Master thesis 2011.12.21

FACULTY OF ENGINEERING POLO REGIONALE DI LECCO

MASTER OF SCIENCE IN ARCHITECTURAL ENGINEERING

RELATORE
PROF. MASSIMO TADI

CO-REELATOR
PROF. GABRIELE MASERA

MASTER THESIS BY:
ABDUXUKUR . ZAYIT
751975

Academic year 2010/2011

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

We would like to mention all those who contributed their efforts to write this master‘s thesis.

We thank to PROF. GABRIELE MASERA, PROF. MASSIMO TADI, PROF. DANILO
PALAZZO, and PROF. LIBERATO FERRARA for their willingness and valuable advice to
face the difficulties during the development of this thesis.

i

ABSTRACT

Piacenza is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of northern Italy. It is the
capital of the province of Piacenza.

Strategically the city is at a major crossroads at the intersection of Route E35/A1
between Bologna, gateway to eastern Italy, and Milan, gateway to the Alps, and Route
E70/A21 between Brescia at the foot of the Alps and Tortona, where branches lead
to Turin in the north, a major industrial city, and Genoa, a major coastal port. Piacenza is also
at the confluence of the Trebbia, draining the northern Apennines, and the Po, the major
waterway of northern Italy, draining to the east. Piacenza right from its foundation has been
of vital interest to political powers that would control northern Italy, more than any other city
there.

Piacenza is, in fact the ideal venue for an initiative focused on architectural, urban and
environmental problems, both for the size of its scenic, landscape, artistic and monumental
wealth and for the wide range of case-studies available, as well as for its solid traditions in
the building sector.

Program was to interconnect the landscape, urban spaces and architectural design of library
integration with towards positive energy.

Urban planning was done by using the roman grid and tried to provide the facility spaces
according to integrated, interactive and interscalar architectural –urban- environmental
concept. While the Architecture design of Library we developed the brief by studying the
libraries present in Italy and abroad with respect to number of books and area.

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MSc In Architectural Engineering
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INDEX

Acknowledgement

Abstract

1-Introduction ...................................................................................... 1
2- Urban Context ................................................................................. 4
2.1-Italy ..................................................................................................................................5

2.2-Emilia–Romagna ..............................................................................................................6

2.3- Brief History of Urban Development in Piacenza ..........................................................7

2.3.1-The reconstruction of the city ..................................................................................12

2.3.2-The urban genetic code............................................................................................14

2.4- Analysis about Current City of Piacenza ......................................................................15

2.4.1- The Geographic Context ........................................................................................15

2.4.2-Population ................................................................................................................17

2.4.3 – The Socio- Economic System ...............................................................................30

2.4.4- Strategic Plan ..........................................................................................................31

2.5- Piacenza‘s network........................................................................................................36

2.6-Physical-morphological aspects .....................................................................................47

2.7-Local conditions, scope, borders, limits .........................................................................50

2.8-Conclusion .....................................................................................................................55

3-Urban Design ................................................................................. 56
3.1-Project Area ....................................................................................................................58

3.2-Site Comparison .............................................................................................................63

3.3-Site Analysis ..................................................................................................................64

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3.4-SWOT Analysis .............................................................................................................67

3.5-Project Scope..................................................................................................................68

3.5.1- project Objective ....................................................................................................68

3.5.2- Master plan .............................................................................................................69

3.5.3- Master plan Analysis ..............................................................................................73

4- Architectural Design ..................................................................... 85
4.1- Library ...........................................................................................................................86

4.1.1-Library in History ....................................................................................................86

4.1.2- Classifications of Library .......................................................................................91

4.2- Project Objective ...........................................................................................................91

4.3- Research Example for Reference ..................................................................................95

4.3.1-Piacenza Libraries ...................................................................................................95

4.3.2-Biblioteca Civica, Prato ...........................................................................................98

4.3.3-New Public library in Pontivy, France ....................................................................98

4.3.4- Public Library Kelsterbach, Germany ..................................................................101

4.3.5- Jaume Fuster Library, Spain .................................................................................102

4.3.6- Surry Hills Library, Australia ...............................................................................103

4.4-Architectural Design ....................................................................................................106

4.5 Concept and Drawings ..............................................................................................110

5-Structural Design ......................................................................... 132
5.1-Introduction ..................................................................................................................133

5.2-Load Calculations ........................................................................................................135

5.3-Slab...............................................................................................................................143

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5.4-Beams ...........................................................................................................................149

5.5-Columns .......................................................................................................................157

5.6-Foundation ...................................................................................................................164

6- Building Physics .......................................................................... 167
6.1-Climate .........................................................................................................................168

6.2-Analysis for Climate ....................................................................................................174

7- Technological Design .................................................................. 181
7.1- Towards Positive Energy ............................................................................................182

7.2- Energy Trends .............................................................................................................183

7.2.1- Examples of definitions for low energy building standards .................................187

7.2.2- Passive house and equivalent concepts ................................................................188

7.2.3- Zero energy houses/zero carbon houses ...............................................................189

7.2.4- Energy positive Building ......................................................................................190

7.3-Design Pathways ..........................................................................................................190

7.4-Thermal Comfort ..........................................................................................................193

7.5-U-Values and Glazer Diagrams ...................................................................................197

7.6-Materials and Technology ............................................................................................204

7.7-Modeling of building....................................................................................................212

7.8- Heat Energy and Cooling Demand .............................................................................220

7.9-Lighting ........................................................................................................................225

References........................................................................................ 132

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CHAPTER 1

INTRODUCTION

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1-INTRODUCTION

Italy is located in Southern Europe, a peninsula extending into the central
Mediterranean Sea, northeast of Tunisia. Its terrain is mostly rugged and
mountainous; with some plains, coastal lowlands and a predominantly
Mediterranean climate.

The choice of Piacenza as seat of the International Summer School stems,
among other things, from the analysis of its territory, an extraordinary case-
study in terms of issues and topics related to architectural design and
construction of public spaces in contemporary cities.

The international Summer school competition was divided in three parts and
we selected the first part of the competition.

