Integrative Urban Space - Multifunctional facilities for the urban regeneration of post-industrial area Ex Scalo Vallino

Over the decades, changes in the global industrial production and means of transportation have left empty spaces within urban fabrics that have not been able to integrate some of those abandoned areas to the modernization process according to changing times. Those areas in decay contain not only sheds or old factories structures, but also remnants of the railway transportation system used to move or store goods, as the railway yards, close to important train stations and large enough to frame a noticeable void in urban landscape. At present, abandoned railway areas within or near urban centers represent an opportunity for intervention to generate main or complementary projects with new activities that could regenerate and revalue the nearby territory and establish symbiotic connections to stimulate the encounter of the past with the present in some communities. Considering the proximity that many of these areas have to populated centers, the possibilities for urban regeneration and transformation are many and can range from parks to commercial and residential areas. In Italy, as in other European countries, disused railway areas are scattered in different metropolitan areas, with varied dimensions and conditions. For this thesis, the chosen study and intervention area is Ex Scalo Vallino, a ex railway yard area located in the multi-ethnic neighborhood of San Salvario, in Turin. Through an analysis of the place’s history and its urban context, the present and future possibilities of transformation will be addressed as an argument to generate the design hypothesis of a multipurpose project with various commercial and residential uses, integrated with the rest of pre-existing structures in the plot and connected with the surrounding city through a public space designed as a dynamic meeting place that favors the development of artistic and recreational activities, creating at the same time a promenade that highlights the identity of the place with different project decisions, artifacts, and components.