Bologna

Throughout sociology and globalization

Urban Sociology
Prof. Costanzo Ranci
Prof. Carolina Pacchi

Francesca Ghiselli
Anna Drapelli
Giulia Gallazzini
Joris Katkevicius
INDEX:

1. THE CITY OF BOLOGNA

1a. Introduction to the city
1b. Urban transformation from the end of the XIXth century up to nowadays

2. DEMOGRAPHY
2a. How changed the residence population of Bologna after the unification of Italy
2b. Immigration flow
2c. Emigration flow
2d. Income distribution
2e. Problem on the census of foreign population
2f. Problem of the “REAL LIVING” between citizens and immigrants
2g. Spatial segregation and social inequalities

3. BOLOGNA, GLOBAL CITY

3a. Requalification of the urban territory
3b. Focus, requalification project of the area of Ex. Mercato Ortofrutticolo
3b.a. Design
3b.b. Investments, roles of the actors and conflicts
3b.c. Final outcome

4. CONCLUSION
5. REFERENCES
1. THE CITY OF BOLOGNA
1a. Introduction to the city

For our research we decided to analyze Bologna, the main city of Emilia Romagna.
The city has an overall population of about 370.000 inhabitants and from an economic
point of view has more than 200.000 employees with an employment rate of 70% (70% in
tertiary, 25% industry, less than 3% in agriculture), important data in the choice of the city
which is acquiring every day a more important role in the global market thanks to the
huge presence of companies in the territory that are investing in the city.
In addition, what makes the city suitable to be analyzed in this particular moment of world
environmental alarm, is the fact that the 45% of the administrative territory is subjected to
measures for environmental preservation:
There are 7 millions sqm of green areas (half private gardens, half public parks) and the
average levels of air pollution are slightly over the limits set by the national standards for
air quality.
The importance of Bologna at both national and international level is given by the
university campus, one of the oldest and most important in Italy with about 100.000
students, 5 regional centers, local units of three foreign universities (Hopkins, Dickinson,
Collegio di Spagna) and 14 research centers (Cnr, Enea, Cineca…).

1b. Urban transformation from the XIXth century up to nowadays

In order to better understand the development of the city from different points of view
(political, economical, urban, etc.) we start our research highlighting some important
dates.
The first important changes happened
between 1859-1914; in fact after the
annexation to the Kingdom of Savoy,
sanctioned by referendum on 11 and 12
March 1860, the city of Bologna had to deal
with the consequences of economic policy
led by the Papal State, characterized by
high tariffs, transport difficulties, poor
circulation of capital.
While maintaining the primacy of economic
and industrial on the other cities of Emilia,
Bologna was excluded by the rapid
industrialization process involving Europe and the cities of northern Italy; Bologna main
economy remains agriculture, around which rotate the craft, trade, credit and a few
industries managed to survive the competition at home and abroad. The unification
accompanies the process of growth of agriculture, already in place for several decades,
and, until the agrarian crisis of the eighties, the production of wheat, maize, rice, hemp
and grass was growing steadily. In this period the city became an important Italian railway
junction and consequently a significant center of import and export trade.
From an urban point of view, was realized via Independence, completed in 1890, the
works were undertaken of the current Via Farini and Via Garibaldi. Began on the
arrangement of Giardini Margherita, was built the current home of the Teatro Duse, the
Bank of Italy and completed the Savings Bank.
In 1881, the town edited the plan for expansion, which influenced the development of
Bologna until after the Second World War dramatically changing the city's image.
The measure of protectionism granary, which was introduced in 1886 as a result of the
agrarian crisis, spread in the whole Europe significantly modifying the lines of
development of regional agricultural promoting the penetration of capitalism.
The agrarian capitalism was reinforced by the excess of labor it could count on and
continued to play its role as an incentive to the development of processing industries
seen as accessory to the agrarian economy.
The first master plan for the city center and
building programme for city growth date
back to 1886; two distinctive approaches
were adopted: for the town center, only a
number of monuments were highlighted as
targets for historical heritage preservation
measures and the plan also sets out the
enlargement of a number road sections. As
if for the city expansion is meant to be a
new ring enveloping the historical center
on three sides (northwards, one can see a
natural boundary set in by the nearby hills).
Large regularly shaped blocks imply a new
layout compared to the former structure of the old city.
In this period there is another important event, in fact in 1888 was celebrated the
eighth centenary of the studium, which was a great event that gathered
universities from all around the world to honor the origin of universities. The
ceremony became an international celebration because all the universities
recognized their roots in Bologna. We must remember that the University of
Bologna was born in 1088 and it began to play a central role in the political,
economic and even cultural system of the city. The University will continue to
maintain this position of centrality on the stage of world culture until the period
between the two world wars, when other companies started to take over the field
of research and training. It is therefore called upon to deal with the institutions of
more advanced countries embarking on an upgrade path and growth. The
university is trying to keep up with European competition and this process led to
the innovation of the university system.
 Between 1900 and 1910 the economy of
Bologna continues to be characterized by
the dominance of the agricultural sector
while Emilia’s industry shows all the limits of
its growth, mainly in the critical years
following to 1910: high percentage of
casual workers, establishments
technologically backward, non-renewal of
the banks towards new industrial
requirements had a negative effect on the
growth of new industries, not yet able to
modify significantly the economic life of the
country. These were all reasons why
Bologna, on the eve of World War I, has not yet entered the stage of industrial take off.