1st part was to redevelop (treatment of this complex area through a sequence
of buildings and open spaces and connection with the historical city of
Piacenza

Our goal was to start with the following points and to select one building
which is library for architectural design.

- The relationship between the river and the city; in particular, the areas on the
Po river bank

- The relationship of urban spaces with architectural design.

- The relationship between the city centers

The common denominator is the ―ar chitectural design of open spaces‖, which
can be seen today as a ―m ultidisciplinary practice‖, affecting several
interconnected and closely related architectural scales: from landscape
architecture to planning, from the architectural design of public spaces to
connections architecture, from the design of architectural components to the
study of contemporary aesthetic scenarios.

The particular attention to environmental and open space issues is part of a
theoretical-operational debate, focusing on the promotion of architectural
urban and territorial contexts in terms of resources sustainability and
environmental impact in order to consonance complementarity and impact,

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reach high levels of consonance, integration among the architectural-urban
requirements and the distinctive traits of the locations.

For architectural design, the competition did not provide any brief for
architectural building so for our urban part we selected architectural design of
Public library and we developed a brief while studying various libraries
located in Italy and abroad. After that we studied different energy aspects to
develop the technological part of library and finally we developed the project
according to approach towards positive energy and other possible aspects of
the project.

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CHAPTER 2

URBAN CONTEXT

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2- URBAN CONTEXT

2.1-Italy

Italy, officially the Italian Republic (Italian: Repubblica
italiana), is a country located in south central Europe. To the
north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and Slovenia
along the Alps. To the south it consists of the entirety of the
Italian Peninsula, Sicily, Sardinia, the two largest islands in the
Mediterranean Sea and many other smaller islands.

Global, location of Piacenza, Italy

The country's total area is 301,230 km², of which 294,020 km²
is land and 7,210 km² is water. Including the islands, Italy has a
coastline and border of 7,600 km on the Adriatic, Ionian,
Tyrrhenian seas (740 km), and borders shared with France
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(488 km), Austria (430 km), Slovenia (232 km) and
Switzerland; San Marino (39 km) and Vatican City (3.2 km).

2.2-Emilia–Romagna

Emilia–Romagna

 Repeated under the bearing location on the railway line Milan-Bologna and Turin on
the cross-Brescia, a rail hub of national and International importance.

Piacenza:

Piacenza is a city and comune in the Emilia-Romagna region of
northern Italy withCoordinates45°2′52″N and 9°42′2″E. It is the
capital of the province of Piacenza.

Emilia–Romagna is an administrative region of Northern Italy
comprising the two historic regions of Emilia and Romagna and
the city is situated on the right of the Po, near its junction with
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the Trebbia, in an important strategic position. Agriculture is
the chief industry. The cathedral is of the ninth century; it was
remodeled by Santa da Sambuceto and others (1122-1223) in
beautiful Lombard style.

Map of Italy

2.3- Brief History of Urban Development in Piacenza
Piacenza lies on the right bank of the river Po, at a crucial
crossroads in the south-west area of the Po Valley. The first
settlements date back to the stone and bronze ages. Gauls and
Etruscans are likely to have settled in the area at a later stage,
but there are no certain traces left.

The earliest urban settlement may be traced back to the year
218 B.C. The Romans had planned to construct them after the
successful conclusion of the latest war with the Gauls ending in
219 BC. In the spring of 218 BC after declaring war on
Carthage the Senate decided to accelerate the foundation and
gave the colonists 30 days to appear on the sites to receive their
lands. They were each to be settled by 6000 Roman citizens but

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the cities were to receive Latin Rights 1 .that is, they were to
have the same legal status as the many colonies that had been
co-founded by Rome and towns of Latium.

The era of Late Antiquity in Piacenza (4th/9th centuries AD)
was marked by the expansion of Christianity, with the presence
of several martyrs. Before the year 286 AD Piacenza was not
overtly Christian. In that year the co-emperors of the late
Roman Empire resolved once again on an attempt to eradicate
Christianity, the senior emperor, Diocletian, relying this time
on the services of a subordinate emperor, Maximian. The latter
intended to suppress the Christians of Gaul with fire and sword.
He ordered the garrison of Thebes, Egypt, to join him in Gaul
for that purpose. It is not clear whether he knew that the entire
legion, having been recruited in a then intensely Christian
region, was Christian.

Roman city Medieval City

1
Polybius III.40, Livy XXI.25.

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1435 1500

Historical maps

The first Bishop of Piacenza (322-357), San Vittorio, declared
Antoninus the patron saint of Piacenza and had the first Basilica
di S. Antonio constructed in his honor in 324 in downtown
Piacenza. It was restored in 903, rebuilt in 1101, 2 again in
1562, and is still a church today. The remains of the bishop and
the soldier are in urns under the altar. The theme of the soldier-
saint, protector of Piacenza, is well-known in art.

1600 1821

2
Townsend, George Henry (1877). The manual of dates: a dictionary of reference to all the most
important events in the history of mankind to be found in authentic records (5 ed.). London: Frederick
Warne. p. 752
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1908 2010

Historical maps

In the 13th century, despite unsuccessful wars against Emperor
Frederick II, Piacenza managed to gain strongholds on the
Lombardy shore of the Po River. The primilaries of the Peace
of Constance were signed in 1183 in the Saint Antoninus
church. Agriculture and trade flourished in these centuries, and
Piacenza became one of the richest cities in Europe. This is
reflected in the construction of many important buildings and in
the general revision of the urban plan. Struggles for control
were commonplace in the second half of the 13th century, not
unlike the large majority of Medieval Italian communes. The
Scotti family, Pallavicino family and Alberto Scoto (1290–
1313) held power in that order during the period. Scoto's
government ended when the Visconti of Milan captured
Piacenza, which they would hold until 1447. Duke Gian
Galeazzo rewrote Piacenza's statutes and relocated the
University of Pavia to the city. Piacenza then became a Sforza
possession until 1499.

