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Villard12_Urban Mutations
Palermo (IT)
Villard12 international design seminar focuses on the city of Palermo. Its ‘Fiera del Mediterraneo’ is part of system of places that were once active but now are in the middle of a transformation process. It is an opportunity for reflecting about mutations in the contemporary city. The old fair's space is reinterpreted in a wider context: a triangle of soil at the bottom of mount Pellegrino, where the natural appendix is set, close to the harbor, bounded within two high-transit roads and its adjacent infrastructure. The design project is made of three elements, given by the local border conditions: water and greenery, two typical elements of Palermo, mark the rhythm of a lengthwise path crossing the whole parcel. Further on, a fence is designed to be the main project’s disposal: it protects the area from the city’s traffic, dealing with new functions, which are hosted by fence's depth and its relationship with the exististing pavilions.