Introduction to the PPD (abstract) - IL PARCO CENTRALE DI PRATO

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INTRODUCTION PPD PRELIMINARYPLANNING DOCUMENT(ABSTRACT)

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INTRODUCTION TO THE PPD _ DESIGN COMPETITION (ABSTRACT)IL PARCO CENTRALE DI PRATO

This Preliminary Planning Document (PPD) provides the information necessary to participate in the design competition for the urban park in the area of the former Misericordia e Dolce Hospital, called “Il Parco Centrale di Prato”.

The construction of the new hospital in Galciana means that the most recent and largest part of the old hospital complex located within the historical center can be closed, and once demolished it will create space for the construction of an urban park of over 3 hectares. This document refers to the conception and design of said park.

The design competition will be held following a restricted procedure, with the prior selection of candidates from which 10 design groups will be chosen to proceed to the second phase of the competition based on submission of a preliminary plan of the park, and which may conclude with the assignment of the task of drawing up the definitive project and working plan of the park in addition to the awarding of first prize to the winning design group.

The official competition documents may be downloaded from the website of the Comune di Prato.

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Prato is a vibrant, contradictory, innovative, and conflictual city: a city that, from the start of the 20th century and in particular from after the Second World War, has represented a formidable urban, social, cultural and economic laboratory where new models have often been tested.

Today, compared to international metropolises, it is a small city but it contains all their complexity. It is actually one of those medium-size cities in which new social models of coexistence, new forms of production, and innovative ways of training the younger generations are being tested at global level: medium-sized cities that have the flexibility, the ability to absorb changes and the openness to innovation necessary to check the effects of these transformations in a short time and to indicate new possible scenarios to move towards on the difficult path of overcoming the international economic crisis.

Prato is constantly evolving.Prato is a contemporary city, it is the city of contemporaneity in Tuscany.

Prato, with its over 190,000 residents, is the third city of central Italy after Rome and Florence. It is located in the middle of the metropolitan area of Florence, Prato and Pistoia where over 1,000,000 people live.Prato is the most important fashion and textile center of Europe and represents one of the largest Italian

Deputy Mayor for Urban Planning Valerio Barberis, Comune di Prato

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industrial districts. Prato’s specialization in textile production dates back to the 12th century: the boom started after the Second World War, between 1950 and 1981, until it became one of the most important centers worldwide for the production of woolen threads and fabrics.

The concept of the “Industrial District” originated in Prato: the economist Giacomo Becattini developed his theory on industrial districts in order to describe the textile, social and manufacturing economy of the city.119 ethnicities live side by side in Prato.Prato is home to the largest Chinese community in Italy: it is the third European city, after Paris and London, with the most Chinese citizens.

The first contemporary art center in Italy was built in Prato: the Luigi Pecci Center for Contemporary Art. Designed by Italo Gamberini, it was opened in June 1988: in October 2016 the Center will be reopened in its new guise, with a new wing designed by Maurice Nio alongside the original building, and in its new role as the Center for Contemporary Arts of the Over the last 15 years Prato has witnessed the evolution of its economy: further sectors have been developed alongside the textile-fashion industry, including the ICT sector, the agri-food sector – with interesting experiences with organic production, producer groups and short “km0” supply chains – and fast

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fashion, linked primarily to the Chinese community, which is now considered the largest in Europe.

At the Teatro Metastasio, with the “Laboratorio di Prato”, Luca Ronconi changed the history of contemporary theater. For the first time a factory was used for theatrical performances: he staged Oresteia in 1974 at the Fabbricone Ronconi.

Museo del Tessuto nell’antica Fabbrica Campolmi.

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Prato is one of the European centers for recycling practices: traditionally produced fabric, carded fabric, comes from reusing waste fabrics, that is cast-off clothing. Today, in addition to textile production, there is a real ecological district divided into recycling from which products are developed, innovation and research in the fashion sector, the water cycle, the construction industry, waste disposal and design.