Piacenza was the capital city of the duchy until Ottavio Farnese
(1547–1586) moved it to Parma. The city underwent some of
its most difficult years during the rule of duke Odoardo (1622–
1646), when between 6,000 and 13,000 Piacentini out of the
population of 30,000 died from famine and plague,
respectively. The city and its countryside were also ravaged by
bandits and French soldiers.

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Between 1732 and 1859, Parma and Piacenza were ruled by the
House of Bourbon. In the 18th century, several edifices which
belonged to noble families such as Scotti, Landi and Fogliani
were built in Piacenza.

In 1802, Napoleon's army annexed Piacenza to the French
Empire. Young Piacentini recruits were sent to fight in Russia,
Spain and Germany, while the city was plundered of a great
number of artworks which are currently exhibited in many
French museums.

The Habsburg government of Maria Luisa 1816-1847 is
remembered fondly as one of the best in the history of
Piacenza; the duchess drained many lands, built several bridges
across the Trebbia river and the Nure stream, and created
educational and artistic activities.

On June 1865 the first railway bridge over Po river in northern
Italy was inaugurated (in southern Italy a railroad bridge had
already been built in 1839). In 1891 the first Chamber of
Workers was created in Piacenza.

During World War II the city was heavily bombed by the
Allies. The important railway and road bridges across the
Trebbia and the Po Rivers and the railway yards were
destroyed. The historic centre of city itself also suffered
collateral damage. In 1944 the bridges over the Po became vital
to the supply from Austria of Field Marshal Albert Kesselring's
Gothic Line, which protected the withdrawal of Kesselring's
troops from Italy. Foremost among them were the railway and
road bridges at Piacenza, along with supply depots and railway
yards. In Operation Mallory Major, July 12–15, allied medium
bombers from Corsica flew 300 sorties a day, knocking out 21
bridges east of Piacenza, and then continued to the west for a
total of 90 by July 20. Fighter-bombers prevented
reconstruction and cut roads and rail lines. By August 4 all the
cities of north Italy were isolated and had suffered heavy
bombing, including especially Piacenza. Transport to Genoa on

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the east or through Turin to the north was impossible;
nevertheless, Kesselring continued to supply his men.3

On the hills and the Apennine mountains, partisan bands were
active. On April 25, 1945, a General partisan insurrection by
the Italian resistance movement occurred and on the 29th troops
of Brazilian Expeditionary Force arrived at the city. In 1996
president Oscar Luigi Scalfaro honoured Piacenza with the
Gold Medal for Valour in Battle.

2.3.1-The reconstruction of the city

Towards the contemporary city, city infrastructure.

The two world wars affected the city and the province,
considering also the significant involvement of Piacenza in the
army. During the Second World War the city was heavily hit by
air raids of the Allies that they collapse the important railway
bridge over the Po, the railway station, hospital and arsenal as

well as portions of the center. Outside the city, on the hills of
Piacenza and over the Apennines, supporters of various groups
who fought the Nazi army were active.

Superstructures and road system engineering

3
Craven, Wesley Frank; James Lea Cate, Editors (1983). The Army Air Forces in World War II.
DIANE Publishing. pp. 404–407
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In the second half of the nineteenth and early twentieth century
new ventures gave an important impetus to the economic and
industrial development, but also the modernization of farms.
For this agricultural vocation and also in the strong tradition
Sacro Cuore Milan opened Christian tradition, the Catholic
University of in in city the first faculty in the fifties, was the
Agriculture one, Piacenza in the detachment of the university.

The central location, the important railway junction and the
passage of two major highways, continue to promote the
economic and industrial development of Piacenza and the
surrounding area to this day which is developing and expanding
a logistics hub in the suburbs. The main aspects of
contemporary Piacenza to be sent to the entire chapter of
"transformations" dedicated to these important issues.

Main connection of the city

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2.3.2-The urban genetic code

The urban biography finds its application more complex and
effective in drawing the biographical map. This itself is
generative matrix of a projected vision into the future, in which
we represent, through a process of abstraction, the final
synthesis, that of today, the life processes of the city, not only
the processes are vital but are able at same time to generate life.
From the point of view more interesting to us, and therefore to
the architectural, biographical map is represented expression of
the urban genetic code, the DNA of the city. With this
definition we want to emphasize the profound need to
understand what underlies the construction of the city and
fundamentally permanent elements, those elements that have
covered the story and are now able to turn into generators of
paths, elements of future projection and therefore
archaeological items in future.

Biographical map: Main Historical thresholds
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2.4- Analysis about Current City of Piacenza

2.4.1- The Geographic Context

The today‘s world is a residence subject to our whole design,
and also the natural support is subject to human transformation.
The words of Leonardo Benevolo and Benno Albrecht (2002),
applied to the condition of Piacenza, drawing a possible overlap
and hybridization between the concepts of geography and
landscape from which the same architectural design should
engage for thought and discussion.

First on the issue of borders. Since the Piacenza is a city that its
borders are lived, grown and built part of his fortune in various
historical eras. Even today - Lombard city in the land of Emilia
or, looking at the other side, in Lombardy, Emilia offshoot –

lives in a strange and in the same time fascinating luminal
condition. As is relevant in our contemporary thinking in terms
of geographical boundaries but it‘s an open question. Because,
accomplices the transformation of infrastructure and the
exponential increase of the flows of people and goods, Piacenza
is interpretable not anymore as urban reality unto itself but
rather as a system or a network node.

The city, in fact, is the integrant part of the so-called
"megacities Po", theorized in 2000 by Eugenio Turri, one of the
leading Italian geographers, agglomeration that characterizes
the northern Italy by tying and built areas and non, with
different characters of settlements and materials, in a system
without any solution of continuity. With a Continental look, the
megalopolis of Po valley extends from the foothills at the foot
of the Alps (condensed around the city of Varese, Como,
Lecco, Bergamo and Brescia and then towards east to Venice),
finds its strategic point in Milan and then extends towards west
(Turin) and south, with a density that decreases as the increase
of agricultural land south of Lombardy Just in Piacenza the
shape of the conurbation bends connecting with the urban linear
formed around the Via Emilia, with greater concentration
around urban centers (Parma, Reggio, Modena) to Bologna.

