The proposition for the transformation of the Area 7 – Manzoni Farmstead, starts from a broader reflection, imagining how strategically the intervention Area is related to four other areas that, by their extension and centrality, act as structuring elements for the urban form of the land. The Municipal Sports Centre in Via IV Novembre, the Sports Centre with a new gym, the area behind the Parish Church of San Lorenzo Martire, the now abandoned empty urban space of the former Saronio, take the form of areas in which the dimension of the open space is more predominant than the built, delineating a single design that can be characterised as a scalar cornerstone, as well as a resource, for the town. The masterplan project expresses this situation by envisaging a transformation that through an effective landscape design can preserve the unity of the area 7, while admitting different portions, characterised by the coexistence of public and private areas.
The proposed operational planning process provides for a transformation aimed at enhancing the existing public areas to the south, with the construction of a new public park under license that, together with the existing Garden south of Via Bismantova and its redevelopment, constitutes a new centrality in terms of open space for the community of Cerro al Lambro. By moving the existing road system with the provision of a new east-west access road for vehicles and cycle paths located further north, it is possible to create a large urban park as an element of identity and relationship of the place. The reference point of Cascina Manzoni, which has been abandoned and that has fallen apart over the years and is no longer recoverable, has become an element of reinterpretation from a typological and formal point of view of the new approved courtyard construction that, structured around a central open space, recalls settlement and relational solutions of the parts. Completing the intervention is a linear volume of three floors above ground, located to the east near the SP17 road, shielded by vegetation, fulfils the requirements for subsidised building promoted by the Municipal Administration, while the fabric of single/semi-detached villas in the northern area of the implementation area establishes a relationship of typology and scale with the smaller buildings around the area.
The architectural project reinterprets traditional local materials in a contemporary manner, where there remains the construction of elements with pitched roofs, typical of old farmhouse structures and the use of exposed brick and concrete, in the construction of an alternation between filled and empty spaces, between inside and outside, between tradition and innovation remains.
Client: private
Volume: 13.819,32 m3
Surface: 4606,44 m2
Surface area: 15.354,82 m2
Project year: 2018-2019
Completion: 2020-ongoing
Architectural project: FORM_A, Arch.Claudio Maglio
Design team: Andrea Fradegrada, Sandra Maglio
Consultants: Geolambda Engineering S.r.l., Studio di ingegneria Ing.Bergomi
Images: Onirism