Regeneration of small cities in Italy: the Cremona example

The city of Cremona, an hour's train ride south-west of Milan, in the Po valley, is working to build a high level of public attention around its ambitious urban regeneration programme Giovani in centro (Youth at the cntre); a public meeting for instance, titled Pensare la città (Thinking the city) has been held last March to call together planners, administrators, scholars, journalists and technicians, and the architects involved in the projects that will help define the face of future Cremona. Mario Cucinella was therefore present– he qualified last October in first place in the international competition to build the new city hospital – with Stefano Peyretti for Isolarchitetti S.r.l., and Lamberto Rossi for LR Associati.

The project wants to encompass an urban, but also a cultural, social and economic dimension at a time marked by the demographic crisis, with Cremona aiming to become attractive to the younger segment of the population. “We started with intangible planning,” says Deputy Mayor Andrea Virgilio. “Those who do regeneration have to try to capture the flows of thought, expressed or unspoken, and desires present in public spaces. It is also our job to read these flows and identify possible new destinations for existing places. Over the course of these years we have witnessed so many abandonments, from that of industrial areas to the more recent abandonment of traditional workplaces due to the pandemic.”

Two goals have been set by the city's administration: to make it attractive to potential new residents (with special emphasis on off-site university students) and truly habitable for young families, children and teenagers; in parallel, they aim to extend the common perception of the historic center, taking it beyond the small portions considered as relevant by most residents.

In following these goals, therefore, an “alternative” model of urban planning was discussed. A model, the deputy mayor clarified, that “also passes through the contrast of perimeters: in the past, a city was developed on the basis of subdivisions and perimeters, but today we see the contamination of functions. An example? Houses becoming workspaces. In Giovani al Centro we think of culture as a flywheel for social inclusion, so we intend to foster aggregation and exchange between housing, artists and creative people.”

As a manifestation of these intentions, the restoration of the former St. Francis Church by Isolarchitetti has already been approved. A building of historical and architectural interest, dating back to the second half of the 13th century, the church has lost its religious function over the years, becoming part of the Santa Maria della Pietà hospital until 1971. In the course of this project, this important architecture will be transformed into a multifaceted community space, equipped with services for citizenship with special attention to younger groups, for second-chance schooling, and for workshops, music rooms, and headquarters of associations.

The New Cremona Hospital designed by Mario Cucinella Architects, already unveiled last December, will also enrich the scenario. The Bolognese architect has interpreted the hospital typology by integrating it with the city and especially by opening it up to the sociocultural context. In fact, the health center will house not only diagnostic and treatment services, but also spaces for social interaction and recreation, in a holistic conception of wellness and health that does not segregate the healthy from the sick. Also here the program is integrated with a kindergarten, and the educational areas present in the complex, will be enriched by a library and temporary residences for patients and their families, also in order to promote new relationships with the local community.

“The overall project will end in 2027 with an investment of about 17 million euros, secured by European Funds managed by the Lombardy Region and municipal co-financing. Construction work will begin in the coming months and will be completed by 2026,” Virgilio concludes. “The theme of reusing buildings allows us to recover traces of our past by integrally redeveloping urban areas from an architectural, environmental, landscape and cultural point of view, completely regenerating contexts that would otherwise constitute a void in our present and proposing a vision of a city that is a candidate to become attractive to families, young people, and workers seeking livable alternatives to large centers.”