Abstract
In Italy, Campania is known to be one of the regions with the highest number of illegal settlements. Specifically, such illegal settlements occur mainly in the Napoli and Caserta provinces. Castel Volturno is one of the municipalities has been recognized to play a negative role in this current issue. Castel Volturno, is the area of intervention for the application of a recovery plan for illegal settlements. An analysis of the planning tools in force and preliminary tools exiting, analysis of urban analysis through detailed study of the Kevin Lynch techniques, identification of performance elements on Villaggio Coppola, before moving on to the proposal for the new unauthorized settlement recovery plan. The paper focuses on understanding how to solve the problem of illegal settlements through different possibilities provided by the law; and how to create desirable solutions for administrations and citizens to improve the territory that is often defaced by the careless hand of man, which risks compromising a cultural landscape of inestimable value.
Keywords
This paper is the result of collective work of the authors as well as individual personal as specified: The phenomenon of illegal settlements (Sharon Anna Somma), Castel Volturno planning tools (Luigi Macchia), An analysis methodology and Villaggio Coppola (Claudia de Biase), A proposal PRUA for Villaggio Coppola (Sharon Anna Somma), Abstract and Conclusion can be attributed to both.
1 Illegal Settlements
1.1 The Phenomenon of Illegal Settlements
By Italian Law A building is considered illegal when a complete buildings or part of them are built or extended in the absence or partial derogation from the necessary regulatory approvals. The building TU (P.D. no. 380/01), identified three types of illegal building [1]:
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The realization of a building without permission to built;
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The realization of a completely different building from that provided in the proposed project;
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The realization of a work with essential variations.
In the recent years, have been proposed different classifications of the kinds illegal urbanism, but they are those of two authors have been taken into consideration how most important classification: Marcelloni and Fontana in 1988; and CRESME in 2000. The phenomenon of illegal settlements is characterized by shapes, nature and purposes. First of all, the proposal by Marcelloni and Fontana identified, a shape, and nature of illegal building, such as, radical modification of use destinations in residential building, building production areas for agricultural production, a high number of secondary houses, heavy renovation. While CRESME has identified purpose of the illegal building, about, necessary illegal building, refers to the need to provide a house as a place indispensable for life highlighting serious individual economic difficulties; and speculative illegal building, a different vision respect to necessity building. This paper will be exclusively about unauthorized settlements or better about the illegal building of neighborhoods or lotting.
1.2 Castel Volturno Planning Tools
In Italy, Campania is known to be one of the regions with the highest number of illegal settlements; in fact the illegal building are about 63.3%, namely about 70.000 of the building compared to the authorized ones (ISTAT data, 2015) [2]. Specifically, such illegal settlements occur mainly in Napoli with about 86.000 requests presented, and Caserta provinces [3]. Castel Volturno, located on the coast, has been recognized to play a negative role in this current issue. Currently, the plans in force related to Castel Volturno are: the Regional Plan (PTR), the Territorial Plan (PTCP), the hydrogeological plan (PAI), and plans of management SIC-ZPS areas. The PTR of Campania region, approved with the regional law L.R. n°13/2008, defines specific parameter, addresses and strategic contents. Castel Volturno belongs to the Ambiente Insediativo (AI) n°1 (Piana campana), in the Sistema Territoriale di Sviluppo (STS) F1 zone (Litorale domitio) and in the Campo Territoriale Complesso (CTC) n°8 (Litorale domitio). The PTCP of Caserta, approved in 2012, recognises 6 framework areas. Castel Volturno belongs to the framework named Litorale Domitio. Castel Volturno also belongs to PAI, introduced with regional law L.R. n°1/2012, managed by the Authority of Bacino of the Liri-Garigliano-Volturno. The ZPS-SIC areas of common interest which are part of the municipality of Castel Volturno are SIC area Pineta di Castel Volturno (IT8010020), SIC area Pineta di Patria (IT8010021), SIC area Foce Volturno-Variconi (IT8010028) and ZPS area Variconi (IT7010018).
