Self Explaining City. Merging city and art, through thick and thin

This paper presents a section of a wider research project [Metodologie per l'acquisizione, l'elaborazione e la comunicazione di dati relativi ai beni culturali e per il progetto architettonico e tecnologico di interventi atti alla loro conservazione e al miglioramento della fruizione turistico-culturale. Programma Operativo F.S.E. 2007-2013 Regione Veneto, D.G.R. n. 1148 del 05/07/2013, Project funded according to D.D.R. n. 456 del 17/12/2013. Project Leader: prof. L. Stendardo (UniPD); Scientific Responsible: prof. A. De Rosa (IUAV), prof. A. Giordano (UniPD), prof. L. Stendardo (UniPD), prof. S. Zaggia (UniPD); Fellow Researchers: dr A. Bertolazzi (UniPD), dr P. Borin (UniPD), dr M.R. Cundari (IUAV), dr F. Gasperuzzo (IUAV), dr F. Panarotto (UniPD), dr R. Spera (UniPD), dr S. Zoerle (IUAV); Partners: FòREMA s.r.l. - Confindustria Padova, DrawLight s.r.l., Ecomatt s.r.l., Impresa Costruzioni Giuseppe Maltauro S.p.A., Mentis s.r.l., NEOS s.r.l., Orienta+Trium s.r.l., Time2Marketing s.r.l.], which deals with the enhancement of cultural heritage, also by means of Information and Communication Technologies. The focus is about the potential of architectural and urban design as a tool when pursuing this aim. Since the layering of different elements and relationships has been producing a remarkable richness in the city, particularly in Italy, architectural design is meant as a lively part of this, slow though never ending, ongoing stratification. Architectural design adds a new layer to the pre-existing ones and, through the creation of urban spaces, aims to provide a larger awareness in the fruition of the city. The case study, the area where the Eremitani Church lies in Padua, is heavily layered: around the Roman amphitheater the heritage of several centuries is found in the Scrovegni Chapel, the Eremitani Church, the city walls and the canals, which have been changing in terms of uses, meanings, spatial configurations and mutual relationships over the centuries. The design of renewed spaces inherits its formal fundaments from the above-mentioned relationships, uses and meanings, the existing as well as the newly produced ones. The architectural project is conceived to produce a Self Explaining City, where educational and exhibition needs are merged, without transforming the city into a museum, and without subordinating architectural form and space to the smartness of technological exhibitionism.