Edilizia pubblica incompiuta italiana: Il progetto di riuso e ri-funzionalizzazione dell'ex Ospedale Psichiatrico di Laghetto (VI)

An unfinished work is the testimony of a failure of the planning processes of the city from an urban, political and economic point of view, where public opinion focuses decisively (indignation, protests and complaints), in front of the waste of public money. However, at this decision and media centrality don’t correspond any strategies and operational practices by the administrations and the community. The objective of this contribution is also to propose some real intervention strategies in such particular contexts through sustainable solutions from both an economic and environmental point of view. Through a case study, represented by the former Psychiatric Hospital of Laghetto (Vicenza), some strategies, which can be replicated at different scales, were identified to reinsert unfinished buildings in the urban and environmental context. The analysis on the urban planning scale and on the road system, made possible to insert the case study into the existing or planned infrastructures, according to the new function of Operational Centre for the management of emergencies in the area. The potential of the Nested Building was explored on the architectural scale, as a sustainable alternative to demolition. This strategy provides the insertion of prefabricated lightweight modules, within which to arrange the new functions, limiting the interventions on the existing structures. The proposed intervention involves the creation of a dense network of relationships capable of restoring a meaning to the building and opening it to dialogue with the real needs of the city, with regard to the surrounding urban context, with solutions aimed at the protection and the safeguard of the landscape.