Redefining Petty Island. Designing a development park for a neglected area in the Delaware River

Subject of the thesis work is Petty Island, a neglected area in the Deleware River whose adjacent waterfronts share the same abandoned condition. In the first phase of the work, the study analysis and comprehension of the island physical, historical and social evolution have highlighted the critical aspects of this marginal post industrial territory, which unstable conditions are also challenged by flooding risk. The thesis aim is a regeneration proposal for Petty Island and its context, starting from considerening its weaknesses and resources and address to each of them a specific strategical action. The outcome of this approach is a masterplan design of the whole area through infrastructural reordening and integration, abandoned buildings recovering or dismanteling, reserve areas maintenance and preservation, vacant land consolidation and improvement. The project is a new landscape concieved as a riverpark, which is not only a place to enjoy but also a green public network that reconnects the city to the river. The ecological problemtic issues are another important aim in the rethinking of Petty island and its adjacent waterfront and the measures adopted to overcome the flooding risk are due to adaptation, mitigation and protection. Among the critical characteristic of the area, the thesis work considers the energetic resources potentialities of the island to have a key role in the identification of a suitable regeneration proposal. The idea is therefore to transform the island into an attractive and productive park of renewable resources energies, leisure spots and wildlife acivities. The development park provides as well as a resource of energy itself, a chance to learn from it and the thesis work deals with the design of the Learning, Research and Development Center of Petty Island, a complex building in which this activities are enhanced.