Other important changes happened between 1914 and 1920, in fact after the IWW there
were 40,000 unemployed because of the conflict.
During the 20 years of fascism many changes occurred in the social and urban planning:
the Littoriale (now Stadio Renato Dall'Ara), the expansion of the Hospital S. Orsola,
University Institutes of via Belmeloro and Irnerio, the Faculty of Engineering, High School
A. Righi, the arrangement of the Marconi
Street, the village of the Fascist Revolution,
now Via Banner. New roads were opened
and reached the 300,000 inhabitants.
Bologna was bombed heavily during World
War II, the main railway station and
adjoining areas were severely hit, and 44%
of the buildings in the center turned out to
be either destroyed or severely damaged.
Between 1946 and 1960 Bologna railways
lines were rebuilt and strengthen, allowing
the city to became an important center of import and export.
During these years Bologna became an important industrial center as well as a political
stronghold of the Italian Communist Party.
This huge development of the city and its strong political influence attracted many
people looking for job and a better quality of life. For these reasons population almost
tripled between 1950 and 1960 and the municipality had to face the problem of
overcrowded center drawing a “decentralization plan”. In 1964 the city was divided in 18
neighborhoods and also the city center was divided in 4 parts.
This step is considered a very important moment from an urbanistic point of view because
set the image of a “city-region”, characterized by the presence of several collective
services as well as administrative and cultural, creating a clean gap between city and
countryside.
 A second decentralization took place during
the seventies with the development of 4 areas:
industrial, hills, city center and public housing.
The interventions on the center were focused
on the idea of creating a monument-symbol of
the city.

During the eighties new rules for

decentralization were set introducing the figure
of the President of neighborhood who was the
voice of the people living in the neighborhood
telling to the Mayor the problems of each area
creating a net between the neighborhoods and
simplifying the communication. Each area was independent in the administration of the
money to invest for the activities in the neighborhood.
In 1985 the number of neighborhoods was reduced from 18 to 9.
Population kept growing and started to distribute in order to social conditions so that
each neighborhood represent a different group of people.

Between 1990 and 2000 Bologna tried to achieve some goals, which are deeply
influencing the current shape and life of the city. One of these goals is to be a city of
European rank, in order to be an international city it has to be economically versatile,
multicultural and polycentric, therefore a set of policies aiming at enhancing economic
and social specialization is introduced. In addition to this purpose the city aim to be
sustainable so it is following a policy for the preservation of the environment measuring
environmental impact of local businesses and making assessment for the 900.000 sqm of
new building spaces programmed for the next 15 years.

From the 2005 a planning process called “Bologna changing city” took place and it
involved many different points (urban landscapes, environmental system, infrastructural
system, standard provision, development of new areas and land uses) and had some
strategic goals and planning guidelines:

1) Bologna becoming a city of European rank, thanks to new policies striving

improved access, polycentric settlement, community cohesion, hospitality
capability.
2) Development of the metropolitan area
3) Bologna as sustainable City
4) Bologna as City of cities: environmental measures, transport policies, and
services provision for the residents are then identified as the core fields for a
development project for the city. These strategic orientations are translated into
seven spatial planning goals, with reference to the so-called “seven cities". This
systems mainly refer to sectorial issues: infrastructures, green areas, or public
services on the contrary, each “city” represents a complex part of Bologna, which
features a peculiar physical and social asset. The "cities" represent an
interpretative description of different parts of the metropolitan area, which
embody a proposal for future action. The main topics are: preservation and
restoration of the environment and landscape value, providing favorable
conditions and incentives for urban regeneration; enhancing the role of public
transport, measures for social housing; provision of public spaces and
neighborhood centers; good morphological quality and integrated functions.
The seven cities follow the scheme 1+4+2:
1) Railway City, which
represents the main
infrastructural node
4) City by the
Highway, City by
Hillside, City by the
Reno River, by the
Savena River, which
are the main centers
of the metropolitan
area;
2) Two Cities by the
old Emilia route