Beyond the strictly geographical aspects, the conurbation has
effects on the political, economic and social systems. First,
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since the size of Po megacities place it in confrontation and
comparison with other similar European cities such as London
of Great Britain or the Dutch urban strip that links Leiden, Den
Haag and Rotterdam with Amsterdam, together with the
German region of the Ruhr. There are the flows of people and
goods, and thus the efficiency of infrastructure, to give strength
and substance to these conurbations. Even today - despite a
phase of strong transformations and with a strong planning
related to the development of road and rail networks should
materialize in the coming years - about 10% of Piacenza is
commuting, working every day in Milan. In this framework, the
boundaries tend to blur, or perhaps tends to change in an
irreversibly manner the same concept of geography, no longer a
mere description of the area changing, but urban science able to
envisage transformative scenarios. "The geography would thus
be to assume an operational role - writes Luigi Coccia - pre-
figuration of a change based on a large project of ground
capable of reorganizing the territory of the dispersion is not

through the imposition of a new abstract order, of a predefined
drawing dropped casually in a specific spatial context, but
rather through the unveiling of an existing order, an order
constructive detectable in the form of a specific geographical
territorial area." In the contemporary widespread urbanization,
privileged design themes are gaps between settlements and
infrastructure. Places where you can experiment and propose
not so much abstract and global settlement patterns rather than
new, and local, urban geographies and territorial. In the culture
of the urban and architectural design could cite two significant
moments in this sense: the 1973 with the project of Vittorio
Gregotti for the University of the Calabria and the 1993 with
the realizing of the museum square of Amsterdam from the
Sven-Ingvar Anderrson.

They both – by ways and new forms – un built areas, although
very different among them and in a different scale (Territorial
in the first, the urban in second). It constructs, in extreme
synthesis, innovative landscapes. The theme of construction of
landscape - or landscape - is set to geography more than
requested by the contemporary design.

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―( The size of an urban place is an important factor that can
1)
contribute to and detract from quality of life conditions; it
therefore deserves a primary place in the formulation of
national growth policy. (2) In general, the quality of urban life,
as measured across non-economic dimensions, seems to decline
as urban scales increase. (3) The extent to which this quality of
life difference is acceptable seems to depend largely upon
economic trade-offs; the economic rewards must compensate
sufficiently for apparent net social, environmental, political
preferential and systematic disamenities which accrue as urban
scale increases; otherwise, one could expect a spontaneous
reversal in migration patterns away from larger cities to occur‖
Elgin et al. (1974, p. 16).

2.4.2-Population4

Foreigners enrolled in the registers of Piacenza province
municipalities on 31st December 2009 were 36.153, which is
the 12,6% of total residents (which are 288.011). The growth of
the foreign population resident in the territory continues apace:
since 2002 the average yearly increase has been 18%, the
equivalent of more than 3.600 foreign residents per year.
Anyway, in 2009 this growth marked a slight decrease +3.019
residents, which equals +9,6% compared to the number
registered at the end of the previous year.

ABSOLUTE VALUES OF
FOREIGNERS % BY GENDER % ON TOTAL RESIDENTS

FEMAL FEMALE
YEAR MALES ES TOTAL MALES FEMALES MALES S TOTAL

2002 6.330 5.022 11.352 55,8 44,2 4,9 3,6 4,2

2003 8.320 7.131 15.451 53,8 46,2 6,3 5,1 5,7

2004 9.969 8.767 18.736 53,2 46,8 7,5 6,2 6,8

4
Provincial Statistics Office on Municipal Population Data
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2005 11.320 10.268 21.588 52,4 47,6 8,4 7,2 7,8

2006 12.614 11.794 24.408 51,7 48,3 9,3 8,3 8,8

2007 14.614 13.805 28.419 51,4 48,6 10,7 9,6 10,1

2008 16.953 16.181 33.134 51,2 48,8 12,2 11,0 11,6

2009 18.372 17.781 36.153 50,8 49,2 13,1 12,1 12,6

Province of Piacenza. Foreign population. Time series 2002 - 2009. Absolute values, % by
gender, impact on territory

Declining data on foreigners residing in Piacenza territory, the
distribution at the end of 2009 was the following: 50.8% men
and 49.3% women. Also in 2009 the upward trend in the
incidence of women among foreign residents is confirmed:
foreign female citizens enrolled in the municipal registry
offices of the province since 2002, compared to foreign male
citizens data, have recorded exceeding growth rates (+20%
annually compared to +16%) and they have been converging to
equity; meanwhile the distance in terms of impact on the total
population has gradually reduced to 1% (13.1% men and 12.1%
women). In particular, in 2009 foreign female population
increased annually of 9.9% and foreign male population
increased of 8.4%, so 1.419 more men and 1.600 more women.5

Implication
s on
correspond
ent Implications
provincial on total foreign
m f total population population

0-17 4.620 4.249 8.869 20,50% 24,50%

18-40 9.021 8.588 17.609 22,20% 48,70%

5
Provincial Statistics Office on Municipal Population Data
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41-64 4.370 4.435 8.805 9,10% 24,40%

>64 361 509 870 1,30% 2,40%

total 18.372 17.781 36.153 12,60% 100,00%

Piacenza Province. Foreign Population on 31.12.2009 for age and gender. Absolute values,
implications on correspondent provincial population, implications on total foreign population.

Foreign population age class distribution confirms the relevance
of the youth classes implications on the total resident youth
populations. In fact, ―0 -40‖ aged people in the province
represent the 73.2% of the total foreign population and the
21.6% of Piacenza population under 41 years old is composed
of foreign citizens.

100 - 104
95 - 99
90 - 94
85 - 89
80 - 84
75 - 79
70 - 74
65 - 69
60 - 64
55 - 59
50 - 54
45 - 49
40 - 44
35 - 39
30 - 34
25 - 29
20 - 24
15 - 19
10 - 14
5-9
0-4
-7.00 -6.00 -5.00 -4.00 -3.00 -2.00 -1.00 0.00 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00 6.00 7.00

FEMALES MALES

Age pyramid for the foreign resident population on 31.12.2009.

