MARCO   ZANINI 

Reinterpreting the city starting from the moat

The moat, a negative place in the city, represents a unique and unrepeatable opportunity to restart that desired relationship between man and nature. 

We imagine this place, the limit of the two cities, old and new, as a bridge between the two, a space that attempts to reactivate some latent dynamics that the city brings into being.  

Abbiategrasso is located within a particular territorial context still characterized by the strong presence of a landscape that takes the form of a compact and uniform agricultural system. The territory that can be observed around the city is manifested according to a precise and geometric order of cultivated fields, rows of trees, irrigation canals and local roads. This conformation is the final result of a very long evolutionary process which aims to maximize the productive potential of these territories. In this context, nature assumes the role of absolute protagonist, characterizing the type of crops that are applied to individual agricultural plots. Here, it takes the form of large monocultural extensions that create a contradictory contrast between the large number of plant species and their limited biological complexity.
As far as the city sector is concerned, here we observe the typical urban configurations of natural elements that manifest themselves in the form of rows of trees, flowerbeds, parks and gardens. In this context, the natural component takes on the role of urban element of the city's composition in close assonance with the anthropic elements present within the city. 
In this situation there is the need to create a context in which it is possible to create a different relationship between man and nature, in which the two elements are placed on the same level and that its fruition becomes an experience of knowledge, perception and respect towards of the same. A context in which it is once again possible to see plants grow freely and understand the natural evolutionary dynamics connected to the seasons, creating a new level of awareness for the visitor. 
This relationship will be developed in the project by proposing three different configurations of nature for each of the three parks involved in the project (Republic, Constitution and Allea).
As regards instead the dynamics of an urban nature between the city and the moat, today we are witnessing a contradictory relationship of (physical) proximity which however is opposed to a distance of a functional nature. 
The relationship of distance that exists between the two elements occurs due to an almost total closure of the urban fronts of the city towards the moat and even where this continuity is interrupted, there are elements such as walls and railings that deny this connection.  
The design idea that we want to express is based on the desire to interrupt this closure between the moat and the city by opening connecting passages between the two elements whenever there are urban elements that allow it (pathways, internal courtyards, public buildings ) from which it will be possible to access an infrastructural element that crosses the entire moat longitudinally. 
These openings represent passages through which it will be possible to activate some fronts, now the backs of the city, creating an urban front in close interaction with the park. On the contrary, the moat enters the city redeveloping some roads that are now marginal so as to form new axes of penetration to the city.
Without a moat there is no city and vice versa.