Prato aims to be increasingly seen as a place of contemporaneity, a place where the signs of the past and those of today find new forms of dialogue. So Prato understood as a city of fashion and the visual and performance arts, a city where many ethnicities coexist, a city of new economic sectors, a city experimenting with urban recycling practices, a city of innovation in training young people, a sustainable city, and youthful city: the new Parco Centrale must represent this reality.

The area of the former Misericordia e Dolce Hospital represents one of the main strategic objectives the Municipality is currently involved in. Following a recent agreement with the Tuscany Regional Government, the Municipality has come into possession of the area inside the walls currently occupied by the buildings of the former Hospital and a town planning variation for the creation of a new large urban park of around 3 hectares to serve

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the city is currently awaiting final approval. A park with facilities where citizens will find a high quality environmental context aimed at increasing the physical and mental well-being of people, designed for all users, with particular attention to disabled people, which must have equipment and services that bring it to life at all hours of the day and in all seasons. A park that, in synergy with the large car park area outside the walls, must function as a real entrance gate to the ancient city from the south, a place capable of patching up relationships in the urban fabric of that area, connected to many sectors of the center thanks to a series of new paths and entrances.

A new large public space which must become attractive as a metropolitan area and due to the flows of international cultural tourism thanks to the facilities contained therein and thanks to quality and innovation in the treatment of the green areas and the presence of art and architecture with strong contemporary connotations: a new modern-day place set within a historical and valuable context, capable of conveying the image of Prato as the city of the contemporaneity of Tuscany.

Valerio Barberis

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This document, drawn up pursuant to art. 15 of Presidential Decree 207/2010, addresses and describes the following topics.1. Territorial classification and features of the area.2. Analysis of the site and material aims of the project.

a. The urban park starts outside the walls and inside the historical center;b. A park that expresses the contrast between contemporaneity and the ancient site on which it will stand.

3. Strategic objectives:a. Il Parco Centrale di Prato. A place capable of conveying the image of “Prato the contemporary city”, a place that effectively contributes to the social and economic development of the city center;b. Il Parco Centrale di Prato. A place also understood in terms of strengthening the attraction for tourists, which goes beyond the performance of the traditional functions linked to an “urban park”;c. Il Parco Centrale di Prato. Zero energy, sustainable design and construction, total accessibility.

4. Design stages to be developed, their logical sequence and relative execution times, for both the part to be obtained with the competition itself and the part that will be developed thereafter.

5. Design standards, graphical representations and descriptions to be prepared, financial limits to be respected and estimate of costs, funding sources and possible implementation systems to be used.

6. Framework of the legal constraints relating to the context where the project will be sited.

Attachments to the PPD:• The history of the Misericordia e Dolce (MeD) Hospital;• The textile district of Prato;• The Program Agreement of 10 October 2014 and the provisions of

the town planning variation;• Social and economic overview.

Preparatory documents for the competition:• Tav0 - Aerial photo of the site• Tav1 – Project site• Tav2 – Simulation of the project site after the demolition• Tav3 – Urban plan variance• Tav4 – Survey at scale 1:500• Tav5 – Survey at scale 1:1000

INTRODUCTION TO THE PPD _ DESIGN COMPETITION (ABSTRACT)IL PARCO CENTRALE DI PRATOTPO / Théâtre National de Chaillot company. Pop up Garden. Fabbrichino Theater, 2014.

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The area object of this competition, located inside the perimeter of the city walls, represents a large portion of the south-west quarter of the Historical Center where the axes of ancient foundations can easily be identified: the Decumanus Maximus (the present-day Porta Pistoiese up to Piazza San Marco) and the Cardo Maximus (from the Porta al Serraglio train station up to Porta Santa Trinità). The heart of the city, represented by Piazza del Comune, around which the “center” of the Historical Center has developed, is still located at the point where they meet. The main architectural features of the city are concentrated here as well as a series of commercial and cultural enterprises set up to serve a regional user base.

