A month after the inauguration of the Bi-City Biennale of Urbanism / Architecture in Shenzhen, studio CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati, in partnership with MIC-Mobility in Chain, unveils the Lugano waterfront project, strengthening the link between the city and its lake with a system of public spaces that look towards the future
City and water
The international architecture firm Carlo Ratti Associati, together with Mobility in Chain (MIC), has reinterpreted the dialogue between Lugano and its lake. The project preserves the historical value of the Pasquale Lucchini lake front (1863) and translates into a transitional space capable of defining a new system of road network and navigation.
The climax is the floating island, a rotating island connected to the city by a series of walkways and the cradle of a series of public spaces, including a garden for the biodiversity of the lake basin.
Lugano’s distinctive waterfront, nestled between the Swiss Alps and the glacial lake, is an opportunity to create a responsive edge for the city, experimenting with novel ways of blending nature and urban space
says Carlo Ratti, director of the Senseable City Lab at MIT. The visionary plan is supported by the private partners of Lugano Living Lab, a collaborative platform aimed at promoting urban development through innovation.
Urban space and technological innovation
The theme of an intelligent public space is part of the cultural landscape that has been vibrating since last December in the Eyes of the City section of the Bi-City Biennale of Shenzhen, of which Carlo Ratti is one of the curators. What is the relationship between urban space and technological innovation? And to what extent is this relationship tied to the human presence?
CRA addresses the issue in Lugano by integrating the redesign of playgrounds with intelligent signage systems and furnishings that react in real time to the stimuli given by the environment and people. The same road flow can be regulated according to needs - from pedestrian to driveway - and configured on different lines according to the times of the day.
The apparent dematerialisation of the design approach is therefore immediately contradicted. The human body, as a tangible unit of measurement, asserts itself simultaneously as object and subject, filtering and directing the architectural and urban debate towards a responsible and coherent AI (Artificial Intelligence) experimentation.
Project details
- A vision for the Lugano lakefront
- A project by CRA-Carlo Ratti Associati with MIC-Mobility in Chain
- Creative Consultant: Italo Rota
- CRA Team: Carlo Ratti, Andrea Cassi (project manager), Alberto Benetti, Chiara Borghi, Mario Daudo, Serena Giardina, Nicola Scaramuzza, Federico Riches, Galla Vallée
- CRA Graphic team: Pasquale Milieri, Gary di Silvio, Gianluca Zimbardi
- MIC Team: Federico Parolotto (project supervisor), Francesca Arcuri (project manager), Lucia Bocchimuzzi, Loris Sciacchitano (planners and data analyst), Federico Cicu, Anna Vnukovskaya (transport modelling)
- With the collaboration of TIRESIA, the International Research Center of Politecnico di Milano’s School of Management
