PROJECT

Urban

PJ.07

 

  • Commission.
  • Program: Intermodal Station, Offices, Public Spaces.
  • Site: Genoa, Italy.
  • Surface: Built area 82.800 m2, Open Area 59.300 m2.
  • Budget: 112.390.000 euros.
  • Client: Amministrazione Doria Pamphilj.
  • Chronology: 2001.
  • Concept Design.

 

Palazzo del Principe and its loggia play a fundamental role as a consistent element of great symbolic and figurative importance within the transformation process of this portion of Genoa.

They are the center around which an articulate plan is constructed: it is the monumental element that, thanks to the complex system to which it belongs, claims functional and figurative authority. The palace is the Gate of the City for people coming from the West, and, due to its symbolic value, it contributes to give force and clarity to the context in which it is placed.

The intervention  covers the coastal city strip defined on the East side by the Hennebique silos, and on the West side by Ponte dei Mille pier and by Adua Street.

Being a project of urban infrastructure, the design is strongly tied to the revaluation of several objects with great architectural relief: Palazzo del Principe itself, its loggia by sea, old city balcony on the coastal arch, and the Maritime Station, currently the most meaningful element for people arriving to Genoa by boat.

The main concept we used in order to bring users back to these buildings was the creation of a great slab at the level of Adua Street which follows the sea line from the Maritime Station to Ponte dei Mille terminal and extends in depth to  cover part of the railroad area and Mura degli Zingari Street. Such slab, equipped partially as a waterfront promenade and partially as a sequence of public plazas with facilities and commercial activities, is proposed as the head of a great pedestrian system starting from the Expo area and  embracing the harbour arch along the historical city.