Continuità tra tessuti urbani e spazi agricoli in contrada Raccuglia, Partinico

Abstract

In the northern suburbs of Partinico, the public housing district located in Raccuglia area extends into the large agricultural area to the north of the town, which is characterized by extensive crops, sowable lands, olive and citrus groves, vineyards, and orchards. From the built-up area (town) the country is seen as the main element of the urban landscape, however there are no significant connections between the countryside and the district, which are in fact divided by large paved surfaces. This feature inhibits the potential given by the special location of the districti in respect to the town center. A new opening towards the countryside should instead create new connections among the surrounding urban areas1, which seem to be related only to the town center. In order to make this opening possible, the project identifies two new roads that cross urban and agricultural areas intersecting inside the district. The first one, in an east-west direction, goes from Montelepre to the Jato dam, passing through the district next to via Carnevale; the second one, in a north-south direction, connects Parrini and Borgetto and crosses the district running parallel to via Emanuela Setti Carraro. In order to create a continuous agricultural land it is planned to bury a section of the new branch of the beltway provided for by General Town Plan to connect SP 1 (Partinico-Montelepre) and SS 113, which is expected to pass north of the town. This section goes from the intersection between via Forlì and via Dalla Chiesa, up to over the new north-south cycle-pedestrian path. This idea could be the starting point to restore a spatial continuity between countryside and town so as to remove the state of marginalization faced by Raccuglia district2 and to reshape the surrounding uncultivated areas.