At the and of 20th century Bologna keep attracting people thanks to the presence of
airport, Fair District, University, research offices like CNR and ENEA and its geographic
position.
These are the main reasons for a huge phenomenon that started to take place:
immigration.
In fact, immigration is really affecting the growth of the city and we can say that during
the last ten years the number of foreigner tripled, even if also emigration to smallest town
just outside the city is very diffused. The main fluxes come from: Asia, East-Europe and
Africa and the main ethnic groups are: Filipino, Moroccan, Bengali, Chinese, Albanian and
Tunisian. In percentage 43% comes from East-Europe and 31% from Asia with a higher
presence of women than men. The average of age of this population it’s around 30 years
old and this fact really affect the average age of the city.
The birth are growing thanks to this side of inhabitants whose rate of birth it’s every day
higher reaching now more than 500 per year and also the wedding between them with
Italians is growing representing more than 52%(data of 2006).
The area in which foreign population is mostly settled can be considered Bolognina with a
rate of 13%, following there are Irnerio (10,2%), San Donato (10,1%) and Malpighi (9%).
The foreign workers in 2005 were more than 45000 employed mostly in industrial and
construction sectors.
Even with this high rate of employ there are many problems affecting this part of
population. Usually the work they have is dangerous, temporary and not well paid and
their house conditions are very poor causing a gap in the society, which led into bad
integration and sometimes in conflicts.

2. DEMOGRAPHY
2a. How changed the residence population of Bologna after the unification of Italy

The migration flows are one of the determinant factors of social and economic processes
at a national, regional and urban scale. Bologna, thanks to its geographical location, it has
always been a focal point of the flows crossing Italy and it has recently become one of the
main destinations for foreign people. During the second half of the 90s in Bologna stared
an intensification of foreign people immigration, which reached one third of the migration
flux.

During this intensification process, starting from 1996, the migration balance turned
positive. The Bolognese population started growing only during 2003, because the
natural balance (born-death) was negative, this phenomenon deeply influenced the
demographic trends of the city, neutralizing the positive contribution of the migratory
fluxes. During the last few years a recovery of the born rate happened, together with a
steady increase of live expectancy, meaning that since 2008 there was an increase of
resident people, even if the percentage of growth is low (+0,7% per year), it marks a
reversal of trends.
 2b. Immigration flow

As we can see from the graph

migration flow is growing, and
actually in last ten years the
number doubled the number
and reaching 55.598 in 2012
(13,7% of total population)

What is worth highlighting is

that there are two main types of
incoming migration flows: one
regarding people coming from
abroad and the other
concerning
people
coming
from other
municipaliti
es of Italy.
The
constant
migration
flows
incoming
involving the town particularly since the Second World War, led to a high presence of
non-native population among residents in the town. So this is not a new phenomenon: in
1986 the immigrants were 62% of the resident population.
Comparing at distance of a quarter of a century the origins of the inhabitants of the city
who are not resident from birth, it is noted, however, that the percentage of those who
come from other Italian municipalities, from 60% in 1986 fell to 55% in 2011, at the same
time is increased the percentage of immigrant residents from abroad, in the past quarter
of a century from 2% to 11%.
The capital of the region has absorbed
population, especially from the province
(44.2% of residents immigrants come from
the metropolitan area) and the rest of
Emilia-Romagna (14.7%). 5.9% of the
"Bologna adoption" comes from Puglia
(over 11,600 residents). There are also
many people who are originally from
Campania (4.4% of resident immigrants),
Calabria (4.1%) and Sicily (4.1%).
Considering foreign migrants living in the
city, we can see that Bologna is often not the first leg of their migration route in our
country: more than a quarter of foreign immigrants (27.2%) comes in fact from other
Italian municipalities. The first place among the foreigners who have moved to the city
directly from the country of origin are Romanians (10.7% of residents of foreign
immigrants).

Among foreign citizens living in cities having come directly from the country of origin can
be identified two main areas of origin: one is Eastern Europe, where in addition to stand
Moldova Romania, Ukraine, Albania and Poland, on the other 's Asia, Bangladesh,
Philippines, Pakistan and China. From other continents, settled in Bologna without any
intermediate mainly Moroccans and Peruvians.

