(VIDEO) #MaiPiùUltimi – Livadoti: «Let’s light the fire of positivity» ~ CrotoneOk.it

During the event “A Year of CrotoneOk 2023” the newspaper launched MaiPiùUltimi in relation to the quality of life ranking of Il Sole 24 Ore which sees the Pythagorean province always relegated to the last positions. MaiPiùUltimi will therefore be the “fil rouge” of 2024 around which to develop a serious debate, based on comparison with the aim of turning the spotlight on the critical issues and excellences of our territory. This week we interviewed the president of the Crotone architects’ association, Francesco Livadoti.

How important is it in an area like ours, reluctant to debate but very prone to controversy, to open a serious reflection on critical issues and excellence?
Who knows how many more times we will have to ask ourselves this question. I think this is a front that has been open for too long. To this day we have not been able to answer this question despite many attempts from various quarters. Lately the world of sport has also tried to give a boost to the area. Unfortunately, today there is no real vision with a push that comes from the community, a sharing as a driving force that puts the many positive aspects of this territory into operation. Living the experience of the “One year of CrotoneOk” event made us understand that positivity generates positivity. And I think this is the path to take: systematising the positivities of the city and the territory.

Professional associations play a strategic role. Can more be done?
More can and must be done. As president of the Order of Architects, from day one I have felt the responsibility of what a professional association can do and what it can give for its territory. There was no shortage of opportunities. As coordinator of the architects of the South, I tried to bring to Crotone experiences that take place in other territories, especially on good practices and to understand how the orders affect other cities. I like to tell the story of the hummingbird, a bird that during a forest fire, instead of running away like all the other animals, including the lion, goes towards the fire carrying water in its small beak to try to put it out . By this I simply want to say that everyone can and must make their own contribution, like the hummingbird. Instead of putting out the fire we must help light the fire of positivity. And professional associations can come together to do their part, even as individual professionals who have a responsibility towards the city

There is an open discussion between the different orders to find common ground where they can have an impact, architects for example are among the promoters of the debate that has opened on the future of Piazza Pitagora
We are also further ahead than a simple open discussion. For the first time we managed to convince an administration to stop its activity and confront orders, traders and citizens. And it happened right in Piazza Pitagora where we decided to hold an ideas competition. This is no small achievement. We have created a model that is easily replicable.
We started from the bottom, from the needs and requirements of the people, of individual citizens, understanding what there was to know from those who live in the square, use it, live there, work there. And this helped us put together ideas which are not the project, but are a contribution to achieving the goal. I think that the professional associations, together with the trade associations, have succeeded in this circumstance, and I think the main result is precisely that of having created a network, all going in the same direction.

What is the most important issue for addressing the topic of development? Where to start to meet the challenge of the future?
I think that the most important issue is precisely the one that has returned to the fore in recent days: reclamation. In May there will be a new service conference, the topic of hazardous waste has returned, to be held in the city or to be taken out. But I think that in order to be able to talk about development and therefore address issues such as reclamation, we should have a vision of the city, but not from here to a year, but from now to the next twenty years. On the CrotoneOk stage I said that probably if today the reclamation is carried out by keeping the waste in the city, or worse by burying it in situ, then it might as well have been done twenty years ago. Today we would have that area back. An area that is strategic because it represents the development of the city, a social and urban development, opening up to the rest of the region. That is an area that for too many years has represented a barrier to the opening and entrance of the city. It is not just a matter of “cleaning up” that part of the territory, but it would be a matter of carrying out a real urban and social regeneration of a territory that has always represented a place of work that was physically opposed to the city.
But this space can represent, today, the real driving force of the city’s development. It is clear that without a vision of the future, the reclamation could only turn out to be a rewinding of the tape: a simple and negative turning back.

We return to Piazza Pitagora. It is said that to be able to see the future you must know the past well. Can we then think that the development of this territory can start from its historic centre?
The historic centers of our cities have represented the development of the territory, I am thinking of cities like Cosenza, like Reggio Calabria, but also Bari, Lecce or Gallipoli. this is evidence that we are left behind from this point of view too. There was a moment when it seemed that the historic center was at the center of the city’s development reasoning, but then it stopped. We can take it back, certainly, but perhaps first we should have a clear idea of ​​what our historic center should become, we cannot think that everything is always fine. Choices need to be made, because if you don’t have a clear idea of ​​what every single part of the city should become, development cannot be created. You have to make choices and then follow them until realization. Decide and do, I don’t think there is any other way.