1.2.1 An Analysis Methodology
The transformation that affects the territory determines a visible change on a geo-graphical scale mostly since the 60s. This current issue is due to absence of regularity, resulting in unruly building sprawl; following this, Castel Volturno territory has been particularly affected. Today, the regularity tool in force, is a Perimeter of the urban settlements introduced by the law L.N. n°765/67 that defines as a town all that falls within the perimeter. According to this law, every building that is outside the perimeter is illegal. Furthermore a first distinction is made in different areas with different intended uses compared to the plan (Fig. 1).
Overlapping of the Perimeter within the meaning of L.N. n°765/67 and the perimeter of the areas covered by the PUC. It has been hard to quantify the right number of the illegal buildings, being about 40 years after perimeter; furthermore, the spread of catastrophic events such as earthquake in the 70s and 80s had led to a strong expansion, with the result of an improvement of the sprawl with the progress of the building towards the maritime state-owned area. For instance, only in 2003, it has been stipulated a Program Agreement proposing interventions for the productive valorization of local resources, likewise safeguarding and conserving natural resources and rebalancing the territory through the restructuring of urban subsets. However, there are no references to interventions for the reduction of an illegal use of land. Since 2011, preliminary proposal of PUC has been presented in compliance with art. 23 paragraph 3 of L.R. n°16/2004 [4] which has identified unauthorized settlements proposing for these the methods of urban and building recovery through the formation of implementation plans. A preliminary proposal of PUC, allowed the verification of requests for amnesty that in case of full compliance with the provisions of the PUC, the possibility of being able to obtain the amnesty. In municipality of Castel Volturno, the presence of different types of illegal building has been ascertained. To date, more than 11000 requests for amnesty have been submitted in conjunction with L.N. n°47/1985, L.N. n°724/1994 and L.N. n°326/2003 [5] to obtain the so called Condono. Meanwhile, among these requests just a low number has been examined; furthermore, several ones aren’t remediable due to the connection with buildings built on public lands, or burdened by civic, landscape and hydro-geological restrictions. To these practices of about 70/80 illegal building more for each year should be added (Fig. 2).
From overlapping inside the (see Fig. 4), the increase of the building density from the 60s up became apparent. This results to be outside the perimeter not subjected to verification of conformity with respect to the municipal territory. To date, the illegal actions has caused a slow decline of the whole territory. The development of this phenomenon has probably been caused by the fact that the territory has always been deprived of a planning tool approved in a definitive form, if not a perimetration of the urbanized areas on the basis which permits were issued for some constructions, as for the production plants. Moreover, in the various instruments proposed by administrations, a repressive intervention has never been mentioned for buildings which do not present any possibility of being condoned or restored for legal reasons.
1.3 Villaggio Coppola
Villaggio Coppola was born as an unauthorized settlement, emblematic example of urban sprawl, a private seaside village [6]. A village that stands on a privately-owned land belonging, according to a Regio Decreto of 1911, to Cecere family [7].
Until the end of the Second World War, the territory remained uncultivated and characterized on a legal level by 1933 Land Law (Legge Fondiaria)Footnote 1, then, the end of 50s great economic it was transformed: from agricultural land to a country with a tourist vocation. In 1962 Coppola village (which was named after Coppola brothers) it was organized a first large-scale parcelling on the family-owned land that fell within the municipal area of the highest tourist interest due to the natural values of the coast (Fig. 3).
The start of works to build Village Coppola – Pinetamare, dates back to 7th December 1965.
