ZEMCH 2015 - International Conference Proceedings | Page 161

order to function, will necessitate continuous fuelling – aside from large funds – from knowledge,
technologies, experiments and human resources specialised on the themes of sustainable development.
Coherently with its mission, the Polytechnic of Bari, inspired by the models of some famous industrial cities that relied on research, innovation and culture (among which Pittsburgh, Sheffield,
York, Tremont, Bagnoli, Genova, Bilbao), intends to contribute to the development of Taranto’s
area creating a Green Campus in which to conduct research, experiments and teaching on the
themes of sustainable development.
Taranto’s University Center could, in this sense, become a great open air laboratory for strategies
and operations able to positively act on the territory.
This could be achieved through processes of high environmental and energetic efficiency, transforming, contextually, a technically isolated and decayed urban sector of the town, Paolo VI district, in a laboratory for experimentations of new urban practices, technologically, socially and
culturally advanced and so, in a new bet for the rebirth of a town that has temporarily lost its
own “raison d’être”. In this sense, Taranto’s University Center would represent for the town a development lever and, at the same time, a solid opportunity for research and experimentation for
the Polytechnic, for the companies existing on the territory and hopefully for other companies
attracted by the reclamation and experimentation activities that could begin.
In this respect it is impossible, on the other hand, to circumscribe the problem of Taranto’s University Center to the mere presence of a campus isolated within the current boundaries and unable
to interfere with the urban fabric. The attempt to establish a new interaction with the town might
therefore define further levels of urban infrastructures and renewed interactions between public
and private places of the university with the possibility of introducing numerous approaches and
principles for the sustainable development of this territory.

The strategy for urban integration and the system of sustainable mobility
The case of Taranto has therefore been examined and compared with the models previously obtained.
The analysis, started from the reference framework of the “Strategic View” indicated for the town
(Montalbano et Al., 2015) (Fig. 6) and from an initial survey of the spatial and functional structure
of the urban neighbourhood of reference, have allowed to highlight the considerable urban value
of the district “Paolo VI” within which the University Center stands and, at the same time, the high
weakness and risk factors that have determined thus far the marginalisation and degradation of
this district (Tab.4).

The University Campus as a model of environmental and settlement sustainability

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