Piazzale della Lana in Feltre, Italy. Urban regeneration projects

The paper concerns a relevant area, named Piazzale della Lana, close to the historic city of Feltre. This is an area located in a strategic site of the city that has suffered transformations over time, not coherent today with the morphology of the place. Piazzale della Lana is on the edge of the historic city in a peripheral position with respect to the ancient core. It allows a crucial connection between the residential fabric of the ancient and contemporary city, having preserved a significant symbolic value for the residents over the years despite the state of abandoned condition in which it lies following its gradual disuse over time. An essential premise of the urban regeneration project is the idea that the historic centre is a place of stratifications and meanings. The project is the result of a dialogue with historical pre-existences. This means giving new civic life to a building or part of a city not only through new functions and volumes, but above all by reinventing the form in order to generate new value to architecture and contexts, in a balance between memory and invention. This is why the heritage of history becomes relevant, recognising in the forms of architecture of the past our memory or identity. The authors of this article are deeply convinced that the public quality of life in the city is connected with the formal choices made by the project plan. They think that it is possible to trace a close relationship of identification between the community and the architectural forms that create a sense of belonging in those places. One of the identifying forms of the city is certainly provided by the piazza, the place par excellence throughout history in which the community recognises itself. The paper includes the results of students’ workshops developed in the framework of the course on “Architecture of the city” taught on the master’s degree in Architectural Engineering at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering of the University of Padua, academic years 2022-23. The working method is based on the belief that the study of urban morphology and the history of the city are basic to face a design theme. The history is considered as an indispensable tool to know the deep reasons of the urban structure which is the memory and the image of the community. The methodology contemplates the urban form as a result of its spatial structure. Progressing from the study of how the area has evolved through time, students defined new proposals for the area that involved testing new building types.