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100 - 104
95 - 99
90 - 94
85 - 89
80 - 84
75 - 79
70 - 74
65 - 69
60 - 64
55 - 59
50 - 54
45 - 49
40 - 44
35 - 39
30 - 34
25 - 29
20 - 24
15 - 19
10 - 14
5-9
0-4
-5.00 -4.00 -3.00 -2.00 -1.00 0.00 1.00 2.00 3.00 4.00 5.00

Italian MALES Italian FEMALES
Foreigner MALES Foreigner FEMALES

Age pyramid for the foreign resident population on 31.12.2009: Italians and Foreigners

TOTAL PROVINCE

2009
The Five early countries represent
COUNTRY/ MALE FEMA 57.5% of immigration.
AREAS S LES TOTAL

Albania 3.535 2.907 6.442

Romania 2.208 2.368 4.576

Morocco 2.482 2.077 4.559

Macedonia
(ex Rep. Jugos.) 1.527 1.337 2.864

Ecuador 917 1.416 2.333 Communities from Macedonia,
Ecuador and Bosnia-Herzegovina
Indy 1.058 747 1.805 placed in Piacenza area are ranked as
the most important in Italy.
Ukraine 269 1.164 1.433

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Bosnia-
Herzegovina 749 485 1.234

Tunisia 667 388 1.055

Egypt 465 236 701

Moldova 234 462 696

Serbia, Republic
of 321 265 586

Burkina Faso
(Alto Volta) 342 209 551 55% of the immigrants come from
European area, 26% from Africa, 10% from
Chinese Popular
Americas and 9% from Asia.
Rep. 262 280 542
Concerning female population for each
Senegal 390 145 535 Country of origin it’s relevant to detect a
significantly above average implication
Nigeria 216 314 530 concerning America (62%) and some

Bulgaria 295 132 427 Countries of Eastern Europe: Ukraine
(81%), Poland (71%), Moldova (66%).
Poland 107 267 374 Instead, concerning male population,
decisively to overcome the average
Cote d'Avoire 189 161 350
incidence rate (50.8%) are Algeria (82,2%),
Brazil 111 208 319 Senegal (72,9%) and Bulgaria (69,1%).

Croatia 154 144 298

Algeria 245 53 298

Peru 96 161 257

Sri Lanka
(Ceylon) 142 95 237

Philippines 110 121 231

Mauritius 86 107 193

France 72 103 175

Ghana 79 89 168

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21

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Dominican, Rep. 56 94 150

Korea, Rep.
(Southern Korea) 64 69 133

United Kingdom 68 65 133

OTHER
COUNTRIES 852 1.108 1.960

EUROPEAN
UNION 2.921 3.233 6.154

OTHER
EUROPEAN
COUNTRIES 6.922 6.957 13.879

AFRICA 5.385 3.957 9.342

AMERICA 1.355 2.202 3.557

ASIA 1.778 1.426 3.204

OCEANIA 6 1 7

STATELESS 1 1 2

TOTAL* 18.368 17.777 36.145

 Slight difference with ―
Foreign Population Time Series‖ and ―for class‖ owing to
age
different Population Sources.

Altitude Foreig Total Imp. %
Area n Resident foreigner
citizens s s

Plane 25.667 189.473 13,5%

Hill 9.583 84.055 11,4%

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22

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Mountain 903 14.483 6,2%

Total 36.153 288.011 12,6%

Province of Piacenza. Foreign population and Total on 31.12.2009 for altitude area

P n r :
ia u a
2 .6 7
5 6

C llin :
o a
9 8
.5 3

Mn g a
o ta n :
930

Province of Piacenza. Foreign Population on 31.12.2009 for altitude

Foreigner
s
implicatio
Minor’s n on total
foreigners implication on % G2 on Resident
total tot. Populatio
a.v. minors foreigners G2 a.v. Foreigners n

Province of Piacenza 33.141 8.123 24,5% 4.509 13,6% 11,6%

Region Emilia-
Romagna 421.482 97.344 23,5% 59.938 14,2% 9,7%

Italy 3.891.293 862.453 22,2% 518.700 13,3% 6,5%

Resident foreign citizen on 31/12/2008 with implication minors and G2 (born in Italy) on
total foreigners.

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23

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Comparison Province of Piacenza, Region Emilia-Romagna, Italy6

Population Trend
Description Comune Province
Land area (sq. km) 118.46 2589.47
population 96806 264641
Population density (inhabitants / sq km) 807 102
Foreign resident population 3416 8828
100 foreign residents 3.57 3.35
For older children 5 5.3 5.4
Percentage of population living on less than 5 years 3.65 3.78
Percentage of population aged 85 and over 3:45 2.99 3.45
Percentage of population aged 75 and over 11.05 11.81
Ageing index7 211.3 217.91
Dependency ratio8 52.19 55.39
Sex ratio 88.28 93.34
Resident population that moves each day 47322 125442
occupied 39873 109938
Unemployment rate 4.72 4.22

ISTAT - Census 2001

6
Caritas/Migrants, Immigration, Statistic Dossier 2009
7
Ageing index Ratio of population aged 65 and over and the population aged 0-14 years. The result is,
in
General, multiplied by 100 or 1,000.
8
Index of total dependency ratio between young and elderly people on the one hand, andpopulation
other hand, for every 100 people. Corresponds to the total dependency ratios of young
and elderly. Index
Total dependency = (Dependency Index Index Dependence Young + old) / Populationaged 15-64) *
100
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24

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ISTAT data on family size (Census 2001) and the trend of the population

As seen in Figure above, the City of Piacenza has recorded a
considerable decrease in the population as a trend in recent
years settling mainly due to the immigration phenomenon. In
connection to this phenomenon has had a significant aging of
the population, whose average age has risen from 40 to 45 years
between the 1981 and 2004.

