Candidate – Italy

Submission by: Anve – Associazione Nazionale Vivaisti Esportatori

Project name: Parco Parri

Short description

A new concept of urban park, combining nature, sport, wellness and accessibility. This is Parri Park, the result of the reconversion of Piazza d’Armi, which is part of a strategic vision for the recovery of a large urban space, once a state-owned, underused area, with the aim of upgrading a peripheral part of Cuneo and at the same time prefiguring a future as a resilient, eco-sustainable city, capable of reducing land consumption and investing in the definition of its landscape. A special place that has returned to the city a large green lung full of opportunities, a ‘multifunctional ecology’ for residents and the entire citizenry, capable of declining into multiple environments with different degrees of naturalness.

Social cohesion

The construction of Parri Park in Cuneo, which is part of the National Plan for the Recovery of Urban Suburbs, is a unique example on the Italian scene, since after a participatory planning process at the start of the construction site, while the physical identity of the park was being built, the virtual and digital identity of the park itself was being realised at the same time. To this end, all the elements of the virtual identity were created, starting with the identification of a shared logo, a dedicated website that described all the compositional, ecological and botanical aspects, and at the same time a ‘virtual twin of the park’, a real time interactive video that, through a technologically advanced gamification application, allowed all citizens to walk among the trees or skirt the pond all in real time, with the different light conditions characteristic of the various times of day and night.

https://parcoparri.it/il-progetto/

Biodiversity

The park consists of several environments, including: the urban forest – the connecting front between the park and the city consists of a linear path with an urban character and a dense network of trees at regular intervals in which trees and shrubs related to the river environment follow one another. In this area there is furniture, seating and games. The urban woodland promenade surrounds the pond and connects with the paths to the large meadows: the large meadows – Parri Park, provides a part of the areas designated as a natural park with a lower management and maintenance impact and dedicated to a type of free enjoyment for the citizen; community orchards – an area dedicated to stimulating social relations and enhancing the common good: the urban gardens and orchards park represents an almost familiar type of green space, usually private, reinterpreted and implemented with paths and public spaces consistent with the potential for sociality that ‘cultivating’ in the city can trigger. Approximately 2700 square metres with native cultivars: apple, pear, cherry, apricot, jujube, hazelnut, medlar and pomegranate. In addition to a small fruit garden of about 800 square metres with cultivars of blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, gooseberry, medlar. And an area with medicinal and aromatic plants of about 1,500 square metres.

https://parcoparri.it/le-aree-del-nuovo-parco/

Economic factors

The project is part of the larger plan implemented by the City of Cuneo, ‘Peripheries in the Centre’ urban enhancement actions to improve the quality of life’ and safety in the suburbs, which obtained funding under the call for tenders promoted by the Italian Prime Minister’s Office and was directly financed for only half of the investment; the remaining part was supported by the City of Cuneo. The entire project consists of 19 interventions, which had different objectives: Promoting virtuous changes for better liveability; Requalifying and giving back to the community degraded urban spaces; Increasing safety; Improving Centre-Periphery connections; Promoting sustainable mobility; Offering additional services for peripheral areas; Decreasing situations of social discomfort to foster greater inclusion.

Actions that have had an important economic impact on the city.
https://parcoparri.it/il-progetto/

Climate

The project embraces the principles of sustainable management through the design of nature-based devices such as Nature-Based Solutions. These choices are complemented by the management of primary resources such as water through the introduction of SuDS – Sustainable Drainage Systems. The operation of bringing back to the surface a watercourse in the area, which used to be used to irrigate cultivated fields, but was piped over the years to allow the expansion of the city, has concretely allowed water to be returned to the park and made it the catalysing element. In the north-west part, the restored bialera feeds a series of ponds for play and relaxation; from here the watercourse loses its way for a stretch until it re-emerges, after bypassing the road infrastructure, with a more natural and sinuous course, accompanying the user throughout the park, until it flows into a pond that is home to aquatic and river plants, a source of water and refuge for local avifauna and microfauna. Furthermore, with respect for the link with the territory and sustainability, the botanical species in Parri Park have been selected according to landscape criteria, choosing native plants that are consistent with the surrounding landscape as well as aesthetically functional.

https://parcoparri.it/sostenibilita/

Wellbeing of visitors/users

Parri Park accommodates the needs of all citizens with the inclusion of numerous free-use facilities, including a kiosk, multi-purpose fields with skatepark, sandpits, a fitness trail with 16 stations, as well as large areas with anti-trauma flooring to ensure maximum safety.

Universal accessibility and communication
The theme of Inclusivity and Accessibility, understood as a system to allow all users with different abilities to be ‘free’ to enjoy all the benefits of the park, has been widely developed in the park. This has been achieved through the introduction of a series of elements capable of guaranteeing that even people with physical-perceptive difficulties or disabilities can visit the park areas independently. Already at the entrances, information totems are installed with tactile maps and QR codes with audiovisual and LIS information in Italian, English and French. From here, the visitor can read the structure of the park and, thanks to the presence of accompanying guiding elements on the ground (cane-beaten edges, fences and handrails, ground inserts, etc.), walk the entire length of the route.

https://parcoparri.it/le-aree-del-nuovo-parco/

Selection, origin and quality of the products and materials

In line with the link with the land and sustainability, the botanical species in Parri Park were selected according to landscape criteria, choosing native plants that are consistent with the surrounding landscape as well as being aesthetically functional. The climatic and soil adaptation, growth and bearing of each botanical species also played a role in the selection, in order to guarantee an effective landscape effect, as well as resistance to pollution, to ensure health and stability over time. In the creation of the didactic areas (orchard, small fruit garden and medicinal species area), the prevailing criterion is, on the other hand, to promote knowledge of locally cultivated species.

The impact on the environment

The project objective is to favour the resiliency of intervention as regards to climate change, through:

• reduction the heat island effect and mitigation of heat wave impact (by the use of greenery, shading, light surfaces, water features),
• control of the outflow of rainwater peaks and reduction of waste rainwater disposal to the sewerage
• resistance and durability of the materials used both for the finishes.
• This provide a natural colour , the colour of the stone that compose the asphalt paving, and an appropriate SRI (Solar Reflectance Index) to front the Urban Heat Island.

Innovative value of the project

The construction of Parri Park in Cuneo, which is part of the National Plan for the Recovery of Urban Suburbs, is a unique example on the Italian scene, since after a participatory planning process at the start of the construction site, while the physical identity of the park was being built, the virtual and digital identity of the park itself was being realised at the same time. To this end, all the elements of the virtual identity were created, starting with the identification of a shared logo, a dedicated website that described all the compositional, ecological and botanical aspects, and at the same time a ‘virtual twin of the park’, a real time interactive video that, through a technologically advanced gamification application, allowed all citizens to walk among the trees or skirt the pond all in real time, with the different light conditions characteristic of the various times of day and night.