Recovering Industrial Heritage in the Small Towns. The Disuses Gioppo Textile Factories in Montebelluna (Italy)

One of the most important issues in current urban regeneration policies is the recovering and transformation of the industrial heritage in small Italian towns. The city of Montebelluna in the province of Treviso, especially the hamlet named Biadene-Pederiva, is still today a significant example of the numerous disused industrial areas, which the local administration is planning to convert into new functions. The aim of this research is to investigate new design strategies for the urban regeneration of these areas, through the protection of their morphological, historical and social values from contemporary changing city. The method of " research by design" adopted here includes the tools of urban and morphological analysis and the use of contemporary architecture expressive resources; it leads to rethinking the relationship between memory conservation and the representation of new social and manufacturing needs through an innovative and sustainable way. Moreover, some typical principles of sustainable architecture are applied in the design process, such as the reuse and recovery of existing areas and building materials, energy, efficiency, the use of low environmental impact materials, and local identity preservation. The research was carried out as part of an agreement between the municipality of Montebelluna and the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering of the University of Padua; the results are a series of innovative urban and architectural transformation projects, capable of turning abandoned areas into something new. The case study presented here is the Filatura Gioppo textile factory, a typical industrial building from the 1930s, made of reinforced concrete and brick structure, including its own hydroelectric power plant for energy production and brick structure, including its own hydroelectric power plant for energy production. The proposal of transformation promotes the local tradition through the opening of a textile manufacturing museum, as well as tourist information centre, providing visitors with information on the area’s attractions; other possibilities of functional conversion for commercial purposes were also explored, or for new educational activities aimed to preserve and revive traditional arts and crafts practices. In conclusion, this design and research experience confirms that the recovering of industrial heritage, provided that it is carried out following an approach open to the contemporary interpretation of the morphological features of the area, can give new vitality as well as a new identity to small urban towns.