Population densities of Province Emilia Romagna Region
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25

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Average age of the population of the City of Piacenza

Age structure: division of the population of the City of Piacenza by age (Harp - Chamber of
Piacenza)

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26

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ISTAT data on the nationality of the foreign population residing in the town of
Piacenza (Census 2001)

Population trend

men 49,217 born 870 (From January 1
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27

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December 31, 2010)
(From January 1 to
females 53,989 dead 1,247
December 31, 2010)
(From January 1 to
total 103,206 weddings 219
December 31, 2010)
residents in the
historic center
17,165 of which
foreign
3,825 children

Access to education and social services
Together with the growth of foreign residents, also the access to Social
Services increased steadily in the last years. In particular foreign students
inserted into the provincial school system reached the number of 5887, with
prevalence in primary schools, and a relative impact on total students of 16%
and so higher than the total implication of foreigners on the provincial
population.

Piacenza Emilia-Romagna Italy

Implicati
Implication Implication
Foreign Foreign Foreign on per
per 100 per 100
students students students 100
enrolled enrolled
enrolled

Childhood 1.143 16,9 13.471 12,2 125.092 7,6

Primary 2.133 18,4 26.879 14,5 234.206 8,3

Second. I grade 1.264 17,7 15.410 14,3 140.050 8,0

Second. II grade 1.347 12,3 16.839 10,2 130.012 4,8

Total 5.887 16,2 72.599 12,7 629.360 7,0

Students not having Italian citizenship for school type – S.Y. 2008/20099

The access to social services is even more marked. The foreign
children into care to territorial social services represent 44% of
9
Ministry of Education, University and Research, Statistical Service.
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28

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total minor users, with a weight well above the regional
average. It should be emphasized that 77% of operations covers
family support, economic or educational, relational, so
assistance to foreign minors actually often means a social
intervention for foreign families in difficulty.

Depending
Minors Including foreigners

% on
depending Including
a.v. a.v. minors unaccompanied

Piacenza Province 3.957 1.728 43,7% 107

Region Emilia-Romagna 40.386 13.885 34,4% 763

Depending to territorial social services foreign minors10

Among other measures of protection must be reported foster
families (on a total of 146 cases, 37 are foreigners, so the
25.3%), insertions in community care (on a total of 111 cases,
62 are related to foreigners of 55.9%); activities for victims of
violence (on a total of 66, 26 refer to foreigners so the 55.9%);
activities for victims of violence (on a total of 66, 26 refer to
foreigners, so the 39.4%).

Even for the access for foreign citizens to the services for adults
in difficulty there are significant data: foreigners depending on
professional social services are 1.037 (4.25% on total
foreigners); foreigners accommodated in dedicated residential
care facilities have been 59 into low threshold structures, while
the first and second for adults in difficulty, were 116 out of 381
people /30.4%), social housing at 39 out of 61 users (63,9%).

Even the access to housing of Public Housing (ERP) indicate
the increasing use of public services by foreign residents. On

10
RER–SISAM- Detected minors depending on territorial services on 31/12/2006
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29

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1924 ERP housing in Piacenza town inhabited by families in
2009, 314 are of foreigners families.

2.4.3 – The Socio- Economic System

Piacenza lies on the right bank of the Po River and is one of the
richest provinces in the Emilia Romagna Region of Northern
Italy. It exists at a natural crossroads between communication
routes and is within proximity of other bigger cities, such as
Milan, Bologna, and Genoa, allowing for rapid movement and a
high standard of living. There are 100,000 inhabitants in the
city and 280,000 in the province, with a steady increase in the
last several years due to a rise in immigration from new and
non-EU countries. The city and the immediate surrounding
municipalities are home to a majority of the 32,000 mostly
small- and medium-size companies in the region.

Quality agribusiness, advanced mechanics (machine tools,
robotics), and the building materials industry are the primary
developed sectors of production in the province. Agriculture is
first-rate, making use of state-of the- art technologies and a
highly-qualified knowledge network. This sector takes
advantage of the scientific contribution of the Faculty of
Agriculture (since 1951); other faculties that contribute to
development are Mechanical Engineering, Economics, Law,
and Education. Piacenza has a multimodal, inter connected road
and railway supply center that is integrated with the new
logistic areas through the west-east axis. The agribusiness
industry in Piacenza is top-notch. There are several regional
products, most of them with certified controlled origin branding
(DOC): three for salami, two for cheese (i.e., Grana Padano),
and twenty for wine. Although tourism is scarcely developed in
absolute terms, it is growing at a steady rate thanks to the
natural resources (the Po River and Apennine mountains and
valleys), and cultural attractions (medieval castles, churches,
and Roman heritage).

In general terms, the labor market is well balanced, with an
employment rate of 64 percent and a very low unemployment
rate (almost three percent before the international crisis). In
2008, the GNP per capita was EUR 30,050, higher than the

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30

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averages in Italy (EUR 26,300), and in other European Union
countries (EUR 25,100). In social terms, the area presents a rich
social service endowment, with excellent services for infants

and the elderly, an efficient school system, and well-organized
cultural entertainment.

Lastly, there is Piacenza‘s environmental assessment, which
scores lower than its economic and social sectors. Air pollution
and emissions of NOx and CO2 (respectively, 66 and 24 tons
per year per capita) are higher than the Italian averages (24 and
8 tons per year per capita, respectively). Additionally, high
domestic water and energy consumption make for weak
environmental sustainability in the area (similar to other areas
in northern Italy).

2.4.4- Strategic Plan

Piacenza’s First Strategic Plan

The Piacenza Strategic Plan began with a meeting of key
stakeholders in October 2000 who met (and followed a bottom-
up approach) to deliberate, listen, and analyze. During this
general stakeholders meeting (Stati Generali), draft program
declarations and projects were presented. In order to execute
the declaration, the city, province and the chamber of
commerce began negotiating an implementation action plan
through a process called Pact for Piacenza. A strategic
committee was established, which consisted of 32 members
representing the municipality of Piacenza, the province, the
Emilia- Romagna region, the chamber of commerce, two
mountain communities, other towns in the province, key
economic sectors, trade unions, civil society organizations
(social cooperation and voluntary associations), and the Church.

