Ex-Staveco Bologna and Ex-Manifattura Tabacchi Torino: Industrial, Liminal Spaces as Mediation Elements between Nature and City

Abstract

Abandoned industrial areas represent a potential mediation between city and nature, places where the plant world has progressively reclaimed both built and open spaces, offering us a rich and evocative imagery, which is fascinating and destabilizing. The poetics of abandonment, combined with the spatial quality that characterizes these real cathedrals of labor, represent two subtle values ​​that legitimize their permanence over time; these are fragile qualities, often unintentionally jeopardized  by redevelopment interventions, by the need to repurpose spaces, sometimes destroying their aura, their fascination, and their emotional engagement with the users. The term liminal space is borrowed from psychology to offer an alternative perspective on the redevelopment of industrial heritage, an internal focus that sees humans as an integral part of the environment, a fundamental indicator in determining the ecological value of a regeneration project.