It 's interesting to observe how the age

composition of immigrant residents in the
city is highly differentiated according to
the nationality. The average age of
residents of Italian immigrants is 55.4
years, higher than the city average of 47.2
years.
This feature is justified by a decade or
decades-long presence in the town. 60%
of residents Italian immigrants arrived in
the city before 1996, it is people arrived in
Italy at a young age or at least working
age. It has been said that flows from
abroad are a fairly recent phenomenon
that mainly people of working age, which
arrive in our city for business reasons, then
they frequently rebuild the family, which often also includes the children.
It follows that foreign residents are immigrants on average younger than the overall
resident population, with an average age of 35.6 years and a share of people between 30
and 44 years old is 41.6%.
During the last five years, the balance of Romania amounts to +5,129 inhabitants,
followed by Moldova (+3061), Bangladesh (+2082), Ukraine (+1576), Pakistan (+1544), the
Philippines (+1364) and Morocco (+1039) also recorded significant net migration with
Brazil (+826), China (+770) Albania (+761) Peru (+585) and Poland (+576).
The migrants usually "find a home" especially in the historic centre. An analysis of the pie
charts, the band just outside the city walls is the most receptive welcoming a large
number of migrants, but at the same time also records a significant emigration to make
room for new residents. We can point out a few examples in order to better understand:
Via Ferrarese, which involved in construction projects with 263 new homes built in the last
five years, but in which there are significant flows of residents in output. Other contexts in
which it appears to be a correlation between high immigration and the creation of new
living spaces are the area Via Emilia Ponente (313 dwellings), the area Cross Blanket (261
dwellings), the area of Via del Lavoro (232 homes), the area of the Rhine Channel (215
homes).
The illustration underneath proves, that Bologna results to be very multiethnic city, with
leading zone of San Donato, Colli and Costa Saragozza. The most populated and with
youngest people is Navile district, 17.4 % of gross number of residents while Borgo
Panigale being the one with oldest people and least populated district - 6.6%.
 2c. Emigration flow

In the last five years, the outflow

from the municipality of Bologna
has gradually reduced: in 2007
there were more than 12,300
migrants, while in 2011 10,834
people have moved elsewhere.
Overall, between 2007 and 2011,
56,657 people have left the city.
With regard to citizenship,
particularly the Italians leave Italy;
foreign migrants are in fact almost
17%.
Once arrived in Bologna, foreign nationals rarely then decide to go and live elsewhere,
these are in fact only 16.6% of the emigrants.
The number of foreigners who emigrated abroad is therefore quite small, if you think that
the main destination is Romania, where in the last five years have returned only 72 people,
followed by Poland (54), Sri Lanka (48), France and the Philippines (both with 46
emigrants) and Bangladesh where moved 40 people.
The migratory phenomena relate primarily to people of working age, also those who
leave Bologna are often relatively young, at the base of the migration choice are often on
business or study reasons. We found some data that can confirm this, which highlight
among the emigrants the high presence of young adults between 30 and 44 years, a
share of almost 40%, the percentage rises to 76.7% if we consider the people working
age between 15 and 64 years.

2d. Incomes distribution

The rate of employment in Italy is about 58% but the distribution of the job is very
different according to the regions.
The one with the higher level of
employment, according to statistic taken
in 2005 are Emilia
Romagna(68,4%),Trentino Alto
Adige(67,1%) and Valle d’Aosta(66,3%).
This is an interesting data because
Bologna is the main city of Emilia
Romagna so we can say that the
inhabitants of the city have an high level
of occupation.
Going into more deep we can also distinguish between gender saying that there is an
high occupation of women(60,9%) and men(75%) and between age saying that for young
people between 18 and 30,after the high rate of occupation reached during 2008,the
employment rate is diminishing.
Instead for people between 55 and 65 the rate is rising.
At this point it might be opportune to see how the money are distributed trough the city
since a different income also generate a different value of land.
Considering the following map it is clearly visible the inverse intensity (apart from
historical city centre - which is usually always has higher land value, as there bigger
request for business, tertiary activities), so it could be hypothesized about the land value
(Usually higher class people segregates themselves from dangers, so it makes sense to
say that whole historical centre together with Colli zone are expecting to have highest
land value.
Following graphs represents changes in the housing value for sqm, Bologna city and it's
province:
it is easy noticeable that il prices shows tendency to fall.

2e. Problem on the census of foreign population

As is now well known, the resident foreign population in Bologna undergone in the last
twenty years a remarkable increase: for example, that Bologna citizens of non-Italian
origin were less than 5,000 in the early nineties and there are currently more than 55,000.
The data on the resident population may, however, be pampered, even if only by
significant, the phenomenon of missing removals from the registers of the Registry.
This occurs, with some frequency, among foreign citizens, for whom Geographical
mobility is extremely high and low is the interest to subscribe to the registry office when
they return home. The disparity between what is recorded in the Registry and the real
presence of foreign team has emerged quite clearly during the last recording census.
From the first preliminary results, it appears that foreigners counted in Bologna in 2011
were on the whole 44,085 of which:
• 41,664 former residents in our community;
• 2,421 residents routinely in our community, but do not
yet enrolled in Registry.
Conversely 10,273 foreign residents still formally in our town, were unavailable in the
census. Compared to piece of personal data to 8 October 2011, it is almost 20% of
foreign residents. From the graph we can see that are more males than females among
foreigners not registered. From this graph we can affirm that the foreign males results
unavailable to census are mainly from the Asian continent. For women, we report a high
presence of missing for Europe
Bologna city became main migration flows attraction node. As it is possible interpret from
statistics Bologna's population is starting to increase and has half of Bolognas region
foreign residents

