Renovation of the Livorno Market Area

TECHNOLOGICAL NATURALIZATION

The RTI led by Binini Partners, with Borneo Architecture, won the two-degree design competition for the urban restoration of the Livorno Mercatale Area. The Administration requested a project capable of expanding the market system of the entire area from a commercial, logistical and social point of view. Therefore, the design concerns an overall urban enhancement, through a redevelopment of the area recognizable by architectural features with design solutions that interpret a market pattern in a contemporary key in direct dialogue with the Vettovaglie market and with the city.

The project involves the hybridization of episodes of re-naturalization and construction of technologically and technically sensitive artifacts to the environment and human well-being. Four semi-covered gardens will host the market, mending the urban fabric and giving the area a renewed identity.

The Buontalenti oasis, in direct relationship with the Vettovaglie market, restores a strip of city used in a disorderly manner, providing operators with elegant and functional sales spaces inspired by ancient shops. The Herb Garden, on the other hand, becomes a center of attraction and organizer of the fruit and vegetable market, also applying to host a multitude of activities. Two other interventions, on Via del Giglio and Via di Franco, act as access points to the area, as well as elements of landscape cohesion. Each artifact is integrated in its context with a precise functional strategy but open to transformation.

The market becomes a Natural Commercial Park: an environment conducive to quality social aggregation, which encourages life outdoors, the exchange of ideas and the sharing of moments of well-being. A place where cultural activity can find space alongside commercial activities thanks to a new mediating element: nature.