You Are Never Finished
Many projects for community-powered public spaces feature these principles, listed in this booklet prepared by PPS. One example is the Precollinear Park intervention developed by Torino Stratosferica together with hundreds of residents in Turin, Italy. The project, completed in 2020, transformed an abandoned tramline into an outdoor recreational area fit for socially distanced leisure due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Courtesy of Torino Stratosferica
More than 700 residents from all over the city participated in the process, sharing ideas and comments and raising money through crowdfunding campaigns. The park is equipped with wooden seats, bright yellow pallet benches, and flower pots, along with a zig-zag pathway that leads towards a small platform that has been set up for events. Now that the park is staying longer, several exhibitions and workshops are planned, along with additional design implementations to the space.
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If you live in a city, you make do with whatever green space you have. Sliver of rubbish-strewn lawn, patch of poo-smattered scrub – fine, we’ll survive. But forget just making do: a new park in the Italian city of Turin should have us all clamouring for bigger, better spaces.
Sandwiched between two halves of a dual carriageway, the Precollinear Park stretches 700 metres from the River Po up to a piazza on the neighbouring hillside. You would probably never have wanted to mooch along this disused tram track before, but since it was renovated during Italy’s first lockdown, it’s been heaving with people every day. The park is clean, it’s green and it has a readymade route all laid out for you – what’s not to like?