THE DISCUSSION
Pierantonio Palluzzi has thrown the classic stone into the pond of the city debate on the future of the historic center. The mayor Matilde Celentano responded piquedly, essentially saying that the municipal administration has been working on these issues for some time. To stimulate discussion and to avoid the risk that it will no longer be talked about and that nothing will change in the near future, we asked those who know the center of Latina inside out, have studied it, and have edited a precious guide to its architecture and projects to fuel the discussion. He is Pietro Cefaly, architect (even if he says of himself «I practice architecture»), founder of the urban culture institute “Casa dell’architettura”.
Do you have any advice to give so as not to let a discussion that seems promising die prematurely?
«To give answers to the city you must first have studied it».
So we are in the right place.
«The House of Architecture has been there for 27 years, we have filled a void. On January 3, Silvia Colasanti died at the age of 41, the author of an unsurpassed study on public housing in Latina that we are about to republish. Our spirit is this: study to understand.”
Let’s apply the concept to the center of Latina. What is missing and what should be there.
«Let’s start from an assumption. The things Pierantonio Palluzzi said are interesting and largely agreeable. But I believe that it is necessary, it always is when tackling a problem, to do it in a methodologically correct way. And so the question to answer is: what can I need?”.
She says it.
«Let’s start with a building that is being talked about a lot in this period. Of the former Bank of Italy that the Municipality has just purchased. I hear imaginative hypotheses about its future use. I believe it should be destined for a use that has collective value. I think of the State Archives. Where money was once stored, we can now store city documents. Certainly not putting the registry office there.”
The art gallery?
“Yes, things like that.”
Palluzzi said that intervening in Latina is easier than elsewhere.
«We are a young city. And, especially in the centre, incomplete. We are the city of unresolved spaces. The first, the most macroscopic is where we are now.”
Let’s explain: the Casa dell’Architettura is located behind the Ruspi where the architect Stirling had thought of building the library and where a car park was built instead.
«We have quite clear ideas about this space at the Casa dell’Architettura: it must become a Kulturforum like in Berlin. Another emblematic space is the car park next to the Liceo Classico.”
But how do we figure out how to fill the gaps?
«With urban planning. Piccinato made the concept very clear: urban planning is the mediation of different interests.”
But can you imagine a center without cars?
«I don’t want parking either. I’ve been saying this for some time, since at the beginning of the 90s we created the House of Culture project where there was an elevated square that connected the warehouses of the former Agricultural Consortium with the city park with the car parks underneath.”
Underground parking, therefore. And then?
«I’m interested in the theoretical aspect of the problem, a project that is useful for the city. We live in a period of climate change, of warming, of floods. So I say: let’s exploit the opportunities of a project for our historic center.”
Any examples?
«In Holland there are water squares, for example. In the summer they are amphitheatres, open spaces, in the winter when it rains too much you can flood and prevent the canals from overflowing. That’s what projects are for. It’s not a question of style, necessity must influence the solutions, we must use our brains.”
Can you tell us 5 things that you think the city center needs?
«The first thing is the people. The center is depopulated, we need to find a way to repopulate it. Second, mobility: finding a way to get people there, I’m not thinking so much about roads as about waterways and cycle paths. Third, contemporaneity, functions that create the economy today. Fourth, green. The English students who arrived for our masterclass were amazed at the spaces available where they can spread greenery, bringing plants also means recreating biodiversity. I would say that this is enough.”
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