Landscape – Great Idea! X-LArch III - Department für Raum ...

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a) b)
Fig. 2 : Study of the permeability of the peripheral zones in the “Marangona” urban development area:
a) analytical table; b) operational table
of urban transformation and its consequent strategic
localisation in the area network involves an analytical
and morphological description of its peripheral zones –
in the sense of diverse median areas acting as dynamic
fulcrums.
The complexity of the study of peripheral zones leads
to a need for multi-criteria analysis based on the premises
and objectives of the project and taking account
of Iacopo Bernetti’s MCDM[1]: “Multi-criteria analysis
concerns the logic on which an individual bases rational
decisions relative to a complex problem relevant to a
series of alternatives […] When GIS [Geographic Information
System] are used in problems of eco-sustainable
development, the problems involved predominantly
regard the evaluation and the intended use of natural
resources. Analyses of the function and intended use
of natural resources have historically been one of the
main fields of applications of GIS as support systems
for environmental policy decisions[2]. MCDM issues in
relation to GIS are therefore about “zoning” or, in other
words, the assigning of a particular part of an area to
a certain class. For example, areas with urbanisation
potential, protected areas, agricultural areas, etc …”[3].
Each area involved in urban transformation is evaluated
in terms of the average connective potential of its
peripheral zones in relation to each of the three aspects
under consideration, or in other words on the basis of
the topographical continuity between it and the surrounding
area, using a scale of tripartite values. Specifically,
red indicates a situation in which the weighted average
of the coefficients of continuity between its borders and
the surrounding areas is low, yellow indicates that it is
average and green that it is high. [Fig. 1] The three elements
identified become the criteria for the qualitative
and quantitative testing of the connective potential of
their overall system of reference.
Returning to the questions of the sustainability of
urban growth and of the related infrastructure, which
are the key issues of this study, it is crucial to examine
the city as an “ urban eco-system” (A. Farina, 1995):
a system whose formative elements operate synergically
and work together to maintain endogenous and
contextual balances. From this point of view, peripheral
or boundary zones are no longer seen as fixed frontiers
determining what is part of the city organism, but rather
as membranes of a certain thickness, which are both
moveable and malleable. The peripheral or boundary
zones thus become interpretative tools, instrumental in
the planning of contiguous areas, where dynamics of
functional and morpho-typological reciprocity come into
play. The study of the peripheral or boundary zones, in
the sense of physical places where exchange between
two or more micro-environments belonging to the urban
eco-system occurs, thus influences the planning of
the landscapes of reference and plays a role in their
connotation, regeneration and structural and functional
rebalancing.
The Landscape-Infrastructure functions therefore
as a connective thread linking the wider area with the
various urban sectors and eliminating problems of scale
by allowing for strategic planning that produces an
inter-scale model of economic and urban development
which both ensures geographical, infrastructural and
functional continuity and stimulates and develops local
dynamics while actively incorporating them in the wider
area network.
Results and discussion
The plan for the Marangona Technological Science Centre
Taking account of the premises, a sample area with
geomorphological characteristics is suitable for a study
of the peripheral zone – in the sense of a “permeable”
zone located between two distinct areas and which also
had a certain kind of functional role.
The area of the so-called “Marangona Triangle” was
considered suitable both on account of its geographical
position (infrastructural crossroads) and its intended use
as indicated in the plans (research and innovation in the
agricultural foods biotechnology sector). The creation of
a Technological Science Centre offers the opportunity
to experiment with a model of development based on
the “landscape resource”, with a view to both revitalising
production and constructing new identity-giving
urban forms. Technological Scientific Innovation has to
become a sustainable model for urban development,
use of the land and the construction of new facets to the
landscape.