Spazi contesi a Napoli est. Ripartire dal temporaneo

Starting from the capability of "temporary places" of accelerating urban change, the paper reflects on the relationship between temporary reuse and urban change. As a matter of fact, novel and ephemeral reuses of places make it possible to test future scenarios which can survive temporary dimension and reconquer discarded spaces to urban life. In particular, the focus is on a temporary reuse strategy of vacant or underused public spaces in Naples aiming at taking these underused resources back into the city, betting on local communities’ support. This bet is indeed the starting point of “cities in the city”, a research activity carried out by the Faculty of Architecture of “Federico II” University of Naples on behalf of the Campania dei Festival Foundation. The Foundation is promoting the “cities of the Mediterranean” project, a cultural tourist policy which foresees to settle by September 2011 fragments of several Mediterranean cities into selected places in the urban area of Naples. Therefore, the research project had the goal of mapping public open spaces and buildings having different kind, function and size, which are suitable for hosting temporary events. This survey gives us the occasion to rediscover and put at work different images about the city, arising from master plan, neighborhood claims and stratified urban designs, which circulate in urban spaces while being not real so far. Moreover, with respect to urban maintenance (mainly in public spaces) and social activation and empowerment, it is the opportunity to devise light strategies, which can become crucial steps towards the rediscovery and recognition of places. In the paper, these issues are specifically addressed and discussed in the case of a working-class district on the Eastern coast of Naples, San Giovanni a Teduccio. In the recent years, this district, which is a space almost removed from the city image, although being central, has been the target of several plans and transformations, which however are currently at a stalemate.