A ring that embraces – passing under the new bridge – an area made of iron, water, cement and asphalt. The “Red Circle” symbolising the powerful local tradition of blast furnaces, cranes, and overhead cranes, runs along the locations where the tragedy of 14 August 2018 occurred.
The urban project, named “The Polcevera Park and The Red Circle” has been thought out as a system of parks with different ecologies and infrastructures for sustainable mobility and smart buildings for R&D and manufacturing with the aim of reversing the current image of the Polcevera valley, from a complex and tragically devastated place to a territory of sustainable innovation for the rejuvenation of Genoa itself.
Image © Stefano Boeri Architetti, Metrogramma Milano and Inside Outside
The Red Steel Circle – a symbolic element and embodiment of the “urban sewing” of the two sides of the valley – develops changing its nature: it becomes a walkway, a raised square, an access and exit ramp, a corridor between the buildings or an underground path and connects all the different territories, highlighting the great urban botanical park: the Polcevera Park.
A new regenerated site that will run under the new bridge, designed by Renzo Piano to replace the Morandi Bridge that mostly collapsed in August 2018 causing a tragic accident and several deaths. The Red Steel Circle is first and foremost a relationship-building structure: it is a bike-pedestrian road 1570 meters long, 6 meters wide and 250 meters in diameter.
Image © Stefano Boeri Architetti, Metrogramma Milano and Inside Outside
This is equipped with a 120-meter-high Wind Tower for the production and distribution of renewable energy that connects the district just in front of the new station. The latter houses a system of wind turbines and belongs, like the Red Circle, to the new energy network of Polcevera created thanks to the contribution of the German firm Transsolar.
The Red Circle is part of a sustainable mobility grid where bike and pedestrian paths, smart mobility lanes, shared surfaces and intelligent parking spaces all come together inside a strategy developed with MIC | Mobility in Chain, with the goal of creating a safe public space on a human scale.
Image © Stefano Boeri Architetti, Metrogramma Milano and Inside Outside
The Polcevera Park, basically consists of a system of parks that gather in the overall vision the variety of plants and trees typical of the Mediterranean basin, designed by Inside Outside | Petra Blaisse and built with the contribution of agronomist and landscape designer Laura Gatti and geologist Secondo Antonio Accotto.
In the heart of the Park stands Genova in the wood: an art installation featuring 43 trees, designed by artist Luca Vitone, dedicated to the memory of the victims of the suddenly collapsed Morandi bridge as well as to the timeless memory of the pain and faults of mankind but, at the same time, a symbol of the indomitable strength of a city. Source by Stefano Boeri Architetti, Metrogramma Milano and Inside Outside.
Image © Stefano Boeri Architetti, Metrogramma Milano and Inside Outside
- Location: Genoa, Italy
- Group leader/urban projects: Stefano Boeri Architetti
- Project leader: Sara Gangemi
- Project Team: Moataz Faissal Farid, Francesca Pincella, Jacopo Colatarci
- Architectural Design: Metrogramma Milano
- Project Team: Andrea Boschetti, Francesco Betta, Arianna Piva, Andrea G. Bulloni, Anna Bartolaccio, Andrea Casazza, Andrea Roma
- Landscape Design: Inside Outside
- Project Team: Petra Blaisse, Desirée Pierluigi, Camilla Panzeri, Jana Crepon
- Mobility, traffic, infrastructures: MIC | Mobility in Chain (Federico Parolotto, Giuseppe Andrea Vallelonga, Gaia Sgaramella, Gloriana Barboza, Loris Sciacchitano)
- Agronomist and Environmental Requalifiation: Studio Laura Gatti (Laura Gatti, Marco Peterle, Luca Leporati, Silvia Isacco)
- Environmental comfort and Energy efficiency: Transsolar Energietechnik (Tommaso Bitossi, Clara Bondi, Thomas Auer, Antonio Secondo Accotto)
- Urban transformation and economic assessments: H&A Associati (Carlo Pagan, Alessia Mangialardo)
- Artist: Studio Luca Vitone
- Participatory processes: Tempo Riuso
- Year: 2019
- Images: Stefano Boeri Architetti, Metrogramma Milano and Inside Outside, Courtesy of Stefano Boeri Architetti
Image © Stefano Boeri Architetti, Metrogramma Milano and Inside Outside Image © Stefano Boeri Architetti, Metrogramma Milano and Inside Outside 
Image © Stefano Boeri Architetti, Metrogramma Milano and Inside Outside Image © Stefano Boeri Architetti, Metrogramma Milano and Inside Outside 
Image © Stefano Boeri Architetti, Metrogramma Milano and Inside Outside Image © Stefano Boeri Architetti, Metrogramma Milano and Inside Outside Image © Stefano Boeri Architetti, Metrogramma Milano and Inside Outside 
Image © Stefano Boeri Architetti, Metrogramma Milano and Inside Outside 
Image © Stefano Boeri Architetti, Metrogramma Milano and Inside Outside 
Master Plan 
Mediterranean Garden, Exhibition Garden 
Genoa in the woods
