Studio Associato Bernardo Secchi Paola Viganò

Architecture | Urbanism | Landscape

city of Montpellier

studio

The first phase of the work helped to define trajectories and  images, strategies and projects that were lately put into perspective in the urban project for the city of Montpellier.
Trajectories: The development model of Montpellier is based on massive migration which has increased  the demographic growth of the city, an important engine for the augmentation of the city and its vast territory. From there, several questions arise as many trajectories and challenges for the territory by looking at how the model reacts or resists towards different possible situations.
Therefore it is required  that the territory is able to produce in its interior the necessary wealth to finance its operations, something that it is not enough today.
Images: The good life, The place to be, the humanist.
We imagine that large images, used in the past for Montpellier, could be further enriched from new contents to be able to give directions and to motivate projects to lead Montpellier in the future.
Strategy: The three images inspired concrete projects and reflections at different scales. The space has an important role in the social, economic and institutional behavior. Giving it a clear and readable structure contributes greatly also to how all these different levels of reality work together and interact. Our hypothesis is tested by two scales: the scale in which  the continuity between the different parts of the city and the territory and landscape that characterize it, have been established. At the local scale: the neighborhoods, it is about working on the fine network of public space by transforming them into places of sociability, seeking an "open" city.