MASTERPLAN FOR A COSTAL BELT
Europan competition, preselected, Siracusa, Italy, 2007
Design team: Andrea Di Stefano, Aleksandra Jaeschke with Francesco Minniti
Campus Urbis proposes a model for coastal urbanization through a holistic approach in order to: [i] promote urban development while reducing its environmental impact, [ii] integrate natural and urban dynamics, and [iii] maximize the transformation of polluting agents into new resources and energies.
The project proposes a new university pole that involves the major resources of the city of Siracusa: industry, agriculture, historical and natural patrimony converge into a hub for knowledge production and work as an engine for a sustainable city growth. Through research into local officinal plants and aromatic essences, the centre provides a unique opportunity for re-conversion of the nearby chemical plants towards pharmaceutical, cosmetic and food industries; embracing the existing efforts towards agricultural innovation; the will to affirm the natural environment as a resource rather than a constraint and the desire to launch the city as a cultural centre.
The core of the programme is an open campus whose functions are spread along the coastal park and are interlinked by a light train which also connects them to the old and the new city.The faculties (Ex-Mattatoio), the student village (Tonnara), the research and the sport centre (respectively Mazzarrona and Grottasanta) are the four nodes proposed as activators of a larger programmatic and infrastructural network.
