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 16
th
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 21
st 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 150
th 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.