2f. Problem of the “REAL LIVING” between citizens and immigrants

The issue of immigration is still a matter explode, an issue that has always created
problems and that no country has followed paths legislative linear devoid of errors. But it
is important to reconcile freedom and diversity. Regulations are needed not only on the
European immigration, regulation enlarged to which all must participate actively in the
first policy, business associations, trade unions, universities, in close synergy. The
Bolognese policy in this case there is the problem of figuring out what are the demands
of immigrants in a 'perspective of the relationship between rights and duties, keeping in
mind that the immigration is a phenomenon lively.
For the good of the city you have to replace the politics of fear with the substance.
We take into account the opinions of various politicians.
Gianpiero Calzolari, President Legacoop Bologna who is also the protagonist of a
reflection of a multifaceted reality of the "new Italians", size that qualifies in a new town
and requires a conscious reflection on their social and economic contribution. In this
reflection, the co-op experience plays a leading role thanks to the number of foreign
workers employed and qualifies to be an ideal reference for comparison, the networking
and the development of future integration policies.
As for PDL Giuliano Cazzola explained the parliamentary question that has promoted the
issue of protecting the rights of immigrants in the light of the protests.
Senator PD Rita Ghedini said that the institutions have not enabled tools suitable for the
integration of immigrants in Italy and you have to go back to thinking about work permits
with suitable times, so that these people are no longer blackmail, but they can invest in
their future.

2g. Spatial segregation and social inequalities

The phenomenon of ethnic segregation has taken a lot of relief. With increasing
frequency, it is possible to identify, within the larger urban centres, neighbourhoods in
which the presence of immigrants is particularly concentrated. From a theoretical point of
view, it is possible to identify different types of segregation. On one hand, there may be
the spatial concentration of economic activities that employ immigrants while on the
other hand the spatial concentration can be residential. With reference to the last type of
segregation, we can find some interesting information in several articles written by
experts, such as the one by Cutler and Glaese. They found out, for example, that African
Americans receive a negative impact on the level of ethnic segregation in the
neighbourhood in which they live in terms of:

• Education (lower levels of education for African Americans than whites segregated)
• Income (less income for African Americans than whites segregated)
• Social disadvantage (more likely to be single mothers or to be inactive in the labour
market for African Americans than whites segregated)
These results stress the importance of the analysis of the trend of ethnic segregation at
the city level. In terms of public urban policies, it is very important to understand if the
segregation is increasing or decreasing since, as demonstrated by these studies, an
increase of segregation can lead to a worsening of the condition of immigrant’s residents.

The performance indices of ethnic segregation can be calculated comparing the

concentration of members of a certain ethnic group in a neighbourhood with the average
member of that group at the level of the entire city. The more a segregated ethnic group
is, the more there will be neighbourhoods with many more immigrants than the average
city, along with many neighbourhoods with fewer immigrants than the average city.
To analyse the level of segregation in the cities there are some index to be used like the
Dissimilarity one assessing segregation between two ethnic groups. It is a measure from 0
to 1, where the higher the number, the more segregated the two groups are. To calculate
this it is necessary to measure what the difference is between the populations of each
group relative to the total population of each group in the area.
As we can see from the Dissimilarity Index graph of the city of Bologna we can say that
there was for the whole foreigners a reduction in segregation from 1991 to 2009.
More in detail for Moroccans there was an increase in segregation from 1991 to 1996
followed by a decrease; for the Chinese, there was first a reduction of segregation and,
from 2001 onwards, there was an increase (The Chinese are also the ethnic group that
currently shows the greater degree of segregation) while Filipinos have always a
decreasing trend.
By the way, a common problem to the indices of segregation is to be sensitive to factors
such as the degree of spatial disaggregation that conducts the analysis, the numerosity of
the total ethnic group at the city level and more. For these reasons, several indices of
segregation may give different results regarding the performance of the segregation of
the same group. Therefore, it is necessary to test the analysis using more than one index
of segregation, introducing for example the Isolation Index Modified, which state the
probability that members of each group will meet members of their own group.
As we did before, with the analysis of the Index regarding the city of Bologna we can find
some interesting information which highlight the fact that there was, for all the foreigners
before an increase in segregation (probably due to the segregation of Moroccans) then a
reduction and then again a slight increase (probably due to the segregation of the
Chinese).
For Moroccans, there was an increase in segregation from 1991 to 1996, followed by a
decrease; Filipinos have a flat trend before then decreasing; For the Chinese, there is an
increase in segregation between 1991 and 1996, then a small reduction, then finally a
marked increase from 2001 to 2009. The Chinese are the ethnic group that shows the
greatest degree of segregation
In conclusion can be said that, the trend of ethnic segregation over time (1991-2009) is
substantially decreasing for foreigners on the site for two ethnic groups of three, namely,
Filipinos and Moroccans. The only ethnic group showing an increase of segregation in the
last 10 years is the Chinese one. The Chinese are also those who, with reference to 2009,
show the greatest degree of segregation.
Analyses of this kind are very important to inform the choices of public decision-makers at
the level of urban policies. In the case of the Municipality of Bologna, the problem of
ethnic segregation does not seem to have worsened in the last twenty years. The only
exception is ethnic Chinese where segregation is increasing. Given the potentially
negative effects resulting from the segregation on the immigrants themselves, it is useful
to monitor the progress of segregation to identify the urban policy measures designed to
mitigate the negative effects. This also contributes to shaping the strategy to build
dynamic and attractive city.
3. BOLOGNA, GLOBAL CITY
3a. Requalification of the urban territory

