PIAZZA MAZZINI, ALBANO LAZIALE / INTERNATIONAL COMPETITION WINNING PROPOSAL / NEAR ARCHITECTURE

Piazza Mazzini, the main square of Albano Laziale, a small city close to Rome, is a place where the memory of the past persists until nowadays. The area extends for 2700 mq and it is part of a complex historical and natural context. The area is crossed by Via Appia, one of the consular streets that starts from Rome  that welcome the visitor to the small town, in the past a holiday place for rich Romans, emperors and popes. Moreover the area is adjacent to the large park of Villa Doria that extends along the slope towards downwards, usually used for summer events. The square occupies a critical location at the entry of the town, coming from Rome, but it lacks of a clear identity and a well defined urban role.

 

The main objective of the proposal is to discover the peculiarities and the hidden qualities of the area through a new public space that could bring to the fore the significant historical memories and could rebrand the image of the town. The project indeed moves from the necessity to re-organize the open space and the connection between all the parts that lay at its surrounding, with the aim to built a new civic entry with symbolic and recognizable stances. The empty surface is divided into two slid polygons that generate two squares with different aspirations. This new configuration builds a linkage between the existing system of public spaces of the city center and the green area of Villa Doria.

 

The fist square represents civic values and is inserted into the existing network of open spaces, pedestrian streets and squares of Albano. Its shape is determined by the old traces of Palazzo Doria, that during the first half of 1900s defined the pleasant terrace of the “Belvedere.” The new configuration thus evokes the South-West facade of Palazzo Doria and creates a direct link towards the Baroque stair along Via Appia, including it in its space thought the extension of the paving surface and the urban furniture.

 

The second square is a green area, a platform of 30 cm height framed with a canopy, and presents some trees, benches and removable kiosks that extend the uses and the activities that take places in the adjacent Villa Doria into the square. The raised surface of the platform aims to continue the natural topography of the slope that characterizes the Villa and becomes another privileged panoramic place. The paving is composed of concrete elements and grass and is extended towards the Villa emphasizing this linkage.

 

The green area is protected all along the border with the street by a concrete wall that is also a fountain that welcome the visitors from Rome and by a long canopy that extends along Via Appia that hosts a bus station and benches. This canopy is made of a metal structure and wooden panels and it offers shades for playgrounds and rest areas. Finally, photovoltaic panels are embedded in the canopy.

 

The structures of the kiosks replicates the one of the canopy, and it constitutes a flexible and modular system that can change configuration accordingly to future uses. Each kiosk indeed offers a covered space with benches but it can easily change configuration for seasonal uses,  temporary activities, or permanent functions like shops, exhibitions and news-stands.

 

Team: Cristiano Lippa, Michela Iori, Fabiano Micocci 

 

NEAR (Network of Architecture) is a network of architects working on small and large scale design as well as theoretical research, founded in 2001 by Cristiano Lippa, Fabiano Micocci and Lorenzo Scarpetti and based in Athens and Rome. The office engages different typologies and scales, including urban planning, landscape, public spaces as well as buildings, interiors and furniture design. There is a constant research and production of theoretical contents together with a careful attention to new trends, technologies and materials. This allows a large range of design solutions and possibilities able to be suitable in specific contexts.  In 2013 NEAR was awarded with the NIB Under 36 as one of the best young landscape practice in Italy.