Verde Prato: Urban experiments between ecology and reuse

The exhibition Verde Prato (Green Prato), curated by Elisa Cristiana and Emilia Giorgi, which will set the stage for the Piano Operativo (the Urban Regulation) of the Municipality of Prato and the multitude of actions and strategies implemented in recent years to define the new instrument for the Tuscan city’s urban policies, will open at the Centro per l’arte contemporanea Luigi Pecci. It is an experimental and innovative project, the result of intense team work by the Municipality of Prato’s Ufficio di Piano which boasts of valuable contributions from international experts such as the architect Stefano Boeri and the scientist Stefano Mancuso, to mention just a few.

The exhibition design, by the Fosbury Architecture collective, will present heterogeneous materials such as drawings, maps, design documents, historical photos and video through a scaffolding system conceived as a scenic machine. A tale that unfolds through texts and images along the creative process that aims to transform Prato into a green, European and open city, integrating the nature system with the built environment. In addition to the focus on town planning aspects, the exhibition will present an installation devised for the occasion by Stefano Mancuso, photographic projects by Fernando Guerra, Maurizio Montagna and Delfino Sisto Legnani, and an interactive robotic machine that allows the public to navigate the various elements of the Piano Operativo.

Image © Stefano Mancuso
Image © Stefano Mancuso

The exhibition is completed by an area designed as a meeting spot and a space for taking part in educational activities, conferences and round tables, turning the exhibition into a place of debate, a living square inside the museum. The Piano Operativo of Prato is an innovative Town Planning tool drawn up by the Ufficio di Piano and adopted in September 2018. It is based on the great experience transmitted by the Prato legacy of the urbanist Bernardo Secchi at the end of the Nineties. Prato is observed in its metropolitan dimension and induced to relaunch the manufacturing heritage and reevaluate the natural heritage, surpassing the division between the city and agricultural spaces thanks to wide-ranging management.

The challenge, also conducted thanks to an extensive participation programme, “Prato al Futuro” – which involved all the citizens and saw the Municipal Administration in dialogue with architects, stakeholders and associations – is to promote the reuse of the city, reducing new land consumption, and develop an urban forestation project, using ecology to respond to the global challenges of climate change and local challenges involving the well-being of residents. Based on these directions, the exhibition covers 3 thematic areas: Ecology, Re-Use and Going Public. Source by Elisa Cristiana Cattaneo and Emilia Giorgi.