Bologna is a city that has become “old” steadily in the last thirty years both in terms of
infrastructures and population; this process is caused by the phenomena of depopulation
of the city, which happened because the Bolognese started moving due to economical
reasons, such as the high cost of the land, buildings and life. Nowadays the situation is
different because for the first time since the seventies the city is witnessing a slow but
steady turnaround in all its aspects, from a recovery in the birth rate and the number of
inhabitants to the building of major infrastructure projects.
This overall situation led to a process of requalification of the whole city, in order for it to
play a more important role both at national and international level. The requalification
project includes plans for:
. The infrastructures: in
order for Bologna to be
a multi-cultural
international city, with a
large demographic size
(1 million people) and an
integrated business
system strongly tied with
its surroundings, there
was the realization of the
high-speed railway line,
the requalification of the
highway and the main roads connecting the city and the improvement of the public
transportation (buses, trains and trams).
. The airport: one of the perspectives of development is linked to the people mover,
which integrated with the high speed is an important tool to broaden the influence,
emphasizing, for example, the intercontinental capability acquired between 2002 and
2005 (with an infrastructural investment of over 100 million euro).
. The fair: the fair as it was could not compete with the poles of Milan and Rome, therefor
it was enlarged of 40%.
. Education: the university as it was could not host the increasing number of students who
wanted to attend the courses. In order to solve this problem some funds were devolved
to build new poles of the university and new accommodation for the students in the areas
of Lazzaretto and Navile.
. The future city: the city of the next twenty years is outlined in the PSC approved in 2007
which provides for the recovery of all abandoned areas within the existing urban fabric, in
order to increase the housing units, services and green spaces, while the commercial/
administrative activities should be concentrated in the areas of the fair, train station and
airport. The areas taken into account are the former fruit and vegetable market,
Lazzaretto and Navile.

In order to carry out the requalification project, the city developed a PSC (Piano
Strutturale Comunale) following three main goals: re-inhabitate, re-populate and re-
qualificate Bologna.
The PSC involves the “7 cities within the city” plan, which, in different ways, is related to
the specific characteristic of each “city”.
We can say that the most important one for the overall requalification project, in terms of
fulfilling both regional and global needs, is the City of the Railway.
When we talk about this part of the city we refer to strategic urban areas (new railway
station, airport, expo centre, new office headquarters), which provide the assets and the
infrastructure to develop business relations worldwide but also represent a connection
area between the inner city and some critical neighbourhood (ex. Bolognina), which are
separated by the railway lines.
From a strategical point of view this is the key area for
the international role of Bologna with a structure plan
that aims at improving connections and access to the
business and service district. The new connections will
be obtained through the development of strategic
areas, new infrastructures and a renovation of
abandoned large sites such as the area of the EX
MERCATO NAVILE that we decided to analyse.
The reason of our choice is related to the previous
analysis of the requalification process that includes this area in many of the strategic
points (infrastructures, education, city of the future) but also because the project
represent the first case of laboratory of participatory planning and the first in which
measures and technologies for energy saving were applied.

3b. Focus: requalification project of the Ex. Mercato Navile

The Quartiere Navile is one of the 9 neighborhoods of Bologna and
is the largest in terms of magnitude (25.892 kmq) and population
(65.262 inhabitants). It is located in the northern periphery of
Bologna and began its development with the master plan of 1889,
in which the decision of building, outside the city walls, an area
designated to the first industrial settlements, was made. This area
has a strategic function because of its location; it is home to the first
city harbor on the waterway, which influenced, during the XIX
century, the organization of the industry and of the communication
system.
Inside the area of Quartiere Navile, one of the most interesting
settlement is the ex wholesale vegetable market, located just across
the railway station. Inaugurated in 1939, it was moved to the Centro
Agroalimentare in 1994. This abandonment implied the degradation of the area that
hosted it. The degradation of the area finished when it was decided to retrain it: knocking
down the abandoned and crumbling buildings and retraining the land.

