A resilient and sustainable urban space: the Siemens factory in Santa Maria Capua Vetere (CE)

Abstract

The paper proposes a reflection on the urban transformation of a partly disused industrial area located in Santa Maria Capua Vetere territory, a medium-sized municipality of Caserta Conurbation. In the Caserta Province the lack of a clear delimitation of industrial areas allowed, between 1955 and 1961, the construction of large industries such as Saint-Gobain in Caserta, Pierrel in Capua, Autelco in Marcianise, Texas in Aversa, Pozzi in Sparanise and Siemens in Santa Maria Capua Vetere, which was closed down in the nineties. A series of areas occupied by factories that have been partially or totally dismantled and that constitute problematic nodes in the contemporary territory. Siemens (later Italtel) was a factory located in a strategic place, along the Appian Way and bordering on the municipality of Capua. In the 1970s it employed 30.400 people and today it appears as a place (covering around 165.000 mq) of decay and neglect. The first part highlights some of the issues that lead to the abandonment of industrial areas through the analysis of Italian and foreign case studies. The second one analyses the de facto and de jure state of the area, the de facto through a detailed study that highlights its peculiarities and negative aspects and de jure from the comparison of the forecasts of the PTCP, the PRG and the PUC, recently adopted by the municipal council respectively. The third part proposes a meta-design hypothesis of resilient and sustainable regeneration.