In Mestre, at the CITA

Mestre is the most populated of the six urban boroughs of Venice mainland (Carpenedo, Marghera, Favaro Veneto, Chirignago, Zelarino, Tessera) with 170.000 inhabitants. The intervention proposed for the railway station aims at upgrading the current spatial and infrastructural potential to the level of an advanced multimodal polycentric node, organizing the intersection among the national/international scale of the high speed train system, the regional scale served by the SFMR and the metropolitan scale recently crossed by the new tram system.

The intervention should improve the efficiency of the station and update its representative role, but should also enhance the porosity of this part of the city activating dismissed functional parts of the railway system, existing public spaces and some vacant sites along the rail lines.

The ambitions of this intervention should be developed in an urban context characterized by the progressive settlement of migrant population, often occupying the houses in the surrounding areas, as a result of speculative policies in relation to real estate availabilities and values. Issues related to social and living conditions of the inhabitants in these parts of the city – among others – are progressively brought to light by the initiatives promoted by local, community based organizations and other not for profit actors.

At the CITA COMPLEX, in Mestre, with Gianfranco Bonesso and Mohammed Salhi of Immigration Office of the Municipality of Venice and Mirko Marzadro (Unesco chair)