Redefinition of the spaces of Piazza Isolo
Verona, Italy
Gabellini Sheppard Associates won an international competition for the redesign of the ancient Piazza Isolo in Verona, Italy, sponsored by the City of Verona and the USA Institute. Historically, Piazza Isolo existed as an island between the right and left banks of the river Adige, accessible only by bridges and used as a commercial customs checkpoint for goods being transported from Vienna to Venice and on to the Orient. After a flood in the late19th century the river’s edges were significantly altered by perimeter retaining walls and the current site was landfilled. The programmatic requirements for this 300,000 sf project consists of a twolevel, underground garage for 500 cars, a garden park at the base of a new pedestrian bridge, and the Piazza Isolo itself, which is to be transformed into a marketplace and performance center. GS’s concept for the new urban center utilizes water as a metaphorical trace through the site’s history. Isolo’s public square and market are conceived as two trapezoidal ’islands’ one concave and one convexsurrounded by a shallow moat that makes the Piazza appear to float within a pool of water. A new pedestrian bridge strengthens the existing connections to the old city, and the ground plane of the Piazza serves as the roof of the garage. A continuous incision around the perimeter of the site allows for both ventilation and the filtering of light into the underground spaces. Water cascades down the stairway walls and the sloping perimeter walls of the curvilinear underground spaces, bringing reflected light and the sound of falling water into the two parking levels. In addition, the ’islands’ are punctuated by thousands of miniature light slots that by day will hold umbrellas for the market and by night will project rays of light from its surface, creating an illuminated ’forest’ in the center of the old city.
