«Riown Sanità», four urban regeneration projects for healthcare in Naples
Four projects by urban regeneration to radically change the face of the Health District. Some in the drawer of the municipal administration for a few years, but ready to go, others brand new. All already funded. They were presented in the context of Health District – pun given by the assonance of the word Rione with English reclaim«Regain possession» – event held on 29 May in the Church of Maria Santissima del Carmine in via Fontanelle.
The flagship of the projects, as well as the most recent, is the one financed by G124working group of the archistar and senator for life Renzo Piano, with the aim of enhancing and rediscovering the Italian suburbs. The work conceived by Piano is very simple: a group of young architects (all under 35, paid with the method of the senator’s group) who, coordinated by as many by tutors and aided by professionals (sociologists, anthropoi economists, critical urban planners ), have the task of producing mending studies on a periphery during a year of work.
A model replicated on Naples – the only city together with Bari and Rovigo chosen by G124 for 2022 – in the area facing the Fontanelle cemetery: 300 square meters that will involve the entrance to the Fontanelle, the churchyard of the Parish of Maria Santissima del Carmine and a small garden made available by private individuals to the public. But also three open spaces, now neglected, which will become real squares for the use of residents and tourists: piazza Bartolomeo Carafa, piazza Benedetto de Falco and piazza Fontanelle better known as piazza Padre Pio. Spaces that will act as access areas to the area of great historical and cultural value of the Fontanelle. The place was identified in concert between the Foundation of the San Gennaro Community And the Department of Architecture of the University of Naples Federico IIwith the full support of mayor of Naples Gaetano Manfredi andCouncilor Laura Lietothe latter present at Riown show.
A team of young graduates, trainees and doctoral students from the Department of Architecture of the Federico II University of Naples, led by teachers, worked on it Nicola Flora And Daniela Buonanno. “The project – explains Professor Flora – stems from the will of the urban senator to fly scholarships for young architects, graduates from the Department of Architecture of Naples, so that they can undertake a project that he, that is to mend peripheral parts of the city, poorly qualified or abandoned. We have selected these four boys with a call and since February they have started working on this project on an area identified together with Father Antonio Loffredo with whom we have been collaborating through the San Gennaro Foundation for eight years.“. The choice of the Rione Sanità was therefore not accidental.
Many interventions by the head of the years of the pastry years that took place in the course such as piazza Totò, piazza San Severo, the space in front of the well-known Poppella, were the result of the synergy between the Frederick’s Department of Architecture, the San Gennaro Foundation and the associations of traders local. «Senator Piano – specifies Flora – has guaranteed cultural, moral and economic support for the project. We meet with him every month, month and a half, electronically, with him participating in the project as a reviewer, stimulating him. But the designers are these four young architects under 33 who have won a scholarship supported by the senator. We tutors limit ourselves to guiding and advising them ». Orazio Nicodemo, Davide Savoia, Marino Amodio, Giuseppe De Pascale the names of the four fellows chosen by Piano.
«The innovation – says Orazio – lies in the method with which we arrive at the project. Through participatory planning, which starts from the bottom and involves the community. Done together with those who will then experience these spaces. The theme is that of the square as a public space. It could not therefore have been otherwise ». The thinking of the places involved was therefore primarily for the inhabitants of the Healthcare. «Tourism – Davide points out – is something that has a beneficial value on a community which, however, retains its dignity and a need for public space. At the moment these spaces are lacking. We try to improve these conditions with our small interventions ». Young architects are aware of the responsibility of guaranteeing, through their projects, spaces that are effectively more usable on a daily basis: “Responsibility is always first towards those who will benefit from the project: the more person I feel the burden of working at the entrance to the Fontanelle cemetery than to work under Renzo Piano with all due respect for the case », Marino jokes (but not too much). Time of realization? “A year and a half. We are working hard to keep these times and complete the projects dedicated to the square as soon as possible, and then dedicate ourselves to the one on the entrance to the Fontanelle cemetery », confides Giuseppe hopefully. The urban mending must serve to revive the entire access area to the Fontanelle, increasingly isolated since the much-visited cemetery was closed in conjunction with the outbreak of the pandemic. The cemetery of the “pezzentelle” souls, however, should reopen shortly: we are only waiting for the call for tenders for the management of the site. «We have to thank Renzo Piano who finances himself through his fees as a senator for life for this project. In a short time we will see this regenerated area thanks also to the reopening of the fontanelle cemetery “, reassures the president of Municipality 3 Fabio Greco.
To connect the design of G124 as a common thread, there will be the interventions envisaged by the Ministry of Culture through the Institutional Contract for the Development of the Historic Center such as the redevelopment of the Borgo dei Vergini on which funds have been allocated for 12 million euros. A requalification will include listening to the realities of associations and traders with special workshops starting from 8 June. All ready pure for the second exit of the Materdei station of Line 1 of the Metro which will be built through the reuse of an extensive tuff cavity built in 1761, later used as an air-raid shelter in the Second World War. The cavity, the access to which will be placed at the foot of the stairs of via Telesino, at the confluence of via Sanità and via Fontanelle, reach a newly built escalator tunnel to reach the platform of Materdei station. «The cavity will also be equipped with an underground square with natural lighting. I would also like to point out the possibility of building a new system of paths towards the hill, through the creation of the new Capodimonte park at the former boarding school Pontano alla Conocchia “, explains the professor Pasquale Miano, Professor of Architectural Design at the Department of Architecture, among the winners of the design competition for the new subway exit. Now only the technical surveys are started to obtain the economic feasibility project in order to start the tender for the works. Finally, Re-own Sanità was an opportunity to present the project again of an elevator capable of connecting the Basilica of the Incoronata Madre del Buon Consiglio in Capodimonte with the Church of San Gennaro Extra Moenia alla Sanità: a work that makes it easier to visit the entire route of the catacombs of San Gennaro, thus making them accessible.
In short, the health care model, the result of the protagonism of private individuals, whether they are third sector entities or individual citizens, cannot please the municipal administration: “There is a constellation of projects with different sources of funding”, he comments the city planning councilor Laura Lieto. «The mayor – he continues – has strongly supported and supports this model and this transformation. We are working enthusiastically on Healthcare projects. We are innovating the working method: these are physical transformation projects but also projects accompanied by the community. There is a very active and positive context here. Therefore the administration is particularly attentive to this process ». The institution, however, “must warn the public step”, is the warning father Antonio Loffredo, parish priest of the district, for years at the forefront of the revival of healthcare. «The private sector and the third sector are always faster than the public. Of the four approved projects, one is private, the other three are public. You will see that the first to leave will be the private one ».