A Design competition as regeneration opportunity: the Fregene’s waterfront

Abstract

The article aims to present a reflection on  the ability which has a local government to be able to regenerate a part of the city through a design competition. To do this we take as a case study of Fregene (formerly elected as a case study during a research on the development of new urban coastal centers), for which it was organized in 2006  a design competition with object the redevelopment of the waterfront.
What it was considered important to carry out in this study is an attempt to update the new instances of urban regeneration that occurred: in fact, due to the recent urban transformations and the pressing economic crisis (combined with reduced physical of  a large part of  the beach) the framework to meet the needs of today is more complex.

Therefore, we addressed to a study of the state of the town, arriving at the objectives related to the transformation hypothesis, desirable, starting from the promenade, center for the function  and important for the relationship that allows us to establish the natural character of the coastal environment.
We did, therefore, a comparison between the objectives spelled out in the notice of the administration in 2006 and those that currently appear focal for an integrated development of Fregene, to try to understand how we could rework the announcement today, in the light of the new order came to take shape.

The rethinking of the waterfront, in addition to being the topic still actual, could be integrated with new instances identified, useful to a designer who is faced with the complexity of the topic. In addition, the reflection wants to focus on how the instrument of competition may be useful to carry out a survey of the possible hypotheses of transformation, and how it can be supported by other procedural elements, needed to achieve  the objectives of  urban  regeneration.