The Network of the Villages of the Metropolitan City of Reggio Calabria, a Complex Attraction in the Design of Quality and Safety of the Territory

Abstract

The territory of the metropolitan city of Reggio Calabria is complex and fragile; a complexity derived from a territorial and social structure, the result of the millennial history of man’s work on a difficult nature, the result of which is a contamination between the natural environment and the anthropic elements that shape and structure the places. The fragility referred to the physical-urban dimension and to the aspects of the structure of the social structure, also concerns the management of services and public spaces, connections and urban and territorial infrastructures, as well as demographic aspects: many of these urban centers in the last decade have undergone abandonment and depopulation with values often above the national average.

Interventions on a territory with these characteristics are therefore linked to a need to adapt to new needs and therefore in this specific case, to a change in the concept of efficiency closely linked to the notion of use, function and quality of space and places. Imagining the network of villages, the beating heart of this context, means thinking of a metropolitan area aimed at increasing the efficiency of services, spaces and commons. It means strengthening the cultural level of the community to create awareness and commitment towards the protection and enhancement of the identities of the places.

Networking also means facilitating physical and social accessibility to places and services; this plays a fundamental role in the equilibrium of the metropolitan area because it affects the propensity of users to experience the metropolitan space in conditions of safety.