SOLAR PARK SOUTH (ITALY)

Regione Calabria - Town Planning and Territorial Governance Department - announces the first "Zero Emission" international competition, Solar Park South, fully managed online by means of the portal Newitalianblood.com. Participants are requested to provide economically, energetically and culturally sustainable projects and innovative ideas for the reuse of an imposing 10-km highway stretch, between the municipalities of Scilla and Bagnara, soon to be decommissioned. Participation is open to architects, landscape architects, engineers, designers, artists, scientists, researchers and students worldwide.

Prizes
First Prize: 20,000 Euros. Second Prize: 7,500 Euros. Third Prize: 2,500 Euros.
Up to 10 Honourable Mentions

Jury
Emilio Ambasz, James Wines, Mario Cucinella, Vicente Guallart, Patrick Blanc, Jörg Schlaich, Hans-Rudolf Schalcher, Jana Revedin, Sarah Ichioka, Vedran Mimica, Edo Ronchi, Gianni Silvestrini, Ezio Terzini, Tonino Perna, Rosaria Amantea

Materials
Participants must submit 2 jpg-format images (dimension: 945x450 pixels; maximum size: 200 kb each) with 2 descriptive texts (maximum length: 2,000 characters).

Website www.parcosolaresud.it
Direct english link www.parcosolaresud.it/concorso01/index_en.html
Info [email protected]

The Province of Reggio Calabria is crossed by some ten kilometres of Italy's Autostrada del Sole (A3 Salerno - Reggio Calabria highway), constructed, for the most part, in the 1960s and '70s and featuring numerous imposing infrastructures. This stretch of highway is set to be decommissioned following the construction of a new highway, composed largely of tunnels, designed to ensure the functional modernization and safety of this route.
Thanks to a series of elegant and audacious viaducts designed by worldwide famous Italian engineers, such as Nervi, Zorzi and Morandi, particular sections of the original route offer impressive views of the terraced, and in many cases, virgin rural landscape to one side, and of the sea, the Calabrian coast, the Strait of Messina, Sicily and the Aeolian Islands on the other.

The aim of the international competition is to stimulate concrete ideas and revolutionary proposals for the reuse of the soon to be decommissioned highway. Participants are invited to develop their ideas-projects starting from the basic proposal to:

• Dedicate one carriageway (south-north) to the creation of a space for testing the production of energy using renewable sources, the search for and successive application of new sustainable technologies, and the implementation of measures focused on integrating the Park within the surrounding territory through the upgrading, fruition and valorisation of landscape;
• Reuse the other carriageway (north-south) as an alternative to the National Road n.18, which is both obsolete and fragile, in order to ensure better connections between Scilla and Bagnara, and between the latter communities and the surrounding mountainous and rural territory, as strongly requested by local inhabitants, through the reuse of the service roads and technical areas related to the construction of the new highway.

Rather than completely demolishing the old highway, with its extraordinary reinforced concrete viaducts, now fully integrated within the landscape and the collective imagination, the reuse and redevelopment of certain by-passed sections is proposed as a means of boosting the production of renewable energy; experimenting with new eco-friendly technologies; favouring connections between villages and access to the valuable crops on mountain crests; and, finally, developing new forms of environmental and land art capable of stimulating responsible tourism. Instead of spending approximately 40 Million Euros (the estimated cost of environmental refurbishment) to demolish the decommissioned portions of the old highway, dispose of the debris and restore the existing landscape, thanks to the creation of Solar Park South, part of this money can be employed in productive investments.

Solar Park South adopts a conceptual approach of environmental acupuncture, promoting the re-use of the existing before consuming new land, pursuing landscape integration, energy self-production and economic self-sustainability. By beginning with renewable energies, the goal is that of developing a new virtuous cycle founded on the green economy, capable of bringing research, experimentation, technologies, production, employment and tourism to the whole of Calabria. Furthermore, considering that the financial and environmental cost of transforming the 10 km of decommissioned highway will be considerably lower than that of its fruitless environmental refurbishment, the creation of the Park optimises public expenditure and brings value to the potentials of the landscape, energy production, agriculture, scientific research and manufacturing. Proposals must provide design and technological solutions in relation to the values of the local landscape and the application and enhancement of mature or experimental renewable energies.