Abstract :
[en] This thesis project started in February 2018 at the RWTH Aachen, where I attended my last year of master’s degree as an Erasmus student. The starting goal was to develop the recovery project of a single industrial building, under the supervision of Prof. Linda Hildebrand, Department of Rezykliergerechtes Bauen (Cycle oriented construction). Within one month researches in the North Rhine-Westphalia region, I have chosen as a case study the P.D.Rasspe company area in Solingen, shut down since 2009 after almost a century of activity, already in a serious state of dereliction. Since 2014, two buildings relating to the plant, in particular the first warehouse (ehem. Lagergebäude) - built in 1902 - and the administrative building (ehem. Verwaltungsgebäude) - built in 1922 - have been placed under protection. 'Stöcken 17', location where the ex-plant is located, is today also the name of a social project for the reactivation of those spaces left vacant after the closure of the industry. To date, published in January 2019 by the municipal authority Wirtschaftsförderung Solingen, there is a hypothetical project for the recovery of the area. Thanks to the availability of Mr. Michael Schwebel (Projektmanager, Wirtschaftsförderung Stadt Solingen), I was able to visit the site (closed to the public without the guidance of those in charge of managing the area) not only having access to the interiors of the restricted buildings, being able to observe closely the original features and the current state of art, but also paying attention both to the industrial complex, almost seven hectares of land, and to the natural environment in which the former production plant is located, its relation with the urban fabric, the degree of accessibility as well as the level of permeability. Immediately, it was evident that, even though it was the most urgent operation to undertake, restricting the research to the refurbishment of the protected property would have represented a limit both for the success of the project and for an effective enhancement of the area and its potential use by the local community. Therefore, after completing the first part of the project, in order to implement my research and give it a broader meaning, I received a scholarship to develop my thesis at the Universitè de Liegè, under the supervision of Prof. Rita Occhiuto, of the 'Lab. Ville, Territoire Paysage'. In this semester, I dedicated to the discovery of issues related to the study and understanding of the soil, the landscape, the urban context intended on a larger scale, in relation to other realities of the territory, natural and not. The complexity of the study case has in fact given sense to a project action undertaken starting from the study of the small object towards a gradual global understanding capable of re-determining and re-defining itself over time. After securing already protected buildings, to which a higher priority value is recognized, the aim is to remove the idea of degradation around the object through the grafting of a pilot project, a non-characterizing and non-limiting input, giving back to the complex a non-definitive sense, granting a time of experimentation through the suggestion of already conservative hypotheses although temporary from the point of view of the grafting of new uses. The thesis includes two parts, articulated in three different phases, occurring in the three different universities where it has been developed: RWTH Aachen, ULiège, POLIMI. In the first part the field of action is being prepared, raising research questions aimed at the investigation of the issues put into question and the knowledge of the subject of study; in the second, field operations are carried out, giving rise to specific project actions. The first action, developed referring to the needs of the local community, is dedicated to the recovery of the protected buildings. In this step, the focus is on the conservation of the building, together with the forecasting of new destinations of use, an essential graft to pursue the reactivation of the site in a global sense. The new functions are immediately considered to be time-varying inputs for varying needs in continuous evolution, which can be supported thanks to the use of flexible structures and highly recyclable materials in the management of interior spaces. The second and third phases, resulting from a wider survey on the territory - starting from the study of the topography of settlement networks and urbanization processes - is aimed at reintegrating the area within the urban context and, more generally, in its own scenery. The thesis focuses here on issues such as the reactivation of the landscape, the reintegration of the area into the urban fabric, the restoration and possible implementations of connections, the development of services and the involvement of citizens, working in particular on the design of public spaces.
