The Project emerges out of the manifestation of an intercalated city on the threshold between the two cities, Gorizia and Nova Gorica. As city we concern a complex of values and qualities in an ordinary life frame. Proposed the below, the Intercalated City consists of a program to eliminate the spatial entity border, which still ‘‘exists’’ through the governance of two different institutions, municipalities and legislative frames, and transform it into a new inserted city of culture. The border remains as a recall, a memory of events, and as the perimetrical incision of the new city. As described, and asked, the Intercalated City accepts the values of the present era, for a green buffer zone between the two cities, and so forms itself into a continuous linear green structure. Promotes a series of cultural spaces / squares as a result of spontaneous and unexpected events, imitating and rephrasing city as defined by Giovanni Batista Nolli’s topographical representation of Rome. Aiming to unify (without eliminate their identity) the two urban tissues the Intercalated City presents paths of traversal connections, and longitudinal ones, by considering the possible use of the railway as an urban connector of various events. Finally the project reproduces the natural landscape, defining a prioritarian framework for the proposed cultural system. The Europe Square is part of Intercalated City’s cultural square’s system. Exists as a continuous spatial element in the, forward part of the project, the Transcultural Hub EPICenter. There is no clear division between the two, they are in a constant sequence and interaction.
Europe Square, acts according to the generic system of cultural squares of Intercalated city, its form comes out of the programmatic interaction with the Transcultural Hub EPICenter. Four squares are incised between the exhibition spaces, the Agora | Visitor Center and the Activity workshop / laboratory spaces. Above the Transcultural Hub EPICenter and among the square(s) the linear green element of the Intercalated city proceeds and proposes solutions based on the same design toolkit, regarding the questions of secret pavements, sidewalks and urban furniture. Avoiding hierarchical solutions to the viability system of the whole corpus of the Intercalated city, a ‘’woonerf’’ like mix mobility system is proposed. Instead of streets the project tries to establish paths and cultural connections. This form insists to give space for all the spontaneous or/and organized events (open markets, festivals, etc.).
The Transcultural Hub EPICenter presents in every aspect its deeply programmatic nature.The complex is developed underground, with the main accesses from the Agora. Morphologically the project interacts in correspondence with each function and need. Two monumental canopies are characterizing the morphological aspect, together with the amphitheatrical squares which are highlighted in between the Transcultural Hub EPICenter and the Europe Square, features that are describing its distinctive physis. Fact that the distances in both citties are not so extended, promoting a system of paths (both pedestrian and cyclable), the proposal seeks to avoid the parking plots in the immediate context of the project area. However, considering sufficient the present potentiality for parking plots, the project supports the idea of spontaneous bicycle parking spots, as part of quotidian aesthetics along the railway stations in the nearby context. The economic sustainability of the complex is based on the concept of Agora. Public activities such as open market, cultural events which could be expand in the full capacity of the project,and moreover the benefits from the restaurant, coffeshop, info point-merchandise could possible render the venture economically viable.
