The New Dense-city tra Collage City e Citta Analoga

The Prin 2007 research project of the Palermo Unit. The New Dense-city betweenCollage City e Analogous Town. In the introductory paper submitted by thePalermo Unit, Andrea Sciascia transforms the results reached in the incipit allowing us to assess the entire path followed by the research excursus.A thorough examination has been carried out on the final plans, the so-calledrecompositions stemming from the the merging of a number of projects on thetwo neighbourhoods under study: Borgo Ulivia and ZEN. The reflection startsfrom a specific verb: densifying. The suburban fabric of the two neighbourhoods becomes more dense by adding those missing facilities, but especially by re-establishingrelations between built-up areas and the road infrastructure. Thesefacilities are present in both settlements like a real brand. Together with the verb“densifying”, the recompositions highlight an overall order which may be translatedfrom one place to another into the words matching, tracing, renewing,spinning and sighting.In a complementary way together with densifying and ordering, urban emptyspaces are examined, suggesting a synthesis between two of the more well knownimages of Collage City, St Dié, in Le Corbusier’s hypothesis, and the historicalfabric of Parma. These two diametrically opposed alternatives, highlight thecompletion methods adopted for the two Palermo neighbourhoods throughrecompositions. These projects are not absolute frameworks of the portions ofthe town plans, but are offered as possible “alternatives to the town plan” rememberingwhat Aldo Rossi said in the text accompanying the “analagous city”.