We The Italians | Italian art: Contemporary Salerno

Italian art: Contemporary Salerno

Italian art: Contemporary Salerno

  • WTI Magazine #18 Feb 21, 2014
  • 1873

WTI Magazine #18    2014 Feb, 21
Author : Enrico De Iulis      Translation by: Alessandra Bitetti

In Italy, we are trying - with difficulty - to modernize cities through works of big urban impact, achieving a dual purpose: to make the city government more functional and to promote an awareness of contemporary architecture among the people.

So, it's a good idea to have some superstars, because as it was for Borromini and Bramante, for Filarete and Juvarra, Piermarini and Piacentini, the great architects are hired to give prestige to the places where they have to work and their names are then exploited for the inevitable reputation that a place reflects, thanks to their work.

It's a paradox but we have to admit that small Italian cities are advancing in this direction much quicker and in a more focused manner than the larger ones. Rome got absolutely left behind by other European capitals, for interventions that could potentially start and especially for those that have been made between sterile polemics, chronic lack of funds and bureaucratic difficulties that resulted to be insurmountable.

Thanks to the Expo 2015 the city of Milan has had a very good innovative push in certain areas of the city, but it's still nothing much compared to other Central European cities. The best news come from Reggio Emilia, where Santiago Calatrava built a bridge on the highway and a really beautiful high-speed station. But is Salerno, the city that please us more than others.

From the beginning of the XXI century, Salerno completely changed its imagine by committing the big works to some great personalities of the contemporary architecture. David Chipperfield is finishing the new monumental judicial citadel with its classic geometry that is pure and linear. Tobia Scarpa, the son of the unmatchable Carlo, is looking after the new sports arena. The old headquarters of the Amato pasta factory, one of the most famous food industries in Salerno, is redeveloped along with the surrounding area by Jean Nouvel, which will include the building of a residential center changing industrial archeology in housing cluster. And Massimiliano Fuksas will reinterpret the area of the former Fratte foundry in a residential center.

But it's the seashore that is having a real revolution in the city: the maritime station by Zaha Hadid; the new Liberty Square and the Mazzini Place-Concordia area with the new "sail" by Ricardo Bofill; the marine park of dunes by Rui Sanchezper; and the beautiful Arechis port by Santiago Calatrava. All of these works are coordinated by the new urban plan by Oriol Bohigas.

Committing the city face seen from the sea to the three Catalan-Valencian architects is a careful and smart move. Ideally, it rejoins a common cultural thread between Spain and the southern Italy.

This large amount of actions, requalification and ex novo works are going to leave an international sign in Salerno, also proving the real chance to see a high-quality future to our cities and at the same time not diminishing the beauty and the artistic range of contemporary architecture. It's necessary to have the foresight to understand that even this works can create interest and thus tourism, next to the prior beauties belonging to the past.