Redevelopment of abandoned areas. The case of the Agricultural Consortium in Peraga, Italy

This contribution regards the town of Peraga, in the province of Padova, not far from Venice. Specifically, it refers to the redevelopment of the disused and abandoned buildings and courts of the Agricultural Consortium, which has been given consideration by the local administration. Peraga has been studied by our research group in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering of the University of Padua. The Agricultural Consortium consists of volumes of important size, some smaller buildings and two wide paved areas, one inside and the other in front of the street. Important involved components in the territory are the cubic mole of Villa Bettanini, compact volume deriving from the transformation of the castle of Peraga, the presence of the eighteenth-century Villa Pavanello, the proximity to the remains of the ancient mill on the Tergola River. Furthermore, it should to be considered that close to the castle arise several structures of the Municipality relating to cultural policies, among them the strategic spaces of the Municipal Library are included. The objective of the study of the former Agricultural Consortium area is part of a more general belief that the redevelopment of the abandoned territory constitutes a strategic tool to reduce the soil consumption. This subject has been recently investigated by our students at the Architectural and Urban Composition 2 course taught on the master’s degree in Architectural Engineering at the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering of the University of Padua.