The remaining part of the Historical Center is divided into four quarters with distinct architectural and social characteristics:

TERRITORIAL CLASSIFICATION AND FEATURES OF THE AREA

- to the northwest the quarter of San Fabiano, developed around the church of Sant’Agostino, is currently affected by thriving urban redevelopment which has led to the reclamation of the public spaces by the citizens and an increase in the number of residents;

- the Mercatale area to the northeast is characterized by the large open area of the square, today mostly used as a public car park and a favorite destination for users of the Historical Center. Around the car park there are various services and commercial activities (offices, shops, restaurants, nightspots) which bring the quarter to life at all hours of the day and night. In olden times the Mercatale was a place of exchange and business; it has maintained this vocation to the present day and is capable of attracting users on a wider territorial scale. The square is undergoing maintenance work which includes the extension of

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the sidewalk on the southeast side, where most of the businesses are located, in order to create a large space for walking and leisure;

- to the southeast the Santa Chiara quarter is characterized by the joint presence of two distinct relational systems: one is on a local scale and comprised of a considerable number of residences where social relationships are established, and the other is on a wider territorial scale and comprised of the exhibition-cultural center of the former Campolmi Factory (site of the Textile Museum and the Municipal Library) and the medieval Cassero (a fortified

corridor connecting the Emperor’s Castle and the city walls);

- to the southwest the Convents area mainly houses buildings with a functional character, schools of various types and levels, as well as a series of religious institutions such as the Convents of San Domenico, Santa Caterina and San Niccolò. Over the years these settlements have led to the establishment of a system of relationships at territorial scale which play out within the individual buildings and at certain times of the day, without managing to involve the network of local relationships and without forming links with the rest of the city. This situation, however,

Santa Maria delle Carceri. Foto di Julio César Mesa.

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derives from the functional structure that the area assumed in the past when the vegetable gardens of the aforementioned convents occupied it entirely, thereby excluding relations with the rest of the city. The historical presence of numerous convents and their walled vegetable gardens as well as, from 1970 to the present day, the presence of the current hospital which represented a “halt” in the development of a stable network of relationships with the historical center and with the immediate periphery, together with the complete lack of spatial and interpersonal relationships, has made the former hospital area a closed off unit.

On the edge of the competition area Via Santa Trinita is recognized for its vitality having been the subject of nightlife and trade initiatives. Near Via Sant’Orsola is the former Avis center of the Ami foundation, an important facility for the recovery of children with disabilities. In Via Santa Caterina there is a convent of the same name, now the headquarters of the Departments of Culture, Education and Economic Development and of the Data Processing Center of the Municipality. The General Register Offices of the Municipality are also in Via Santa Caterina, in the former public conveniences.

There are also important higher

education institutes on the north edge of the project area such as the San Niccolò conservatory, the Cicognini boarding school, the Cesare Guasti middle schools and the Etruria complex, an important sports facility.

Adjacent to the walls is a series of industrial buildings, only some of which are vacant and others are used for cultural-exhibition purposes. Important public functions are located to the south, beyond Via Cavour. The former slaughterhouses, the headquarters of the Officina Giovani (Youth Center), mainly given over to initiatives linked to youth policies; the headquarters of the Municipal Police and the Giovannini health center.

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ANALYSIS OF THE SITE AND MATERIAL AIMS OF THE PROJECT2

a. Il Parco Centrale di Prato. The park starts outside the walls and inside the historical center.

The park, entrance gate to the city. The location of the new urban park is strategic for the territorial structure of the Prato plain and for its existing infrastructural arrangement. This reading reveals a clear territorial design fit to support the strategic importance of the new urban park. The area where the new park will be located is connected through Via Nenni and via Monnet to the “Declassata”, former trace for a future highway, today connection for the metropolitan area. The area where Via Nenni joins the “Declassata” is moreover located centrally between the exits of the two tollgates Prato est and Prato ovest on the A11 motorway. The stretch of Via Monnet located to the north has large parking areas built to serve the former hospital; they will obviously support the new park but they will also turn this area into a new entrance

to the historical city center. The vehicle entrances created for the former hospital are also compatible with the new functions envisioned by the town planning variation, according to the DCC 63/2015, and to the park.

