Nostrana | sono cose che succedono...
NoStraNa is an urban regeneration experiment applied to the city of Naples. It springs from a reflection about possibilities and methods for recovering degraded or underused public space.
Its main idea is that urban regeneration takes place only if public space recuperates its function and is used and frequented by citizens. NoStraNa, then explores new ways of sharing common spaces in order to suggest good practices for using them.
Problems and context description and analysis
The project is based on an accurate analysis of Naples historical centre major problems, which were detected and documented through on-the-spot investigations, photo reports and interviews. They basically consist of: structural lack of public facilities and services, functional and material degradation of common spaces. Concretely, this means an acute lack of public furniture, green and pedestrian areas, playgrounds for children, etc., that is made worse by the very high living density of the area (10.736 inhabitants/km² in San Giuseppe, Porto, Pendino and San Lorenzo neighborhoods).
This situation discourages citizens from using public space and concurs to increase social degradation of the historical centre.
All the elements mentioned above contribute to a real “urban public space crisis” which concerns, by now, several Italian cities and appears particularly serious in Naples: public space is no more considered as “the house of citizenship”, the place where collective identity is formed, but just as what is outside one’s house and that nobody cares about.
Strategy description and project solution.
NoStraNa main idea is that a successful regeneration project must be able to start durable good urban practices, involving citizens in public space transformation. NoStraNa strategy has both long and medium term objectives: in the immediate future, it aims to reveal latent potentialities of under or mis-used urban spaces, to recuperate degraded public spaces for collective use, to increase the quality of urban life. In the long term, NoStraNa will strengthen the inhabitants sense of belonging to a community, improve the stock of social capital, increase civic pride and contribute to the territorial social and economic development.
This strategy is concretely implemented through temporary occupying some squares of the historical city centre in which free leisure and sport activities take place. Sport federations and associations, supported by volunteers, organise these activities which are financed through local firms donations and crow funding campaigns.
The project foresees two-days-events taking place periodically. In this way, NoStraNa proposes a rather unusual way of using these squares, in order to show that the historical centre already has several spaces that could be easily converted in playgrounds, green areas, locations for concerts, performances, etc.
With small investments, and in a short time, it would be possible to satisfy the citizens needs of facilities and services and, at the same time, to exploit Naples urban heritage.
The pilot event
On 28th and 29th may 2011 a pilot event took place. Some squares were transformed in sports grounds: in Banchi Nuovi square three teams of FIP (Italian Basket Federation) and their coaches had training with several young people of the neighborhood; in San Giovanni Maggiore Pignatelli square table tennis lent by Fitet (Italian Table Tennis Federation) were mounted; in Teodoro Monticelli square, the Neapolitan Chess Association organised a multiple players chess game. In Bellini square, footballs tables were at disposal of tourists and inhabitants, while in Corpo di Napoli square a tea degustation took place. On Santa Chiara church parvis, outdoor game facilities for children were mounted. In the evening, in Bellini street, “Ting(h)el Tang(h)el dance school” teachers gave a Swing lesson, while in Santa Maria la Nova square, “Led dance school” dancers and “Aizamm’a voce small orchestra” musicians performed local music and dances. The event ended on Sunday 29th with a neighborhood aperitif in Banchi Nuovi square. Many local shopkeepers gave their active support to the activities.
Its main idea is that urban regeneration takes place only if public space recuperates its function and is used and frequented by citizens. NoStraNa, then explores new ways of sharing common spaces in order to suggest good practices for using them.
Problems and context description and analysis
The project is based on an accurate analysis of Naples historical centre major problems, which were detected and documented through on-the-spot investigations, photo reports and interviews. They basically consist of: structural lack of public facilities and services, functional and material degradation of common spaces. Concretely, this means an acute lack of public furniture, green and pedestrian areas, playgrounds for children, etc., that is made worse by the very high living density of the area (10.736 inhabitants/km² in San Giuseppe, Porto, Pendino and San Lorenzo neighborhoods).
This situation discourages citizens from using public space and concurs to increase social degradation of the historical centre.
All the elements mentioned above contribute to a real “urban public space crisis” which concerns, by now, several Italian cities and appears particularly serious in Naples: public space is no more considered as “the house of citizenship”, the place where collective identity is formed, but just as what is outside one’s house and that nobody cares about.
Strategy description and project solution.
NoStraNa main idea is that a successful regeneration project must be able to start durable good urban practices, involving citizens in public space transformation. NoStraNa strategy has both long and medium term objectives: in the immediate future, it aims to reveal latent potentialities of under or mis-used urban spaces, to recuperate degraded public spaces for collective use, to increase the quality of urban life. In the long term, NoStraNa will strengthen the inhabitants sense of belonging to a community, improve the stock of social capital, increase civic pride and contribute to the territorial social and economic development.
This strategy is concretely implemented through temporary occupying some squares of the historical city centre in which free leisure and sport activities take place. Sport federations and associations, supported by volunteers, organise these activities which are financed through local firms donations and crow funding campaigns.
The project foresees two-days-events taking place periodically. In this way, NoStraNa proposes a rather unusual way of using these squares, in order to show that the historical centre already has several spaces that could be easily converted in playgrounds, green areas, locations for concerts, performances, etc.
With small investments, and in a short time, it would be possible to satisfy the citizens needs of facilities and services and, at the same time, to exploit Naples urban heritage.
The pilot event
On 28th and 29th may 2011 a pilot event took place. Some squares were transformed in sports grounds: in Banchi Nuovi square three teams of FIP (Italian Basket Federation) and their coaches had training with several young people of the neighborhood; in San Giovanni Maggiore Pignatelli square table tennis lent by Fitet (Italian Table Tennis Federation) were mounted; in Teodoro Monticelli square, the Neapolitan Chess Association organised a multiple players chess game. In Bellini square, footballs tables were at disposal of tourists and inhabitants, while in Corpo di Napoli square a tea degustation took place. On Santa Chiara church parvis, outdoor game facilities for children were mounted. In the evening, in Bellini street, “Ting(h)el Tang(h)el dance school” teachers gave a Swing lesson, while in Santa Maria la Nova square, “Led dance school” dancers and “Aizamm’a voce small orchestra” musicians performed local music and dances. The event ended on Sunday 29th with a neighborhood aperitif in Banchi Nuovi square. Many local shopkeepers gave their active support to the activities.
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