Dora Park, Turin Turin's largest inner-city industrial wasteland becomes a park close to the city centre

The park is characterised by its industrial past and spatially determined by the watercourse of the Dora, main traffic axes and newer residential quarters. According to the former property boundaries, it consists of five independent parts. Their aesthetics and functional differences are based on the quality of the industrial remains. Bridges, stairs and ramps connect the individual parts of the park with each other and with the surrounding neighbourhoods. As part of the project "Torino, Città d'Acqua", the river, still partly hidden under a concrete slab, is being rediscovered for the city.

Awards:
The International Architecture Award 2012,
Premio Architetture Rivelate 2012

At the end of the 19th century, the industrialization of Turin began along the river Dora. It reached its peak at the beginning of the 20th century with the construction of the FIAT Ferriere Piemontesi steel and rolled sheet plant and the Michelin tyre plants. In the course of the general decline of the industry, the plants were closed at the end of the 80s. In 1998, an urban redevelopment programme (Programma di Riqualificazione Urbana PRIU) was launched in order to revitalise these post-industrial residual areas and to fill them with new functions. Like a chain, the individual interventions are lined up along a development axis called "Spina" (backbone). At around 45 hectares, "Spina 3" is the largest project in this comprehensive structural regeneration. Thanks to its positive engagement with the industrial heritage, Parco Dora symbolizes a new understanding of inner-city landscape that reflects the transformation of society.
The park consists of five independent sub-areas ("Lotti"), three of which are named after the industrial companies that used to be located there: Ingest, Vitali and Michelin, as well as Valdocco Nord and the area above the new Corso Mortara under-tunnel. Spatially defined by the watercourse of the Dora, by main traffic axes and newer residential quarters, it gets its actual unique character from the remaining vestiges of the industrial past.
The connection of the five parts of the park with each other and their integration into the surrounding quarters were decisive for a sustainable park concept. The aim was to take up the characteristic appearance of the individual areas, to strengthen them and to enrich them with new elements that make the park as a whole an experience.


Constituent elements
The following elements or "layers" determine the content and spatial framework of Parco Dora:

..what remained of the industry
Among the most important elements preserved are the huge hall of the rolling mill in the heart of the park (Capannone di Strippaggio), the cooling tower visible from afar in Michelin, the substructures of the laminating plant in Ingest and the concrete corset of the Dora with the massive rows of columns in Valdocco. Transformation and reuse of these industrial-historic elements give each part of the park its own distinctive character and strengthen residents' identification with "their" park.

The element of water
Water determines the perception of the park with contrasting manifestations. The former power of the river can be read in the 6m high terrain jump, which significantly influences the topo-graphy in the north of the park. The Dora appears natural in the west, the tree-covered banks are marked by seasonal change. In the eastern Valdocco, on the other hand, the river was overbuilt and is still hidden under a massive concrete cover. Cooling towers, canals and sedimentation basins are reminders of the central importance of water for industrial processes. In order to make it possible to experience the Dora again, the embankments in the west will be opened up. In the east, the cover is removed and the river becomes a "torrent" between "rocks" of concrete. Cooling and sedimentation basins will be integrated into a system for sustainable water management, where rainwater will be collected, stored, used for irrigation and staged for temporary water features.

Linking elements
Promenades, ramps, stairs, walkways and bridges link the five independent sub-areas into one large cohesive park.
The most important and central connecting element is the Passerella, an elevated steel footbridge that runs for 700m through the three northern parts of the park. It starts at the promenade above the enclosure of the new Corso Mortara, crosses Vitali and Via Borgaro at a height of 6m and ends in the gardens of Ingest. The footbridge opens up a new level of perception and visual connections beyond the park.

