Prossima Apertura: public space is a never-ending construction site

"A complete but unfinished space that makes its indeterminateness its strong point". This is how the Orizzontale studio describes the Prossima Apertura project, a new public square for the Toscanini neighbourhood, a working-class suburban area of Aprilia. The considerable size of the site, 8,600 sqm, does not prevent the Roman architects from remaining true to the principles that have guided their work for over ten years: the architectural project is a tool for inclusion and active involvement of citizens, an experiment in community, a place to generate relationships and new visions for living.

The innovative and experimental phase – which gives the name to the whole process – is the construction site. For Prossima Apertura, the project site is not an exclusive place for workers and professionals only, but a space that is already open and accessible, a proto-piazza in which citizenship is involved in the transformations underway. In parallel with the construction work, Orizzontale has organised various activities in which the inhabitants participated: events, workshops and guided tours are fundamental parts of the urban regeneration process.
The architectural solutions for the square also follow this open approach: the lower part of the public space is a free area of 2,400 square metres, conceived to host a variety of events and designed with a modular paving of industrial concrete, which in the future will admit new overlays and mutations.

At the level of the urban circulation we find a regular metal structure, designed to host a variety of activities to facilitate the meeting of different generations: games, sports and moments of rest. This too can be completely dismantled and modified in the future according to the future needs of the inhabitants of the area. Prossima Apertura is the missing link between short- and long-term planning. The architects of Orizzontale call it an "incremental design": a multidisciplinary process that integrates the attitude and tools of Tactical Urbanism into public works.