Laura Abbruzzese

XXXIII Cycle - (A.A. 2017-2018)

IDAUP
Home Institution: University of Ferrara
Scholarship
Curriculum: Urban Planning (ICAR21)
Research Topic: Environmental upgrading of urban fabrics
Tutor DA-UNIFE: Romeo Farinella
Tutor Polis University: Daniela Kavaja
Nationality: Italian

Email: bbrlra@unife.it

Profile

Biography
Laura graduated as an architect in Ferrara in 2016 with a thesis entitled "Subversões Minhocão" that investigates a process of informal appropriation along a viaduct for vehicular transportation in São Paulo's downtown (Brazil), as part of an exchange program with the Escola da Cidade - Faculdade de Arquitetura and Urbanismo of São Paulo in 2014. The thesis deals with the existing infrastructure as a renewal opportunity and an urban quality resource for public spaces. The project had been awarded as a finalist in the European competition Young Talent Architecture Award 2016 (organizer: Fundació Mies van der Rohe, in collaboration with: Creative Europe - European Commission) at the 15th Venice Biennale Exhibition. Currently, Laura attends the International PhD Course (a.y. 2017-2018) in Ferrara and collaborates to the research projects in urban and regional planning developed by the academic research centre CITERlab (Prof. Romeo Farinella, PhD Elena Dorato).

Research skills
Urban planning | Public spaces | Obsolete infrastructures | Renewal projects | Integrated strategies

Scientific activities

ORCID ID:
0000-0002-2578-402X

IRIS UNIFE ID:
rp02429

Doctoral research

ROUTES OF STITCHING (ROS). MOBILITY INFRASTRUCTURES AND METHODOLOGIES OF RENEWAL Obsolete and dismissed transport facilities as urban and landscape quality resource

The contemporary landscape is marked by infrastructures built to carry out functions related to the urban development. The environmental adaptation to changes involves an unavoidable write off phenomenon, due to the fall of certain obsolete functions compared to the previous needs. This kind of process compromised the landscapes’ identities with abandoned structures. Nevertheless, their recovery possibilities became part of the urban planning in terms of using the existing as a resource for the future. Such set of interrupted spaces, defined as “urban scars”, comprehends constructions for transports, for their essential presence in the landscape and for the development of urban along time. These features make them one of the main facilities of urban shaping. These elements’ transformation from connection to separation carries ecological footprints, physical and social decay inside the environments they affect. The research aims to study the mobility infrastructures’ role inside the cities and their influence on the landscape, focusing on the XX century development and comparing the present international discussions about their future scenarios. The objective is to define specific investigation protocols and tools for urban recovery of obsolete and derelict transport facilities, based on the necessities, for a widespread urban renewal in a complex and large-scale shared planning strategy. The approach to the single object, therefore, is defined as part of a system, identifying the most critical decay conditions inside the analysed infrastructure in which the state of abandonment brings relevant ecological and social questions.

Keywords
Urban renewal | Critical infrastructures | Neglected spaces | Shared strategies | Urban Policies