This requalification project has some specific aims that aspire to find a new identity
creating an empty space in the dense layout of the area providing a link between the new
and the existing urban developments, which would be the central park beside via
Fioravanti, to guarantee the continuity of the urban character having mixed functions:
public and privates buildings and public streets. The district includes also a residential
part with approximately 1200 accommodations, in part intended for non-conventional
housing, commercial activities and tertiary sector services and it also has the intent to
guarantee a continuity of the urban layout and its relationship with the surrounding area,
continuing the road network into the market area. Also the cycle and pedestrian ruts are
continued and widespread.

3b.a. Design
The project develops for more or less 300000 sqm and includes:
1. Entrance: re-utilization of the rational building that dates back at 1930s, which was
already the entrance of the market on via Fioravanti.
2. Central park: it is not fenced but surrounded by public buildings in order to people
to use and enjoy it
3. Social centre
4. Pensilina: re-utilization of the 1950s roofed area that once covered the fruit and
vegetable market. It covers 5600 sqm and became a place that symbolises the
public life of the new development
5. Municipality headquarter
6. High speed railway station
7. Car park for the railway station
8. People mover
9. Hostel
10. Clinic
11. School
 12. Gym
13. Green diagonal: continuity
between the central park and the
northern park
14. North – south axes
15. Villa Angeletti park
16. Dorm for students
17. Via Gobetti area:
undergrounding the central part of via
Gobetti allows rethinking the whole
connection between the fabric to the
north and the new settlement to the
south. Dense traffic will be conveyed
in the basement, while slow traffic will
be at ground level. The ground floors
of the two blocks facing via Gobetti
are designated to commercial
activities and offices in order to create
a proper urban front together with the
already existing commercial activities
on the other side of the road.
18. Naturalistic park with small lake
19. Link for the Villa Angeletti park
20. Trigeneration central

The project is the first in which they apply technologies for energy saving such as solar
panels, orientation of buildings, green roofs, etc.. and it is estimated that this approach
will save 51.9 per cent on heating, cooling, electricity, hot water and health care.
In addition, the whole settlement is served by the cogeneration plant and together with
this there will also be a series of technological solutions to recover available energy
resources, starting from water, and mitigate the impact on the environment for example
with the collection of municipal solid waste.

3b.b Investments, roles of the actors and conflicts

The project area is half property of the Municipality and half of the Cassa di Risparmio of
Bologna that sells it to private investors, which are interested in building new residential
and commercial functions. In 2006 the project also obtained a European funding from the
program “Grow”. The municipality is the owner of ex agricultural area Villa Angeletti and
plays a very important role in the decisions making process: it decides when and where to
promote new agricultural activities in the area, the integration of new ecological and
sustainable services and how to manage them.
The requalification of the area is paid mainly with public funds, even if for some areas of
the project the funds are in part public and in part private as we can see in some specific
cases: the municipality headquarter, the people mover and the requalified abandoned
areas. The municipality headquarter was entrusted to a group of companies that won the
competition for the concession to build and operate in that area, where the investment
was about 96 millions and where the Municipality contributed for 10 millions and will pay
a rent for the next 27 years. The second relevant example of the combination of private
and public funds is the one of the People Mover in between the central station and the
airport. The investment amounts to 95 million Euros, which is 1/3 public (municipality and
region) and 2/3 a private investment. The restoration work for the abandoned sites are
financed with public funds provided by the municipality and the university and also with
private investments aimed to maximize the land value. A different case is the new Central
Station, which economic cover is insured by the valorisation of the areas of adjacent
railway.

