The emblematic case of Bagnoli: what it was, what there is, what trehe should be

Abstract

The last sixteen years of administrative inertia, with many cultural and political debates open to the public, but few proposed - although not finally approved – measures, have generated several contrasting planning ideas and design solutions, characterised by utopian views and individual interests. Such approach has created the preconditions for  lack of action by public stakeholders. The deadlock derives from the concern of taking wrong decisions, that is to say the fear of privileging or tolerating speculation.
In this framework, the understanding of the territorial context of the Bagnoli’s urban void continues, with a renewed cultural, political and entrepreneurial debate. Slowed down and dispirited, the discussion does not prefigure the rehabilitation of air as the cure-all of the metropolitan area, and it downsizes its neo-directional aims which were submitted both by public administration and private entrepreneurs – having the latter disposed the predatory practice of land speculation in favour of the posh and utopian promotion of a “realm of possible”.