This project which was inspired by the urban “model” of tourist housing settlement of Baia Domitia, proved to be different especially in the territorial distribution, distorting the natural landscape of Caserta; in fact, the pinewood next to the village, declared as whole and subject to landscape restrictions, was soon swallowed up by speculative constructions. The area by Villaggio Coppola covers about 950.000 m2 including the stretch of the SS7 quarter Domitiana. With regards of the identified area, the coastal strip with building sprawl and illegal land use affects about 538.000 m2 of which 114.000 m2 were found to be privately owned. The remaining 424.000 m2 consist of land belonging to the maritime state property and the state forestry. On May 16, 2001, the demolition of the first of the eight towers started; between the months of February and August 2003 the other seven towers were demolished; these abatements assumed a fundamental symbolic meaning of the strong presence of the State in a territory battered with regards of building abuses and a difficult social situation [8].
1.4 A Proposal PRUA for Villaggio Coppola
The ability to generate an environment that creates meaningful connections is related to the characteristics of legibility and imageability [9] and is essential for the survival of every urban ecosystem to determine the creation of a strong identity of the place. Generally, an urban system must be legible, capable to lead to the identification of a structure, through sensorial signals defined and perceived by the observer, arbitrarily selected by the community and finally manipulated by urban planners, by constantly relating the image of the city with form, quality and objectives.
The identity of Castel Volturno differs from the territorial context for the urban form that has had a remarkable development, from the 60s to today. From a first reading of the territory emerges what follows [10]:
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Strong points: Pinewood which extends the stretch from Baia Verde to Marina di Licola; the nature reserve of the Variconi oasis; the delta of the Volturno River and the Regi Lagni, the seafront position; the presence of a tourist harbour; the fast infrastructure that connects the cities of Rome, Naples and Caserta; the building and urban fabric that defines the typical building typologies;
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Weak points: the great extent of the unused agricultural area; the strong degradation; the same harbour currently incomplete; the lack of iron infrastructure and a good mobility system for connections with the cities of Campania and Lazio; the lack of equipment, the integration of the different ethnic groups existing on the territory.
Safety, for example, is one of the aspects to consider for the improvement of living conditions, which has not been taken into account since the construction of Villaggio Coppola. Crime events, of low and high degree, are the aspects to be evicted in order to rebuild a good settlement. From the ensemble of all the elements is clear that the characteristic of this part of the territory is the absolute lack of services and equipment for socialization and aggregation; this lack is due to the randomness of urban residential stratifications and is illegal use. The lack of a public space, a key element for individual and social well-being, able to support multi-cultural integration and a better quality of life for citizens of every age and ethnicity in the Castilian context. This kind of analysis also provides the identification of five performances dimensions, such as nodes, edge, district, path and landmark [9] (see Fig. 4). These features are able to show to the citizens perception with respect to the places of the territory. The Keywords of Proposal PRUA for Villaggio Coppola are the following: recovery urban settlements, demolition, and reuse and regeneration of forsaken buildings with “zero-cost land use”. The choice of the area of intervention derives from the conditions of the territory, such as: imposing weight of the phenomenon of illegal building, uncontrolled growth of settlements without primary and secondary urbanizations and the absence of an existing regulatory instrument that regulates the territory. The objective is to operate through the proposal of a Recovery Plan for the unauthorized settlements for Villaggio Coppola, referring to the art. 29 of the L.N. n°47/1985. The main objective is to reduce and count the abuse, while where possible, to recover illegal buildings; it considers a greater comfort for the settlement, through the primary and secondary re-urbanization and redevelopment through works and services to favor a integration to the citizens. In order to hypothesize an intervention on the territory, an analysis of the building fabric and of their conditions was carried out (degraded, incomplete or decommissioned), as well as two types of interventions to be applied: restoration of the building, and the demolition of unsinkable buildings. For this purpose, every feasibility study was necessary for each intervention (see Fig. 5). Demolition interventions (45 terraced houses, 22 residential buildings, and 3 of different destinations) are planned on the coastal strip, as they fall within the owned-state area, and within the coastal strip (300 from the shoreline line), with the constraint of unbuilding this intervention provides for the identification of new public spaces. Regarding the recovery, there are two ways of intervention: recovery of urban voids or brownfields with change of intended use; restoration of the existing building, characterized by changes of intended use. In two areas new buildings will be shared, within which the families residing in the demolished buildings will be relocated. The typical building is structured on two floors which are expected to be given to each family; made with sustainable materials that conform to the climatic and territorial context.
