The visit starts in the abandoned farmstead Cascina Roccafranca. The City of Torino acquired and transformed it into a Casa del Quartiere (neighbourhood house) thanks to the Cohesion Policy-funded Urban 2 programme. The house hosts community and cultural activities for the whole neighbourhood through an innovative and experimental participation model.
The visit continues to Beeozanam, the only example of futurist architecture in Torino, a former industrial building that now hosts the city’s first community hanging garden, created by the OrtiAlti Association. The Ortoalto became the core of a community hub thanks to the UIA Co-City Project, and has consolidated relations with the surrounding neighbourhood by involving schools, volunteers and local associations.
EU FUNDS INVOLVED
Cascina Roccafranca: € 3 600 000 Urban II Community Initiative Programme, ERDF
Co-city: € 4 125 891.44 UIA programme, ERDF
Lingotto is an iconic example of modern architecture in Torino and a landmark of the industrial reconversion of the city. A part of the former plant for FIAT cars production currently hosts the faculty of automotive engineering of the Politecnico of Torino. The historic track used for testing cars is now the largest roof garden in Europe, with 40 000 plants and over 300 different species.
The second stop of the tour is the Energy Center: a pole of excellence in the field of energy efficiency and environmental innovation, with its centre for applied research, testing and strategic advice on new energy policies and technologies.
EU FUNDS INVOLVED
Energy Center: € 14 000 000 Piemonte Regional Operational Programme, ERDF
The tour around Borgo Dora starts in Arsenale della Pace, one of Torino’s main military arsenals in the XIX century, which underwent extensive urban regeneration after the 1980s.
The covered square of Cortile del Maglio hosts a local association that organises and manages social and cultural activities.
Thanks to the Tonite project, supported by Urban Innovative Actions, Torino became an open urban laboratory to test community-based urban security solutions, reviving the sense of place and residents’ perception of its safety. During this site visit, one intervention to be visited is the Giardino Pellegrino, the central garden of Piazza Borgo Dora. Finally, the former INCET factory for the production of electric cables now hosts Open Incet, the Open Innovation Center of the City of Torino, and Colla! a collaborative innovation space of 3 000 sqm gathering a growing number of start-ups and innovators.
EU FUNDS INVOLVED
Ex Incet: € 8 201 101.82 ERDF 2007 – 2013, PISU Integrated Plan for Urban Development
Cortile del Maglio: € 8 000 000 ERDF
Piazza and Via Borgo Dora: € 1 000 000 ERDF
Giardino Pellegrino: € 300 000 for the physical regeneration, EUR 60 000 for the Usanze Pellegrine community project (Tonite Urban Innovative Action project, ERDF)
The visit starts in Orti Generali, an urban garden that aims to create a model of social enterprise for the transformation and management of residual agricultural areas in the city. It now gathers more than 150 vegetable gardens and a learning centre.
In the same neighbourhood, the non-profit organization Fondazione della Comunità di Mirafiori manages Casa nel Parco, a neighbourhood house implementing food recovery and food circularity projects.
EU FUNDS INVOLVED
Local experimentations funded through H2020 projects: Budget for the City of Torino: € 556 875 for the H2020 FUSILLI project and € 896 500 for H2020 proGIreg
Environment Park is an example of the transformation from brownfield to greenfield. In the 1990s, the City of Torino launched an urban transformation programme of this former industrial area, completed in 2006. The park now hosts a convention centre, start-ups, enterprises, laboratories and demo sites.
Officine Grandi Riparazioni (OGR) was the largest industrial facility in Torino in the XIX century, repairing rail vehicles. Since 2019, the venue of the Cities Forum hosts OGR Tech, a hub devoted to innovation, business acceleration and scientific, technological and industrial research, with the aim of catalyzing half a billion euros of investments and accelerating 1 000 new startups over the next 20 years.
Both Environment Park and several start-ups at OGR Tech are part of Torino City Lab, the initiative of the City of Torino to promote collaboration among different actors in finding innovative solutions to urban challenges.
EU FUNDS INVOLVED
Environment Park: € 29 449 720 ERDF
The tour starts in Laboratori di via Baltea, an urban regeneration project with a social and cultural impact located in the heart of Barriera di Milano. Thanks to the participation and activism of citizens and local organisations, the laboratori’s activities foster solidarity while promoting recycling, self-repair, exchange and reduced consumption.
The second and last stop is Bagni Pubblici di via Agliè. The former public bathrooms are now a neighbourhood house, with the peculiarity of offering to its community a service of public showers, social activities, cultural laboratories and music courses.
EU FUNDS INVOLVED
Urban Barriera: programme for the regeneration of the whole area: € 20 000 000 ERDF 2007 - 2013, PISU Integrated Plan for Urban Development
Bagni Pubblici di via Agliè: € 147 156.82 ERDF 2007 - 2013, PISU Integrated Plan for Urban Development
In 2022 the City of Torino, together with the NEBTO Committee (Torino Committee for the New European Bauhaus), led a policy lab for the drafting of a local Manifesto inspired by the principles of beauty, inclusiveness and sustainability.
A first initiative involving Cascina Falchera, an urban farm, has already been launched in the framework of the Horizon Europe DESIRE project. What will come next? How will this process encourage new projects and initiatives in the city? Are local actors accepting the challenge?