The strategic committee gathered information from
stakeholders‘ meeting reports and organized a list of projects
clustered around four strategic areas (human resources and
culture, infrastructures and networks, integrated development
resources, collective and social services), together with their
respective strategic goals. Ensuring the internal coherence of
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31

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the strategic areas and the strategic goals was a key
consideration, as well as the relative strengths and weaknesses
of the territories and the local system. The four strategic areas
were subdivided into ten action lines, for which working teams
were established and tasked with the development of the
programs/ projects and an assessment of their feasibility. The

working teams consisted of representatives from local
institutions and economic and social sectors. Coordination of
the process was in the hands of competent officials from the
municipality and the province.

Strategy papers and projects were compiled into a ―strat egic
document,‖ which was signed by the parties on January 12,
2002. The final document, The Pact for Piacenza, outlined
actions and projects and grouped them into ten thematic areas:
human resources and culture; infrastructure and material
resources; networks and services; entrepreneurial development;
logistics and added value; highest quality food system;
integrated tourism; collective and social services; mountain
project; and local agenda 21. There were 30 priority projects
contained in these thematic areas – some of them were
implemented, some are still in progress and others were
integrated into the second edition of the plan.

After an intense and enthusiastic year following the preparation
of the strategic document, the first difficulties occurred during
the implementation phase, when the focus shifted to the
preparation of the feasibility studies. Local elections took place
in June 2002 and changed the political color of the city
government. The process encountered further setbacks due to a
similar change in the provincial administration (June 2004), and
the resignation of the plan coordinator, an important local
entrepreneur who was elected in 2003.

The first outcomes from the Piacenza experience demonstrate
that the Strategic Plan enhanced Piacenza‘s visibility both at the
regional and national levels. Key to this success was the active
role of the city, the province, and the chamber of commerce. In
2003, the Forum for the Public Administration awarded the
provincial plan, Pact for Piacenza, with an official best practice
acknowledgment. In 2004, a similar prize was granted to the
province for its territorial marketing plan, which was prepared
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32

___________________________________________________________________________

by one of the working teams. The discovery of areas available
for production development and the new logistics zones in
Piacenza lured external and foreign investors.

Another notable outcome were the new research centers (2004–
2005), which offer great opportunities to strengthen the
innovative capability of the local system, and a potential to stall
and reverse the migration of talented residents to Milan and
other economic development centers.

Piacenza’s Second Strategic Plan

In May 2005, a new phase, which led to the second edition of
the strategic plan (Piacenza 2020), was initiated. From the
outset, the limitations of the first strategic planning experience
were carefully considered. The first plan was conceived as a
collection of projects that were sometimes too general.
There was also a lack of participation from local politicians,
councilors, and parliamentarians, partly due to a lack of
knowledge and understanding. In fact, although key local
officials and representatives coordinated the plan since the
beginning, they did not fully engage their councils until the
signing of the first Pact for Piacenza.

Some local politicians felt the first plan overlapped with or
even surpassed the institutional mandate, as noted by experts
(Bobbio 2000). Paradoxically, political support for the plan
seemed to decrease when both local administrations (the
municipality and province) belonged to the same party.
Moreover, there were no links to higher levels of government
that could guarantee the flow of resources necessary to
implement the ambitious projects prepared by the working
teams. Therefore, the following projects were dropped:
―Pia cenza Holding‖ (a venture capital fund project for local
initiatives), ―Piacenza Portal‖ (a promotion of the local web
site), social housing projects for vulnerable groups, and the
consideration for some special sectors such as planning and
education. Another weak element was surely the decline in the
initial willingness to get the projects started, and the decrease in
enthusiasm for sharing the Piacenza Strategic Plan objectives.
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33

___________________________________________________________________________

Since participation was the crucial element for the formation of
the agreement, a wider range of stakeholders from the
economic, social, environmental, and cultural sectors were
invited to participate in the strategic committee for preparing
the second edition of the plan, Piacenza 2020, including some
from new social areas. The promoters (province, municipality
and chamber of commerce) convened a public meeting with the
cultural, environmental and voluntary associations in order to
nominate their own representatives for the strategic committee.
Real participation in such meetings, however, turned out to be
always poor. Rather, the direct participation of the population at
large could have been implemented through the representing
associations that would have been able to organize open
meetings to discuss guidelines, strategic areas, and priority
actions. However, this did not happen perhaps because the
associations were not facilitated and supported. Finally, a
further weakness of the process was the absence of a structure
devoted to the plan, which affected support for the working
group sessions and, moreover, diminished the capacity to
evaluate and monitor the expected interventions.

Since May 2005, the promoters expressed their intent to re-
launch the strategic plan by revising the first plan. The new
challenge was to project a mid- to long-term timeline for the
whole provincial territory, and build a baseline framework that
set out the priorities for the next 20 years. This, it was believed,
would enhance coherence for policy and strategic
decisionmaking. To that end a new phase was entered, and
community consultations were organized. In soliciting inputs
and ideas for the future of the city, focus groups were organized
with a range of stakeholders and citizens, including with
students and teachers. The promoters provided special staff for
the organization and support to the committee.

Another key innovation was the selection of the strategic plan‘s
flagship projects. These were characterized by the following
features: medium to long term; large subjects‘ involvement
(likely public-private integration); inter-
sectoriality/multidisciplinary; strategic impacts on the
competitiveness/ sustainability of the territorial system;
measurable through indicators; demonstration
effect/exemplariness. Other ―or dinary‖ projects that do not fall
___________________________________________________________________________
34

___________________________________________________________________________

within the flagship category, such as administrative projects or
initiatives from single stakeholders, are however assessed for
their compatibility or fit with the strategic plan framework, and
for their ability to be integrated with the plan‘s flagship
projects.

The new Piacenza 2020 strategic axes and the selected relevant
flagship projects are highlighted in Table 1. The innovations of
the second edition of the Piacenza strategic plan lie both in
content and method; the following paragraphs illustrate these
innovations.

Piacenza’s future strategic and integrated planning

The new vision of Piacenza is related to an idea of a sustainable
city, an open society based on knowledge and a competitive
productive system.