The park connected to the historical center. The park will provide access to the historical center at several points; this does not involve creating new openings but only rethinking the existing ones and connecting the new park to the ancient city. Below is a list of pedestrian accesses:• Pedestrian access from the

Hospital square. The program agreement signed with ASL (Local Health Authority) in 2014, among other things, sets out that ASL itself must allow pedestrian access between the hospital square, owned by the municipality, and the new park during the day. The first part of the pedestrian stretch is a semi-covered path crossing the buildings owned by ASL, in part used as healthcare facilities

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and administrative offices and in part referring to the new project, again owned by ASL but intended for private uses.

• Pedestrian access from Santa Caterina. This access connects the part to Via Santa Caterina through the former Convent of Santa Caterina, today house of some municipal offices. This access can be considered in designing the park, and its actual feasibility will be object of a subsequent design.

• Pedestrian access from the Hospital alley. The already existing entrance has always connected the square of the Cicognini boarding school to the hospital area, functioning as a service entrance for the former hospital. This access is essential for the park and it will also bring benefits to Piazza del Collegio which, together with other parts of the adjacent historical center, is rarely visited or used by the population as, besides the Cicognini boarding school, there are no other attractions that would support or draw visitors. The creation of the park must therefore help to encourage this new permeability of the entire area that converges in Piazza del Collegio.

• Pedestrian access from the Sant’Orsola gardens. The Sant’Orsola garden is located to the east of the former hospital complex. It is a very

important green area for this part of the historical center. Residents can get together here, and it is also linked to the enhancement of the commercial network that has arisen in Via Santa Trinita where the businesses have also seen the aesthetic improvement of the road. These gardens too must be completely connected and integrated in the design of the new urban park in order to create relationships and synergy with Via Santa Trinita (a radial of the historical center) and with the vitality that the road itself has rediscovered.

A park for everyone. The new park in the former hospital area must be designed for everything and everyone and must be available for use throughout the entire day, including the evening. The new park must make the accessibility clear and generalized. It must be a place for the people that performs all the functions linked to free time, sport, recreation, culture, and food. The urban park must also serve the city and the neighboring areas and perform the basic functions linked to green areas, relaxation, walks, free time, and the eco-biological rebalancing of the city center.

An open and lively park even in the evening. The new park must become a meeting point for the evening welcoming the

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young population of the area and performing more attractive functions in this sense. Prato, with respect to other Tuscan and Italian cities, is in fact statistically a young city. The park must therefore offer a light and versatile meeting place and use this feature to encourage integration, dialogue and encounters.

b. Il Parco Centrale di Prato. A park that expresses the contrast between contemporaneity and the ancient site on which it will stand.

The project area is characterized by the “void” created by the vegetable gardens of the hospital, which remained intact until the enlargement was built in the 1960s and 1970s. The following is an account of the elements present on the edge of the area and inside it, with which the project must dialogue.• The walls. In 1351 the

construction of the third city wall was completed. Built for defensive purposes, it established the boundary of the city. As we have already mentioned, the city did not grow for a long time and the medieval walls have survived to this day. Over time the walls lost their function as a clear separation between the historical city and the city that grew outside the walls,

and in various cases they became the edge against which other buildings were placed, including residential and manufacturing buildings. Besides the three historical gates (Porta Pistoiese, Porta Mercatale and Porta Santa Trinita) the walls were interrupted at other points allowing the exchange of flows between the inside and the outside.

