A photo, the heart of Busto Arsizio broken in two: on one side the good lounge, on the other the parking lot. The image posted by architect Daniele Geltrudi, attentive to the city’s urban planning and road issues, reignites the debate on the future of the historic center.
A future that is about to prepare for important innovations such as the pedestrianization of via Cavallotti and via Bramante (READ HERE). But it also has its persistent problems, you see Saint Michael who never manages to be reborn. This is precisely the fracture, according to Geltrudi: San Giovanni, the living room, a pedestrian area for walking, and San Michele, which is in fact the car park. «From Piazza Manzoni to Corso Europa it’s un sea of sheet metal to get to Santa Maria”.
With this, Geltrudi is certainly not saying to ban cars: “They have to coexist with bikes and scooters.” Otherwise you also risk having a good living room, yes, but empty, as Piazza Vittorio Emanuele is too often.
However, it is necessary to recover a balance between these two areas and between means. Geltrudi looks at London and Exhibition Road: “The car is not banned from the city, you have to be able to go everywhere, there are car parks but if you leave it for an extra minute you have a certain fine.” But the other – or first – side of the coin is also walkability, so to speak. That resurfaces concept of the city 15 minutes away, where you can reach everything. Of the 30 per hour that are creating citizen and political protests, but which are found in the center of almost all cities.
Moreover, the architect quotes Gianalberto Bossi who photographed Busto like this: Eoum Baptista Latus / Tenet Aliger Ipso Occiduum / Medium Virgo Beata Forum…”. In short, the East with the Baptist, the West with the Angel (St. Michael) and in the middle the Blessed Virgin. Except that the West today – Geltrudi insists – is a parking lotin spite of its historicity (see the thousand-year-old tower).
But. Lu.
