We have tried to capture the soul of a series of spaces connected to each other like a living organism that extends from the Rotonda to the lake, passing from the Castle to Piazza Grande and Largo Zorzi. A fluid space, which has preserved its nature and its vocation throughout history. It is defined by strong and very different urban settlements on both sides, on one side the medieval city and on the other the orthogonal layout of the new nineteenth-century district and a couple of solitary, representative public buildings.
The late 19th-century district inspired by the Art Nouveau Garden City, recalls a glorious era in the history of Locarno with the advent of tourism. A fertile period of cultural and economic prosperity, the Belle Époque was a moment of joy, beauty and lightness, which we would like to rediscover in the Locarno of tomorrow. For us, restoring clarity means rediscovering continuity with history and ensuring that life circulates more fluidly.
The project involves public spaces with the vocation of staging the landscape, expanding its experience and peculiarities, such as the flavor of the Insubric south with luxuriant plants, the Mediterranean urbanity and the Italian character of the square, the presence of the lake transforms by creating new scenery. Space of life, which oscillates between moments of great events and normal everyday life, this space-theater must accommodate both conditions and adapt, transforming itself easily to be a support for each of these situations.