• The vegetable gardens. Even today we can see the story of the convent vegetable gardens that were once present in the area; this story emerges, for example, where the convents are still present today, such as that of San Niccolò. Observing the arrangement of the convents allows us to understand how the soil was (and is) treated.

• The Lucchesi Wool Mill. The stretch of the walls outside the former hospital area is characterized by one of the most interesting industrial buildings: for around 110 meters the curtain wall of the Lucchesi wool mill replaces the view of the walls, shifting the boundary of the historical center by 40 meters.

• The Cicognini Boarding School. Completed in 1715, with its C shape and sheer size it is one of the most prominent elements of the urban fabric of the city. The building makes a clear leap in scale with respect

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to the surrounding buildings and imposes its striking and imperious façade on the square, forming the perimeter of it on the main side.

• Former monastery of Santa Caterina. Built from the early 1500s onwards for the Dominican monastery of the same name, after the suppression in 1783 it housed the Conservatorio delle Pericolanti (an institution that assisted young women in need). It passed to the municipality in 1976 and is currently used as municipal offices and cultural spaces.

• Cultural Center in the Former Slaugherhouses / Officina Giovani. The Officina Giovani project was launched in 1998

in the former slaughterhouse buildings. It is aimed at young people who want to experiment with proposals and artistic intentions, and provides rehearsal rooms for performances, music and dance, and spaces for painting and sculpture.

• The car park in Piazzale Ebensee. The car park of around 17,000 square meters was built and expanded over time to serve the hospital. The infrastructure as it stands is currently in a position to be used for the park.

TAI Tuscan Art Industry, edition 2015. Former Lucchesi factory. Photo Stefano Roiz.

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The main aim of the competition is to completely rethink the former hospital area, creating an urban park that endows it with a functional and strategic role so as to fully include it in the network of city relations.

For the city, the creation of the urban park in the former hospital area represents an absolutely exceptional and unrepeatable occasion. Creating a park of over three hectares inside the fourteenth-century walls is in itself highly unique. It rarely happens that we witness projects of such significant proportions within parts of ancient and established cities.The walls of Prato have quite rare characteristics. In most Italian cities we have seen, over time, the continuous demolition of the city walls in order to allow the city to grow. This has not occurred in Prato. Final submission to Florence in the mid-14th century halted the growth of the city for over 400 years, essentially leaving the city walls intact to this day.

STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES

Exceptions are the sixteenth-century ramparts placed at the corner of the hexagonal walls, constructed for the sole purpose of control of the city by the Medici; the Prato-Pistoia railway line, which in the 1800s broke through the Bastione dei Giudei and the Bastione delle Civette and the stretch of wall that connected them; and a series of buildings placed against them which blocked them from view.

The uniqueness of creating the new park of the hospital has a highly innovative effect, also considering the use the area has been put to up until now. The hospital with its sheer size, despite performing an extremely important function for the city, has represented an urban and architectural element completely out of context, creating a single-function and closed area that has inhibited any relations with the outside. The construction of the large building, higher than the city walls, left very few spaces unbuilt other than those necessary to

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support the hospital such as entrances, car parks, service roads, giving the area a structure that had very little importance, not to mention the fact that it was not very usable even for those who worked there for many years.

The creation of the park will allow this large area to dialogue, finally, with the historical center, and to form a new entrance gate to it, creating new flows and routes between the walled city and the rest of the world.

The new urban park must first of all be able to change the vision and perception not only of the new place that will be created, but it must also alter the perception of the downtown areas adjacent to it, conferring awareness that a new part of the city has been created inside the walls. We will not come upon an area closed off by walls and gates, but we will detect a prevalently open area capable of becoming a hub of vitality for the center and for the city outside the walls.

This context and these premises give rise to objectives, strategies, needs and functions that the new park project must assess and pursue in the forms and contents that the project will reinstate.

a. Il Parco Centrale di Prato. A place capable of conveying the image of

“Prato the contemporary city”, a place that effectively contributes to the social and economic development of the city center.

key is that of representing “Prato the contemporary city”. A totally complex concept, with several meanings as well as multiple vantage points.

