Il progetto di recupero del mercato di Legazpi a Madrid e il suo impatto sulla città. Criticità e possibili alternative = The rehabilitation project of Legazpi market in Madrid and its impact on the city Critical issues and alternative

In the following work, it has been tackled the subject of the impact of the restoration project on the city, through the case of Legazpi old Market in Madrid and the project for its rehabilitation. The story of the building offers an important starting point to define some guideline for study and project phases of a restoration on an industrial building in the city. This case allows us to analyze the links between the city and the environment and understand how these relations can be transformed in points of strength of building and neighbourhood. The building, that was forged as a fruits and vegetable market in the in the early 1900s, is not properly an industrial building but belongs to the industrial archaeology, not as a production place, but as a workplace and for its concrete structures similar to that of the 20th-century factories. In 2007 was realized, by the Pesquera Ulargui Arquitectos architectural firm, a rehabilitation project that has been amended considerably over the years since now. Indeed, the initial project has been strongly criticized by the citizens and the organizations that are born overtime to defend the public building. The present project has changed since the first version and provides for its full realization in 2019. Thanks to the new city administration and a participatory process of the citizens, more public spaces are now included in the project. Nevertheless as shown by the results of the researches bear in this thesis, this participatory process wasn't completely effective as a mediator between municipality and citizens that consider the process a placebo used to push ahead with the project. A large section of this dissertation is dedicated to the analysis of the building’s history and consistency and of its context to define a new project that takes account social and historical values of the building and its influence on the environment. The thesis includes also a report of the last ten years process that leads to the project under construction, to compare the citizen's requests and the real neighbourhood necessities and define a project proposal that reconciles these necessities with the urge of space for municipality offices. The new project here presented tries to take into account the huge potential of a building of such importance for his context.