The assignment was a plan to renovate the station, railway tracks and surrounding areas located near the old city. Bolzano, located in northern Italy, in the Eastern Alps, has existed since Roman times and is interesting because it is a bilingual city: it uses Italian and German on an equal footing at the municipal level.
The organizers wanted to receive from the participants (only ten out of 138 candidates were invited to participate) a project of new green and pedestrian zones that would connect the station area with the surrounding areas of the city, and a concept of spatial and architectural solutions for public and private spaces and buildings.
All three winners (the second was Giulio Marchi, Giulio Marchi, and the third was Stefano Boeri) proposed the same key element of the project: the relocation of the railway line within the renovated zone (about 30 hectares). Now it passes through its center, crossing a small hill, and to the south of it there is an additional zone of paths fan-shaped in plan.
Podrekka proposed to move the line exactly to the place of this southern zone, and to create a residential area with numerous green areas on the vacated territory. Its quarters should continue and develop the organic outlines of the planning of the historic center of Bolzano. In the southernmost part of the site, a green area of mixed development is planned.
To mitigate the role of a rigid border that the railway complex plays in the city, the architect proposed creating an underground pedestrian crossing there, covered with a plastic film: this would be an economical solution, and would become the personification of the traffic flows passing there.
It should be noted that while we are talking about a competition of ideas, “the first step towards the reconstruction of the Boltsan railway station”. Its ten members also included Daniel Libeskind, UNStudio, Chino Dzukki and Cruz & Ortiz.
