WHAT'S NEW
A green carpet to cover piazza Rossini
A green carpet at piazza Rossini: work in progress
A green carpet will be placed at Piazza Rossini, one of the main squares at the core of the University area of Bologna. The intervention is part of the work started in May 2020, when the City of Bologna officially approved the transformation of the piazza in a pedestrian area. This step is in line with the goals of the ROCK project and follows the great success of "The Five Square" festival held on 23-28 September 2019, which purpose was to highlight the importance of taking care of public spaces.
As part of the temporary project, the square will be covered with a 300 m2 grass carpet, elevated above the ground in order to install an irrigation system. The area will be accessible for people with disabilities via a specially designed staircase, while a 1.5-meter corridor on the North-West section of the square will allow the free movement of all visitors.
On the green carpet, there will be benches containing an array of herbaceous and shrubby plants, which will be accompanied by key messages on the importance of taking care of the public space and the role of vegetation in urban areas, by this transforming the square in a communication tool.
Enriching the square with plants has both an aesthetic and conservation meaning, particularly, preserving biodiversity in the urban area. Species have been selected for being native and their low water and maintenance needs. Urban decor elements will be positioned in such a way that they do not disturb the ancient look of the square. Particular attention will be dedicated to public lighting thanks to the placement of Maxxi Poppy, a design lamp provided by Viabizzuno.
Timetable: the exhibition construction started on 15 June 2020, and it should be completed by the beginning of July.
The context
The regeneration of Piazza Rossini is one of the results of the U-Lab listening phase, and it followed a set of experimental actions developed within the ROCK project on Scaravilli Square (Malerbe, Concrete Utopia, SLAB). The main goal of these actions was to make people conceive the area as not a number of disconnected open spaces but as an interconnected organism, rich in hidden and often unknown cultural heritage treasures, whose squares represent its multiple hearts.
The temporary exhibition at Piazza Rossini is financed by the ROCK project and Unipolis Foundation.