Regarding the use of funds, the development of the project had to face some obstacles.
Some of the political parties, such as Movimento 5 stelle and Lega nord, had some
concerns about the social housing project and the 10 million Euros given by the Region in
order to shape the project. These concerns have some strong basis because there was
already a plan for the renewal of the area, but at the time the Region had to take back the
funds because there was no private investor interested in investing money. They are also
making some critics because the plan presented was not detailed enough for the Region
to give that amount of money, therefor the opposition asked the developers to submit
the again so that they can make a reconsideration.
The project has triggered even a bigger opposition represented by citizens who started a
huge conflict with the municipality because the redevelopment of the area seemed more
related to the needs of creating a “global and international city” for future generations
rather than a city belonging to its own inhabitants and their daily life. The project
sounded more as a speculation than a plan for improving the inhabitants’ quality of life. In
addition to this, the main point of the opposition was the fact that citizens did not feel
involved in the decisional processes, especially during the first phase of the design in
2004. They may also agree with the redevelopment but they wanted to express their
point of view about the public areas. For example, one of the problems that they pointed
out was the increasing of criminality related to drugs trade, the decay and abandonment
of some areas affecting people living nearby, that should have probably being solved
before thinking to future inhabitants needs. These were the main reasons that led to a
huge conflict with the Municipality during 2005, with the result of creating an Assembly,
called “Laboratorio Mercato”, which is the first experience of participative planning,
including citizens association to work together with technicians for the requalification
project. The idea was to work together, during meetings, in order to reach the aims of
public interest (creation of green areas and houses to rent) but also to give voice to the
population of the neighbourhood including both old and young people. The participants
were more than 100 citizens, 20 experts, 3 municipal committee and 15 neighbourhood
associations.
 3b.c Final outcome
These meetings ended with the 2006 project which shows some changes like for example
instead of building a barrier in Via Gobetti build a park that works as a connection
between the new area and the already existing one.
The function were redefined:
+ 18% residential;
- 41% commercial/administrative;
+ 43% public;

So basically the percentage of public services and residential buildings was increased,
while the commercial one was reduced.

It can be said that the outcome of the Laboratorio is very important for the benefits that
the project itself brought to the city. It started because of a conflict but it ended with the
cooperation with the Municipality. The meetings brought to the development of a plan
influenced the whole neighborhood with new services, green areas and public spaces that
the population involved in these meetings asked for.
Some of these benefits that the developers managed to reach with the design of the
restored area involve the major part of the community.
In Bologna the number of students attending the university increase every year, which
means that also the number of residences needed to be higher. To solve this issue in the
requalification project is been included a dorm for university students. The building of
new accommodations works together with the university decentralization: there was in
program to move some scientific faculties in the areas of Navile and Lazzaretto, in order
to contribute to the repopulation of the city. About primary education it is needed to be
point out that before the families living in the area of the market had to drive their
children to another neighborhood in order for them to go to the kinder garden.
Nowadays thanks to the building of a new facility in the project area the families would
not have to drive too far, to spend too much money in petrol and to lose time before
going to work to drive their children to school.
Regarding the elderly part of the population the needs were those of more assistance and
more help coming from the community. In 2007 the municipality contributed with
approximately 84.000 hours of home care and during the same year 40 places in day care
centers were offered in the Navile neighborhood.
In general the whole population of the area had some specific needs, like the connection
with new parts of the city, a new centrality and the realization of a system of open spaces
capable of breaking the high density of the neighborhood, some public spaces and
buildings. With the requalification, all of these issues were solved thanks to the building
of a net of roads that are able to connect the project area with the city, the design of
some vast green areas that would allow the inhabitants to enjoy the open spaces in safety,
and the building of some new public and administrative buildings, for example the new
municipality headquarter, which allows the unification of the former 21 offices in one
building.

Thanks to this process of requalification and the cooperation of all the actors involved,
the final outcome managed to reach all the goals set in the first place. Now we can say
that the requalification of the Navile area together with the city’s requalification project
gave the chance to Bologna to compete with some other big cities becoming a place
where to invest capitals and locate the offices of some international companies thanks the
new centrality acquired through new infrastructures, services and technologies.
In addition to this increasing importance of the city also outside Italy, we can find some
European projects in which Bologna is now involved, such as the ones promoting culture
and education called Para Jovens and Amitie, or the ones concerning sustainability and
environments called EnergyCity and GAIA.
These projects are financed by European Community in order to improve the level of
knowledge of the citizens and guarantee a new future for the city.
To conclude we can say that what is emerging from this analysis and what we wanted to
point out is how Bologna has changed during last years thanks to the improvements
explained before and how is still involved in a process of continuous growth both at
national and international scale.

4.CONCLUSION
It seems that Bologna city is doing good work in taking care of her users, and last
described urban re qualification project illustrates it well. It also seems a good place to
live, having a high quality living standard, good infrastructures, and job opportunities.
But still there could be some questions raised about Bologna's peculiarity - it's historical
city center, and its further way between preservation and renovation - as it already seems
to be in a competition with the surrounding cities.
Can we call city Bologna as a metropolis?

Will the property rights still persist in a future?

Can urban planning still be effective in this dynamic and evolving conditions?

Possible participation of city users in a shaping their city? (Placed based, District based,
Bottom up and bottom down decisions, their comparison)
 5. REFERENCES

- www.comune.bologna.it
- www.provincia.bologna.it
- http://cm.regione.emilia-romagna.it
- http://obelix.iperbole.bologna.it
- www.urbancenterbologna.it
- www.programmaintegra.it
- www.bibliotecasalaborsa.it
- www.ilrestodelcarlino.it
- www.trilogianavile.it