Urban seed. In search of the enrichment and integration between city and countryside

ABSTRACT Many cities around the world were grown near the rivers because of the convenience of having the water close for the people’s necessities. With the evolution of the infrastructure, the rivers in Brazil, the country where I was born, lost their importance and many of them were channeled or became just an open wastepipe, while in Europe they continue to be one of the main points of tourist attraction or leisure for the population and are normally located in the center of the city. In Piacenza, province of Emilia Romagna, we have a different case. Located near to the most important river of Italy, the “Po”, the city grew opposite to it. Besides this fact, during the centuries many barriers were created between Piacenza and the river, starting from the renaissance wall and further on the road infrastructure, making very difficult and dangerous for pedestrian and bikes to arrive near the river. The growth of the city opposite the river also made the largest monument in the city, Farnese Palace, remain sidelined, although it is one of the main touristic attraction of the city, its surrounding is not attractive at all. Analyzing the global scale, Slow Food Movement is a non-profit member-supported association that started in Italy in 1989 and now is spread in 150 countries around the world. In opposition to the fast food and fast life that most of the people are used in the modern society, the organization try to valorize the local food traditions, the interest of the people in the food they eat, where it comes from, how it taste and to educate the people how their food choices affect the rest of the world. When we go to the country scale we see that the universal exposition of 2015 has the theme of “feeding the planet, energy for life”, therefore will include technology, innovation, culture, tradition and creativity related to food and diet. Parallel to the main site of the Expo there is a project that is taking place at Politecnico di Milano to widespread the Expo in the Italian territory through sustainable interventions in general and local scale. Coming to the regional scale, we can observe that Italy is one of the countries that receive more tourists in the world and has the biggest number of UNESCO world heritage, but while millions people go to Toscana to visit Florence or Pisa, the “food-loving” travelers go to Emilia Romagna. And because food is a very important part of a culture, Emilia Romagna has nothing less than 19 museums dedicated to it. Taking advantage of this moment of attention that the world is giving to the issue of food and sustainability and mainly if we consider the region where the city of Piacenza is located, the idea was to create a center of research, experimentation, vocational training, dissemination and development assistance in the areas of agriculture, food, and environment. The project would be located in the sites between Palazzo Farnese and the river for a requalification of these areas. The project was named “Urban Seed” due to some reasons. First is the idea of bringing to the city the knowledge, consciousness and more contact with the countryside. And secondly is the metaphor of “planting” the building in this border between the city and the countryside as a seed that, as it grows, spread its roots and branches bringing benefits to both sides.