Today human kind has realized the real importance of raw materials; using them rationally is possible and deserved to preserve our planet and improve living conditions of everybody.
Space is one important raw material: avoidind to waste it, finding solution for cities that are collapsing without employing new supplies but giving new functionality to obsolete spaces is essential for a reasonable organisation.
Water-squares are one of the examples of areas reused in a logic of redevelopment and securing for population centers; public spaces that are just empty spaces, not used anymore or degraded, can have a new life being designed to be aggregational areas. In sunny days people could spend their free time there making different activities, while in rainy days they become a basin for collecting and decanting waters, to manage the flow in the sewage system avoiding the overload and with the possibility of reusing rain water, another important resource, for sanitary and irrigation uses.
Giardini Baltimora are one of the examples of public spaces in Genova that are not used anymore by citizens. This place could be renovated in the perspective of being used also as a water square; normally it is a usual public green space, but planned to collect water during heavy raining avoiding disasters caused by floods and allowing to reuse water for example to irrigate the park itself.
This is the graphic concept for a panel that makes reflect on hidden water: it shows how much water is needed in some industrial or chemical processes, for examples how much water is used to built a car, or to realize a pair of shoes, etc. This consideration should push people to think about water squares not only as a securing planning, not only as a urban develpment, but also a ecosustainable device for cities.
The realisation of the panel that exemplify the notion of hidden water during a workshop in Genova. This initiative was part of a partecipated process that involved designers, institutions and citizens for the rehabilitation of an old barrack that is now abandoned, and that could be extended also to other similar areas.
Water squares’ operation during different weather conditions.
Piazza della Vittoria is a big square situated nearby the most critical zone during floods in Genova, where Bisagno river flows in the sea. Genova is now going through a transformation period, a urban planning that decongest traffic connecting better this linear city: in this context, this area used as a parking could be one of the probe projects in this direction, becoming a water square and offering a new public space to people and solving problems tied to floods at the same time.