Space-creating vegetation
The park is still dominated by the massive, in part high adjacent buildings - reinforced by the terrain jump in the north. With the help of space-creating tree plantings, buffer zones are created that shield public recreational uses inside the park and immediately adjacent residential uses from each other and allow for a variety of activities under the protection of the treetops. The extensive groves, avenues, and individual groups of trees and shrubs will increasingly eclipse the surrounding buildings. They frame the staged remnants of the industrial past and give the former production areas a new face.


The five independent areas of the park

Ingest
Ingest is the narrowest and most intensively designed park area. On the upper level, squares and promenades of high aesthetic standards interlock with the adjacent development. At the same time they form the entrances from the west into the park. Ramps and stairs lead along 6m high walls into the southern part, which offers space for various activities, but also for contemplative stay.
The fascinating substructure of the former laminating plant was turned into a water garden, a gutted building into a "hortus conclusus", which shields the park from the street. A series of imposing preserved steel columns supports the elevated footbridge that leads across Via Borgaro into Vitali's central park area. From the elevated position, the harmonious interplay of sacred building and industrial architecture - the seven towers and industrial chimney transformed into a campanile of Mario Botta's new Santo Volto church, and Vitali's enormous steel columns - emerges.

Vitali and Corso Mortara
The huge hall structure of the former Vitali rolling mill is the fascinatingly lively centre of the park. After removal of the outer shell and large parts of the roof, the 30 m high clamped-in red steel columns present themselves like a "futuristic jungle". Lush greenery and public life conquer this artificial world, the mighty concrete towers and foundations become fantastic playgrounds. The covered remainder of the hall becomes a protected multifunctional event space.
In the north, the grid of columns continues into the large meadow with the trunks of flowering trees. The parking area is enclosed by the wall of the new road tunnel, above which an extensive promenade with pergolas and tree canopies creates the transition to the adjacent development. It offers not only a high quality of stay, but also unique views of the post-industrial landscape. Coming from the west, the Passerella crosses the steel heart of the park and the adjoining Wie-sen areas and leads to this new "city balcony". A wide tree-lined ramp along the tunnel wall links the two park levels, flanked by the impressive Vitalis cooling towers. These, like the former sedimentation basins filled with clean water, are part of the rainwater system, which directs roof and surface water through open gutters and channels into basins and cisterns where it is stored. Light art projects the play of waves onto the walls of the towers.
When illuminated at night, the monuments of industrial past are landmarks visible from afar on the outside and mysterious new worlds on the inside. In the "Blue Hal-le", the lower level is softly illuminated, light bands accompany the walkway and trace the contours of the former hall.

Michelin
On the former site of the Michelin company, a spacious meadow park is being created, predominantly landscaped and shaped by its topography. A newly created floodplain opens up to the Dora River, and the excavated earth forms a protective earth sculpture to the adjacent development. A riverside path provides access to the river, steel footbridges cross the trough and connect to a footbridge leading to the opposite Vitali. On the flat slopes of the earth sculpture rows of trees of different species condense and provide shade. A "high path" runs along the top of the hill, from which not only Ingest and Vitali, but above all impressive views of the pilgrimage church of Superga in the east and the Alps in the west open up. The cooling tower as a landmark in the southwestern part of this park area is a walk-in light and sound sculpture.

Valdocco
In Valdocco, the facilities of the FIAT ironworks even covered the river. Preserved is a concrete slab that covers three quarters of this park area. The massive slab is removed above the Dora, the river remains in its concrete bed. Thus the water, brought out of the darkness into the light of day, seems to flow through the broken walls like a wild gorge. Wall-lined promenades flank the open watercourse. On the terraces heaped up from excavated material on both sides of the river, hundreds of trees recall the grids of the earlier buildings. Their shady canopy provides space for a variety of activities and, with its tranquil scenery, forms the perfect backdrop for the "technical gorge" of the liberated watercourse. Walkways, supported by the preserved substructure, connect the north of Valdocco with the south.
The southern part of Valdocco was completed in 2011 and realized in accordance with the Kyoto Protocol Co2-neutral ("impatto zero").