The city has seen a profound change in its social and economic structure. In twenty years it has shifted from a city that identified itself as the center of the textile production district, which employed everyone and everything, to a deep diversification of its economic and social structure, which has seen both the rise of new economic sectors and the textile sector turn towards the upper part of the chain and towards fashion design. At the same time and as a result, the city has seen its social structure change. Just as in the post WWII period, when Prato welcomed significant immigration from many regions of Italy, the city is witnessing notable foreign immigration which sees the presence of over 100 ethnicities in the city. These significant aspects make Prato a place that is constantly evolving and undergoing continuous transformation.The new park project must interpret this deep change

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and propose a place capable of expressing concepts that even oppose each other: such as diversity and equality, union and separation, integration and marginalization, and interpret them in design terms. A project, therefore, that can help us to understand, address and guide the strong social and economic changes that are currently characterizing the territory of Prato.

The concept of Prato the contemporary city encompasses other contents, including:• Prato city of the contemporary

arts, visual arts and performance arts. The city is home to three institutions that give space to the visual arts, which are different yet complementary. The Luigi Pecci Center for Contemporary Art which collects, documents and promotes the most advanced artistic research and that has taken on the role of a center for the contemporary arts of Tuscany; the Textile Museum dedicated to promoting the art of textile production, both ancient and contemporary; and the Palazzo Pretorio Museum which houses the masterpieces of the civic collection. The city is also home to Teatro Metastasio, recognized in 1998 as Teatro Stabile Pubblico of Tuscany. The opportunity to create an urban park in such a significant place must help to establish a

solid relationship between the city of the arts, the park itself, and the museum network, not simply so the park becomes an appendage of them, but so it acquires meaning, becoming an integral part of them and representing their unique aspects.

• Prato city of fashion. The dynamics of the textile district are highly complex, but some elements seem to take form in this direction, such as the recent creation of the national districts of fashion (Milan-Biella and Florence-Prato-Rome) and the consequent strategies in the fashion design sector that must lead to programs shared by the production districts, trade fair institutions and the main fashion design schools present in the vast area. Integration between companies, the creation of producer groups and short supply chains, and the formation of sites promoting the textile district to the fashion sector, are moving in this direction. In parallel to this we are witnessing the emergence of the fast fashion district, connected to the Chinese community, which is undergoing strong growth and is of a significant size at European level. What is not changing is the heritage of skills and capabilities that are historically rooted in industries: creativity, speed, reactiveness, production of high quality

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pieces of fashion design, know-how and machinery developed for woolen threads. According to this view, new strategies are required. The Prato district, Giacomo Becattini said, is not just a bunch of businesses, but a system, a community of businesses and people.

• Prato the intercultural city, Prato a city with a strong identity. The statistical data available shows that there are over 119 ethnicities in Prato, which overall amount to 15% of the resident population. At the same time, the city keeps a strong sense of identity alive. It is this strong identity that has made it possible to maintain the strong reception, integration and social mobility capabilities that the city has demonstrated when called upon to address the substantial migration flows that occurred in the past. Today this task is even harder because, besides the high percentage of immigrants, the major part of this new population actually constitutes the strongest business competitor. The opportunity to create an urban park in such an ancient and prized location may encourage new lifestyles and new relationships perhaps capable of alleviating the change that has occurred and creating new ways of sharing.

b. Il Parco Centrale di Prato.

A place also understood in terms of strengthening the attraction for tourists, which goes beyond the performance of the traditional functions linked to an “urban park”.

The park must be a territorial point of reference which, despite performing the traditional functions linked to green places, attracts visitors from outside. It is an important opportunity which the city must not undervalue, almost an affirmation that makes the park, and therefore Prato, a place to be visited irrespective of the functions it performs. All the elements are present: the location, expansion, strategic importance with respect to the historical center, and the existing infrastructural system. But one really does stand out against the rest: the city’s desire to re-establish itself in the economic, turism and artistic landscape.

c. Il Parco Centrale di Prato. Zero energy, sustainable design and construction, total accessibility.