One of the fundamental principles of a recovery plan is to encourage the direct participation of citizens in the “self-recovery” of the neighborhoods; hence, they contribute to those who have to realize new volumes, through mechanisms of rebalancing between the sale of public areas and the payment of extraordinary contributions. In addition, the project includes a new waterfront design and aspires to a new identity for Villaggio Coppola, from an illegal village to a tourist center, downsizing the existing urban fabric, through the concept taken from the road stratification. All the material of the demolished buildings will be recycled and used as an element of urban furniture, arranged along the new promenade in order to create a real artistic with sculptures or on the facades of buildings to be recovered falling in the residential area; among the most common materials used, flooring or coatings. Out of the total number of buildings on the beachfront, 10 are excluded from the demolition, which is instead expected to be recovered, as they are new buildings of which 4 are decommissioned, and some of the remaining are in degraded conditions. One of the reasons why demolition isn’t planned, is the presence of green spaces that can be used as a new access point from the inside.
This also allows the perception of visual cuts from which the sea can be seen from the pinewood. The recovery of abandoned, degraded, and unfinished buildings consists of consolidation in structural and aesthetic terms, through the use of sustainable materials, compliant with the territory, starting from an intervention on the façade for which the homogenization of all the buildings on which color bands will be applied using recycled materials. As for unfinished buildings, we are currently testing the hypothesis that a complete recovery may occur according to the criteria of sustainability. This may assume a different role from that of the original project, providing to the citizen a common place to socialize and integrate. In conclusion, the new waterfront proposal is based on a restyling of the driveway, reorganizing a promenade for colors, recalling those that make up the territory, which identifies the different functions of the city: residential area, touristic area and new green area.
2 Conclusion
The scientific discussion, at national and European level, on the unauthorized building and settlements, is agreed on an assumption: the soil is an exhaustible resource for the environment and the landscape, therefore, central in urban and territorial planning and management. The paper, therefore, focuses on the recovery of this large amount of heritage, in a sustainable key, which leads to understand how to solve the phenomenon of illegal settlements through the recovery proposal plan the chosen area, that Villaggio Coppola. In addition, the problems of the territory that emerged during the work, have led to the hypothesis of a wide and justified actions:
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Demolition: (1) with rebuild, achieving an improvement of the primary and secondary urbanization; (2) without rebuild, provides for the identification of new public spaces.
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Recover of abandoned area, and restyling of green areas.
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Acquisition of assets of some building with change of use destination.
The desirable recovery project for Villaggio Coppola in addition to urban redevelopment and construction, using sustainable materials and the use of alternative energy, should also promote the removal of physical and social barriers resulting from the illegitimate development of the building. Environmental sustainability is visible in the provision of new green areas for the community and, Social sustainability is achieved through the promenade, and then, economic sustainability is substantiated by the provision of a reduced number of demolitions - economically burdensome - and in the prediction of a building and urban recycling for private owners.
Notes
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Nuove norme per la bonifica integrale art. 22 R.D. 13 febbraio 1933 n. 215, through the structure of the reclamation areas of the district in which they are known or more plots, the concession holder of the sector Consortium proceeds, for the purposes of reclamation, according to a reception plan, to the meeting of plots of men, to sell each owner, in exchange of his land, to pay one or more land for the purpose of reclamation.
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de Biase, C., Macchia, L., Somma, S.A. (2019). Unauthorized Settlements: A Recovery Proposal of Villaggio Coppola. In: Calabrò, F., Della Spina, L., Bevilacqua, C. (eds) New Metropolitan Perspectives. ISHT 2018. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 100. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-92099-3_44
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