Competition for the pedestrianization of the station square and Corso Italia in the municipality of Bordigher

Bordighera is a town located a few kilometers from the French border. Over time, it has seen illustrious figures pass through its territory: painters, writers, architects, royalty, politicians, philosophers, and more... becoming one of Europe's most important tourist destinations in the early 1900s. Numerous testimonies still remain throughout its territory today: from the important English villas, the villa of Queen Marguerite, the paintings of Monet, the architecture of Charles Garnier, the writings of the Englishman Dickens, the seaside promenade, named Lungomare Argentina in honor of Evita Peron, who visited it in 1947, and many others. The climate is warm but breezy, and its lush vegetation has always led to comparisons with exotic countries rather than Italy... Today, however, while still very pleasant in terms of landscape, it seems to have lost some of the charm that made it so famous and popular. Those who loved it continue to flock there today, as if expecting something special to happen every year, something that would restore it to its former glory. Indeed, it would take very little, at least from an urban/architectural perspective, to redevelop it, as the areas subject to such redevelopment are few and the beauty of the places is consolidated. The project to transform the city center into a pedestrian zone could be one of those "Special Things." The requested intervention concerns one of the most important central streets, Corso Italia and Piazza Eroi della Libertà (currently used as a parking lot) and the site of the train station. From a tourism perspective, the identified areas represent the true city center, as some of the main activities revolve around them: restaurants, bars, and shops. Corso Italia presents itself as an easily navigable street, with wide sidewalks and shops, restaurants, and bars spread along its entire length. Existing flowerbeds, rich in vegetation (plants of all types and species), separate the pedestrian area from the driveway. The entire street is characterized by buildings with pseudo-Art Nouveau facades and more recent (1970s and 1980s) buildings of little value. The materials composing the street alternate between cement-colored interlocking pavers, terracotta bricks, and old tiles. Numerous driveways leading to underground garages line the entire length. In short, it is a mixture of architectural, plant, and compositional elements that create a sort of easily perceptible "urban disorder." Piazza Eroi della Libertà, essentially a parking lot, is located along the aforementioned street and represents the actual town square. From here, the sea is accessed via an underpass consisting of two flights of stairs, creating considerable problems for those using strollers or wheelchairs of various types. The train station also occupies the same space. This area, therefore, would not welcome tourists and residents (users) in an appropriate manner (according to traditional standards: the identity of a place). Another characteristic feature is a small newsstand (in terms of the life of the square), an old fountain once used to water horses, currently "suffocated" by parked cars, and a small building adjacent to the station, currently abandoned, which was said to be the city's old tourist office. The square's vegetation consists of immense palm trees, bringing the "green" to a height that makes it difficult to see directly. The proposed redevelopment project aims to unify such a poorly defined area with a single design gesture, reinforcing the concept of a pedestrian zone as a single stretch of road: from Corso Italia to Piazza Eroi della Libertà, creating the so-called "Heart" of the City. Furthermore, the reorganization of these spaces will be used to rethink the entire city (for example, restoring some of the existing vegetation to "replenish" other areas). The project proposes a well-defined geometric layout capable of stitching the entire route together into a single unified whole, regulating the existing chaos under an orderly and easily perceptible image. "Regulated Cluster," a 1938 work by Kandinsky, is the starting cultural reference—also in honor of the many "cultured names" who frequented these places, including neighboring France and the long association with Russian culture—(see attached concept) that inspired the project: Cluster = current situation; Regulated = project situation The project's abstract composition is delicately inserted between the existing volumes and, like a sort of canvas, gathers and reorganizes all those existing spaces and elements that currently coexist in a disorderly fashion.