The creation of the park will help to improve the micro-climate of a good part of the city center. The closure of the hospital has already eliminated an energy-consuming element which in the summer time led to significant heat islands caused by the cooling of the rooms. The demolition and

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the creation of a park will help to further improve these aspects, including “restoration” of the cross ventilation of the area which will no longer be obstructed by the mass of the buildings. Current legislation, Legislative Decree 192/2005 “Attuazione della direttiva 2002/91/CE relativa al rendimento energetico nell’edilizia”, as integrated by Law 90/2013 and accompanied by the current implementation decrees of 1 October 2015, lays down the requirement for the achievement of zero energy in new public buildings for 2018. The requirements and parameters of the regulations mentioned must be met in the park project, therefore complying with current regulations.

The new buildings serving the park must be designed to be sustainable. In addition to the traditional safety, usability, comfort and management requirements, there are a series of requirements relating to the overall design of the building and the installed systems, which leans towards a construction style that includes the flexibility and reversibility of the technological concept, favoring its manipulation during the life cycle.

The design of the buildings in the park must comply to the concept of “cradle to cradle”, an innovative system based upon the absence of any “residue”; a system that doesn’t favor any

form of pollution and that respect the environment and people. It is important to choose materials which are safe and pollutants-free, using fully recyclable products that may have a new life after their initial use. Attention to the environment and to people’s health must be at the center of attention. In choosing materials, one will have to evaluate also their economical aspect.

In the park project the design of the vegetation aspects must be an integral part of the project. Therefore the solution for the vegetation must be defined from a formal and functional perspective, taking into account protection of the identity of the place and protection of the historical and architectural values of the area. For areas of the park where the use of vegetation is planned, it is fitting to consider species that are native and in any case compatible with the weather and environmental conditions in this geographic area. While not distorting the compositional aspects of the design, and while being aware that in an urban context vegetation may acquire tones of artificiality, its use should not disregard respect for the rational use of water resources and allow optimization of the management and maintenance operations.

From the perspective of contributions concerning environmental-energy issues,

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it is deemed necessary to use deciduous trees, even if not exclusively, which can clearly guarantee the correct solar gain in the park and the pavilions in the winter months and the correct shielding from solar rays in the summer months, helping to improve the eco-sustainability of the entire project, and strengthening an increase of areas with a favorable microclimate.

Playgrounds need to be inclusive, i.e. they need to be accessible to everyone, also to children with disabilities. “Inclusive” also means to take into account the needs and the peculiarities of children with mobility impairments, autism, dwarfism, social and learning disabilities, deficit attention disorders and hyperactivity. Inclusive playgrounds must have specific features, such as: a specific distance between recreational equipments, so as not to produce crowd and confusion; recreational equipments are to be easily accessed; access to play area with low handrails or small games for children with dwarfism; braille, acoustic and olfactory signage, also enhanced by flowers and plants so as to be understood by everyone.

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The project for the new park consists of two functional lots. The first includes the complete creation of the green areas and therefore of the park, as well as a built volume with a minimum area of 500 square meter of gross floor area containing, among other things, the services essential to the park itself.The second functional lot includes the creation of other buildings, up to the extent of the maximum GFA provided for in the town

DESIGN STAGES TO BE DEVELOPED, THEIR LOGICAL SEqUENCE AND RELATIVE ExECUTION TIMES, FOR BOTH THE PART TO BE OBTAINED WITH THE COMPETITION ITSELF AND THE PART THAT WILL BE DEVELOPED THEREAFTER

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planning variation adopted with Town Council Resolution 63/2015, which amounts to 3,000 square meters of GFA, and which will be managed with other administrative procedures. The design of the first lot must therefore also plan for the inclusion of the buildings of the second lot which, as a result, must be integrated into the park design from a spatial, architectural and conceptual perspective

Centro per l’Arte Contemporanea Luigi Pecci. The extension designed by Maurice Nio. Detail. Photo by Ivan D’Alì.

