Verso - Development and Preservation of the Coastal Environment of San Foca / MARGINE

VERSO is an environmental development and preservation project realized in 2016 by MARGINE for the City of Melendugno, a town of the Apulian coast. MARGINE applied for and succeeded in obtaining the European fisheries fund (EFF) 2007-2013 “Sustainable development of fisheries areas” provided by the Coastal Development Plan of the GAC (Governmental Advisory Committee) Adriatico Salentino, proposing the redevelopment of a part of the San Foca’s waterfront, one of the five seaside towns of Melendugno.

The VERSO project involved the construction of a connecting place between the coastal and the urban landscape, a public space that gently slopes from the first landscape to the second one with a simple and essential architecture: a mineral ramp toward the sea between two wooden edges containing a Mediterranean garden.

The area of intervention is an urban portion of the coastal road located nearby the southern access to San Foca. Despite its being regarded as a panoramic spot due to its proximity to the sea, this portion of road cannot be considered as such since the sight is currently obscured by the many houses that lie between the road and the coastline. The only exception is one single gap that is currently being used improperly as vehicle access to the coastline. A renovation of the current urban pattern through a redesign of the existing road portion is included in VERSO project.

In details:

a) requalification of the pedestrian area;

b) implementation of an access spot to the coastline in order to allow easy access and usability for pedestrians and to prevent vehicle access. Such access spot has been designed as a “Fishery Garden” aimed at harmoniously joining the artificial product of the architectural building with the natural environment of the coastline. Besides providing this part of the town with a new public area, this garden also encourages cultural and environmental awareness through a process of planting and regeneration of species indigenous to the coastline environment and the implementation of information totems that describe the local art and tradition of fishery. Moreover, this intervention has made it possible to create a sustainable mobility path to connect the two main beaches of San Foca: a bicycle path detached from the main coastal road provides for a safe connection between the two areas.

MARGINE acted as project managers for the stages of feasibility planning and project sustainability for VERSO as well as designers and building site engineers for the currently ongoing building works. The work was carried out between January 2016 and April of the same year and is characterized by the use of environmentally friendly systems and materials. The laying dry system of paving in local stone, is used to keep the permeability of the soil and limit the impact on the landscape. For the garden containment edges, which act as benches, it has been used a fixture system in chestnut palings.

VERSO was nominated for the “Rosa Barba Prize 2016” in the Biennial of Landscape Architecture of Barcelona, for the “RiUSO 05” Award of the National Council of Architects, for the “FirstWork Prize 2016” of the Bauwelt magazine. Thanks to this project, MARGINE reached the Third place prize at the New Italian Blood, an award for Under36 Landscape Architects. The project was published on the cover of the “Architettura Italiana” magazine and on “Paysage Topscape” magazine.

Facts & Credits:

Project: VERSO – Development and Preservation of the Coastal Environment of San Foca 
Design-Construction-Supervision: MARGINE (Giulio Ciccarese, Valentina Pontieri)
Location: San Foca – Italy
Year of construction: 2016
Area: 1700 mq
Budget: 122.120,96 €
Image credits: Mauro Curlante, Valentino Curlante