Franzosomarinelli Architetti, a practice run by Mirko Franzoso and Mauro Marinelli, has completed two public space regeneration projects in two different locations in the province of Trento, Italy. The interventions, carried out in Bolciana and Borgo d’Anaunia, small villages in the Trentino Alps, offer the community new places for meeting and socialising.

For Bolciana, the redevelopment started with an analysis of the historic settlement, consisting of a main street over which a sequence of “open-air rooms” unfolds: public places whose edges and thresholds have been redefined.

Five new elements have been created on the steep terrain, white bush-hammered concrete structures – a fountain, a staircase, a seat, a car park, a covered portico – that dialogue with pre-existing materials and geometries. The strong relationship with the context is visible in the different areas, completed by metal parapets and porphyry flooring. 

For Borgo d’Anaunia the architects created new public spaces on the site of a demolished old building. Three squares on different levels were defined, facing each other and connected by lateral stairs. While the lower square serves as a stage for festivals, the middle one is characterised by a seat made of local larch; finally, the third one houses a fountain made of old slabs from an abandoned fountain.

The project again establishes a link with the landscape and its colours: the concrete with sand and crushed porphyry aggregates dialogues with the surrounding walls and it is a homage to Mount Luco, the only porphyry peak in the valley.