developed that highlight the presence of Po as the axis of leisure and tourist retreat.
Notable projects include restoration of the beautiful Parco Del Valentino; restructuring of the contemporary National Automobile Museum; physical and functional refurbishment of the Luigi Nervi designed Palazzo del Lovoro; restoration and redefinition of the Regia Manifattura Tabacchi and construction of a new Humanistic Facilities University Centre, the team of architects working on which includes Sir Norman Foster.
The project that interested me the most out of these on the Po River Axis is that of Regia Manifattura Tabacchi. It is one of the oldest buildings in Torino, characterized by long wings and large courtyards, situated near the Po River. Only parts of the building remain, thus refurbishment sees radical changes as buildings are planned to be immersed in the landscape with terraces and courtyards stepping down towards the river. This complex plans to house teaching, sports training and recreational facilities in it.
The second axis called Central Backbone Boulevard is planned quite radically and targets construction of the crossrail system, directed by reunification of the two parts of the city separated by the railway line. Train tracks will be moved underground, and the free surface area will be converted into a large tree-lined avenue. The Spina Centrale will have cycle tracks and squares embellished with works of art by 11 famous contemporary artists. This area is targeted to become Turin’s new cultural and artistic district.
Projects along this axis include the Milanese architect Mario Bellini designed Central Municipal Library, to be constructed in the area left idle by the abandoned Nebiolo and Westinghouse Plants, parts of which will be preserved.
A new Porta Susa Railway station will be built as well as a major exhibition centre in place of the OGR (Officine Grandi Riparazioni Ferroviarie), a surviving emblem of Torino’s industrial past and an agglomerate of industry buildings that used to construct and repair engines and carriages. This project of building preservation and functional transformation will be dedicated to the exhibition of contemporary art. Another of such projects in this area witnesses the transformation of the former prison complex. The Carceri Le Nuove will now hold the extensions of the law courts, judicial offices and notary archives alongside hosting various cultural activities. This complex along with the OGR and the New Cultural Centre by Bellini will form the contemporary cultural hub of the city.
Other projects along this axis include the construction of the new Intensa Sanpaolo Headquarters, a hi-tech skyscraper designed by Renzo Piano, recovery and extension of the Polytechnic Campus (originally built in the 1950’s), the construction of the large Dora Park in place of an area heavily occupied by the memory of various abandoned industrial sites, and the dynamic urban restructuring interventions in Savigliano area and Vanchiglia Railway Yards.
Developments on the Corso Marche Axis put an end to Torino’s urban transformation process. This area is getting planned to form the metropolitan area for the city. The urban and architectural facilities planned will particularly reflect the activities of sectors Torino has been successfully catering to for many years; cars, automation, the aerospace industry and electronics, alongside the training, research and health sectors. Projects like the New Alenia District and Mirafiori Design Centre Area will form the hub dedicated to the new economy, design and high level training.
On top of developments on these three axes, much uplift projects are underway to improve the quality of life and environment of the citizens and the tourists. Italians love basking in the sun in their public piazzas while they park their cars in shaded areas. Car parks in public places have been moved underground to liberate the piazzas and walkways from the menace of cars and their pollution, giving prominence to a better urban life, pedestrian flow and architectural heritage.
The example of Torino with all its rechristened industries and urban squares prove how dynamic efforts can shape up new directions for old cities. Other cities of Italy appeared conservative and indolent with respect to the coyness they had for contemporariness. Their strong identity brings people from around the world to them but cities with a penchant for progression never wear out.
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