The Piacenza 2020 Strategic Plan for Economy11

11
Comune di Piacenza
___________________________________________________________________________
35

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The Piacenza 2020 Strategic Plan for Environment12

The Piacenza 2020 Strategic Plan for Society13

2.5- Piacenza’s network

This system, as it would be read today, exhibits the way this
conformation of the infrastructural system can more recently
has traced somehow a preexisting limit, a limit that it was
already determined previously from the collocation of the
historical city on the border of the river. This process, in any
measure, of superimposition, of overwriting has effectively the
expansion of the city, limiting, on the northern side, the right

12
Commune di Piacenza, Strategic plan environmental 2020
13
Commune di Piacenza, Strategic plan for society 2020
___________________________________________________________________________
36

___________________________________________________________________________

bank of the Po River. Another system that immediately is
intelligible within the city, is the system of the great dispositive
figures of the military establishments: the city over decades, has
seen its place in all around, especially behind the sixteenth
century walls, a series of large craft systems to military
functions, both of hospital type and kind of tied to military
forces even with large systems of buildings used for military
arsenal.

These areas, though of no great architectural merit, held today,
since almost totally abandoned, and a significant role to balance
the city, especially in the years to come. And it is precisely
these areas that the city is identifying new possible
development strategies, especially for a large recovery area to
convert to new features useful to the city and, above all, without
taking up new land outside the city itself. The following figure
explains the network of the city in terms of built up spaces.

Built -up space: density and rarefaction of building.
___________________________________________________________________________
37

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Built -up space: Urban textures, settlements and heavy compounds

Land path rules: Suburbs vs inner-city.
___________________________________________________________________________
38

___________________________________________________________________________

Back-ground for urban design: Piacenza‘s north east side, the built-up system.

___________________________________________________________________________
39

___________________________________________________________________________

Typological plan: city axes, typologies, and strong-points

High ways
___________________________________________________________________________
40

___________________________________________________________________________

On a street view Piacenza is the intersection of the A1 (Milan-Naples) and A21
(Turin-Brescia).

___________________________________________________________________________
41

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Infrastructures around ANAS bridge and PO RIVER

___________________________________________________________________________
42

___________________________________________________________________________

Measures, matrix, module: the relation-ship among three project sites and urban
___________________________________________________________________________
43

___________________________________________________________________________

settlement rules.

Pan-European Corridors & Trebbia valley

___________________________________________________________________________
44

___________________________________________________________________________

Master plan14

14
Piacenza City Council – Planning Office. Zoning, General-Plan, 2001.
___________________________________________________________________________
45

___________________________________________________________________________

Master plan15

Master plan16

15
Piacenza City Council – Planning Office. Enviromental System (proposal), 2001.
___________________________________________________________________________
46

___________________________________________________________________________

Traffic general plan17

2.6-Physical-morphological aspects
Textures

The city as we cans see it today and moreover the way we
perceive it, is the result of synthesis of a deep process of
stratification began with the founding act of the city itself, by
the Romans work, on a previous settlement. This act of
foundation, still recognizable in the contemporary city, is not
the only physical trace that has remained for us; the whole
fabric of the Roman for "insulae" has remained largely intact
within the city confined by the system of medieval walls,built
in the mid sixteenth century.

16
Piacenza City Council – Planning Office. Urban Facilities (proposal), 2001.
17
Piacenza City Council – Planning Office. Car-Traffic General-Plan, 2004.
___________________________________________________________________________
47

___________________________________________________________________________

The defensive walls, now partly converted into a national park,
have revealed over time, an effective containment of the
development of the city. Not only these boundaries, especially
on the right margin of the river Po, in recent decades have also
determined the location of infrastructure with high flow, such
as highway and rail.

Overcoming the sixteenth century walls occurs only after the
Second World War, through the support of the economic boom
of the Italy. Thus it can be said that the natural geographical
limits of the river and the limits of artificial walls, appear to be,
still today the matrix that characterizes the city of Piacenza, the
one that can be found only along the Via Emilia and from the
offshoots of the Apennines, the lines Development of
settlements' last half century. Madrid - reading of the And it is
towards this geographic range, between the Via Emilia and
Trebbia river, facing south, the city has found new areas of
construction: It is obvious even today that the wedge of
farmland on the left bank of the river Po has not been reached
by the expansion of the city (architecture of urban spaces
Piacenza summer school competition).

Relationship between topography and infrastructural development

___________________________________________________________________________
48

___________________________________________________________________________

Elements

In the internal of this reading we could identify the elements
that characterize the whole urban implant: especially, the
Geography of the place, in which the conformation of the
ground and the exceptionality of the course of the river,
generate the primitive figure of the urban settlement either if its
placed behind of the course of the river, in the immediate
closeness of the two islands, the which allowed since then and
obviously still allow an easier and immediate ford the river
itself, now transformed into bridges for dedicated crossing
either to the vehicles and for trains.

Secondly, the sign of the foundation of the Cardo and the
Decumano, the one that refers immediately the idea of the
passage, the performed measure of the urban isolated (insulae)
is as well significance and immediately detectable at first
glance map showing the city of Piacenza.
And finally to the interior of this compact and laminated
system, its recognizable the location of landmarks, including
the cathedral, the Palazzo Farnese and the great figures
dispositive of military installations, that arm the urban
structure, stressing at the same time confirming the geography
of the place and its old foundation act.

Systems

We can overall define that the reading that today we execute for
the urban facts, interprets in a duplicate specific condition: from
one side, the historical component of the elements that are
followed and overlapped almost in the flow of the time,
intending these elements belonging to the permanence and/or to
the variability, just taking advantage of historical information,
through plans and documents; on the other hand, there is a
specific that resets the condition that component of the time
variable temporal, such as while using only the contemporary
world, somehow the last plan, the one that for definition is what
that today the city exists, which has precisely the merit of
representing, physically the city, but at the same time allows to
envisage that there was something in a past time. Use of this
latest plan is very necessary because some systems can identify
important city in the balance in this specific time. And it‘s
interesting to notice how the within our field of investigation,
___________________________________________________________________________
49

Master thesis 2011.12.21

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