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The design competition will be preceded by a pre-selection necessary to identify 10 design groups who will be asked to prepare a preliminary project pursuant to art. 93 of the Code of Contracts and articles 17, 18, 19, 120, 21, 22, 23 of Presidential Decree 207/2010. In order to participate in the pre-selection it is necessary to send the documents listed in art. 3 of the competition brief. The 10 design groups selected will participate in the design competition for which it is necessary to send the documents listed in art. 4 of the competition brief, in accordance with the methods, times and specifications stated therein. The overall cost of there park, and therefore of the two functional lots, must not exceed the sum, gross of all charges, of 7,500,000 Euros. This design competition refers to the creation of the first functional lot, which amounts to 5,500,000 Euros, provided for the years 2016-2018. The cost of the first functional lot is intended gross of all charges and includes the creation of the entire park, including all the green areas and the constructed part,

DESIGN STANDARDS, GRAPHICAL REPRESENTATIONS AND DESCRIPTIONS TO BE PREPARED, FINANCIAL LIMITS TO BE RESPECTED AND ESTIMATE OF COSTS, FUNDING SOURCES AND POSSIBLE IMPLEMENTATION SYSTEMS TO BE USED

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which must be a minimum of 500 square meters of GFA and any other elements included by the winning design. The amount for the first functional lot excludes the competition prizes and the communication campaign of the same, which amount to 180,000 Euros, as well as the cost of the final and detailed design which will be assigned, by means of a private negotiation, to the winners of the competition, which amounts to 250,000 Euros. With this assignment, the Municipality of Prato will buy the production of the final and detailed design as well as the its full documentation. By means of such private negotiation, the Municipality will acquire the definitive project and working plan, as per the Presidential Decree 207/2010, whose requests are detailed by the RUP and are compliant with both this Preliminary Planning Document and with the schematic design. The final and detailed design will be also compliant with the current regulations, necessary to obtain the permission of the authorities (Soprintendenze, ASL, VVF, etc.)

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The framework for higher level constraints is provided below. Further details can be found on the following website: http://ruonline.comune.prato.it/mappebinj/jsp/ru/ruweb/mappa.jsp.

Beni Culturali Parte Seconda, Titolo I del Dlg 42/2004. Although the project area does not contain within it structures protected by the provisions of the Heritage Code, on its perimeter there are a set of buildings and structures of notable importance and listed in a ministerial decree. This refers to the city walls that form the south edge of the area; the part of the old hospital positioned around the hospital square (Palazzo degli Spedalinghi); the former Convent of Santa Caterina, located on the north side of the area; the Cicognini Boarding School again on the same side, and finally on the east side a block situated on Via Sant’Orsola from where Palazzo Mursarelli Verzoni, the Church of Spirito Santo and the

FRAMEWORk OF THE LEGAL CONSTRAINTS RELATING TO THE CONTExT WHERE THE PROJECT WILL BE SITED

6

Oratory of Sant’Orsola stand out.

Historical-settlement invariance. The project area is located within areas subject to archaeological risk where certain measures must be complied with during the park creation phase.

As regards the geological, hydraulic and seismic aspects of the area refer to the “Preliminary Geological Report” forming part of the preparatory documents for the competition.

http://ruonline.comune.prato.it/mappebinj/jsp/ru/ruweb/mappa.jsp




PROMOTERMunicipality of Prato

COMPETITION AND COMMUNICATION CONSULTANT

Image

http://www.comune.prato.it

http://www.comune.prato.it

http://www.image-web.org

http://www.image-web.org

Documents

Introduction to the PPD (abstract) - IL PARCO CENTRALE DI PRATO