Park Associati participates to the 17th International Architecture Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia

“Catania looks at the sea”, the project for the requalification of the waterfront of Catania will be part of the exhibition “Resilient Communities”, curated by Alessandro Melis in the Italian Pavilion.

22.5 – 21.11.2021 Tese delle Vergini, Arsenale.

The video “Catania faces the sea” and a big model reproducing the 4 kilometre of coast involved by the new development, feature the story and the concept of the masterplan for the new waterfront of Catania, winner of the competition in 2019 and still without any follow up.

Living at the foot of the highest active volcano in Europe entails a great deal of resilience and adaptation. Catania’s citizens have been doggedly building and rebuilding their city within the fertile basin bounded by Mount Etna and the Mediterranean sea. Today, Catania is no longer looking out to sea. The railway and the harbour have moved the water away from the city, both physically and figuratively.

The competition for the new waterfront masterplan was a great opportunity to return Catania to its sea. Leading the group that won the competition in 2019, Park Associati's intervention focuses on the city's four-kilometre waterfront, which includes the harbour, some abandoned industrial areas, the railway and several residential areas. At the core of the project is water, which from rejected risky element is turned  into an identity-defining economic resource for the city's future.

Two years on, no one has followed up on the project and nothing is known about the masterplan's future. Catania is still waiting for a chance to look out to sea.