The delicate redevelopment of the ancient Via Emilia, in the urban stretch of Tavazzano with Villavesco between the Dante and Garibaldi streets, aims to create a real urban space of quality. The small municipality of the lower Lodi area, which has always lacked a square as it is traditionally understood in Italian territory (a place protected and delimited by architectural facades), sees in the redevelopment of its main crossing axis a singular opportunity as much as significant renovation.

The project calls into question the dominance of the automobile and hypothesizes a new protagonism of slow mobility: over a third of the driveway is sold to the formation of real pedestrian areas that were previously non-existent. The original sidewalks, from paved strips of minimum width, evolve into real solar “expanses” where there is space for equipment, public lighting systems, flower boxes and permanent elements of urban furniture. The latter, in particular, are made up of circular design elements, made of pigmented cement conglomerate with high mechanical resistance.

The new pedestrian areas, paved with small porphyry cubes arranged with an irregular grid texture, welcome the outdoor extensions of the neighborhood commercial activities (bars, small retailers, bakeries, pharmacies, etc.) so that now the town can consider meeting in a real new linear, protected and high-quality square.

Chronology: 2019 Project, 2020-2021 Construction

Category: Public Spaces, squares

Architecture and Landscaping: Tomas Ghisellini, Lucrezia Alemanno, Alice Marzola

Graphics: Giorgio Barba, Lucrezia Alemanno

Agronomic Project: Gianluca Cesari

Custom Urban Furniture: Archiform srl

Photographs: Matteo Gilli, Tomas Ghisellini