The Area Trend is at the heart of this Italian textile trade show. It came about following a selection process that involved exhibitors who brainstormed and developed themes with the guidance of excellent directors: Stefano Fadda, Milano Unica’s art director, and SGS Architetti Associati, which designed the Area Trend’s layout. The concrete result can be seen in Area Trend, a museum-style exhibit in which the concept and staging demonstrate the incredible research and work behind every single textile sample and unique button. It’s a sensory experience - visual and tactile - that follows a course, as if you were in a gallery, past frames in all sorts of sizes and shapes showcasing textiles and materials in a creative manner. With the Area Trend project, SGS Architetti Associati demonstrates its expansive vision and its ability to provide in-depth consultations spanning the entire time frame of a project.

ABYSS Depth as an inspiration // Everything floats; nothing is motionless in the deep sea populated by animals and plants of evocative consistency and magical colours. Everything here is extraordinary, imaginative and poetic.

NATURE AND ARTIFICE A mosaic of real and artificial geometric landscapes // A bird’s-eye view, an aerial mapping of different areas in the world, showing geometric patterns of natural landscapes with well-defined outlines, cut off by human interventions or rather by urban interruptions and concrete breaks. What is artificial is as real as the natural.

AFRICA PUNK Primitive and natural urban fabric // It is the black magical and sensual Africa, with its amazing sunsets and its big contradictions. A powerful universe in terms of charm and impact on reality.

PSYCHO BIT A hallucinatory trip into arithmetic progression // A theme constructed by two words, “psycho” and “bit” which lead to two matched worlds: the psychedelic, crowded with its blaze of colours and the technological, result of a geometrical mosaic.

3rd PRIZE

Sittard is a city which has rich history, culture, food. In order to play a perfect role, it has certain problems need to be addressed. We propose the slow city idea as a goal of the urban renewal. Our proposal is an invitation and manual for Sittard to become a slow city.

WHAT IS SLOW CITY? Città slow (Italian for slow city) is a movement started in Italy. Slow city's philosophy is inspired from the slow food concept. Slow cities promote high-quality healthy living with maintaining identity, humanity, environment and history. It's about a different and sustainable way of development.

PRINCIPLES AND VALUES l. Look for the best knowledge of the past with the best possibilties of the future. 2. Maintain the local identity and increase the value of what is truly local (customs, unique food, handmade productions). 3. Planning for strong communities and urban resilience. 4. Healthy connection between the people and the place.

WHY SLOW? Sittard, as numerous other cities, has been negatively affected by globalization and large urbanization. Setting the slow city as a goal aims to develop Sittard in a localized way based on what it has. The city enjoys rich history, culture, food that can be refreshed and promoted in new ways and that can be a reference for urban renewal. It also has vast green landscapes and less than 50.000 inhabitants which are few of the requirements to become a slow city.

HOW? 5 strategies: Our proposal is composed of 5 physical and non-physical strategies at different levels and scales. Those strategies will integrate to address the issues of Sittard and to achieve the urban renewal in order to reach the goal of slow city. 5 strategies ~ solving issues ~ urban renewal ~ slow city - Framewrok: We culminated the proposal by a framework that aims to clarify the mechanism of applying the work on the ground.

2ND PRIZE

Soliera: a proposal for an urban redevelopment project that would improve daily life through increased socialization.  

The Soliera project proposal is framed around two very different urban areas: via Roma, which runs north-south; and the buildings comprising the quadrangle created by via Grandi, via Marconi, via Menotti and via Garibaldi that would be united through the redevelopment of Piazza Sassi. Via Roma, which provides a central, north-south access point to Soliera’s center, stands out from its surroundings for its typical urban design that offers many redevelopment options for stimulating socialization: public gathering areas, spaces for citizen services, meeting points, playgrounds, areas for sitting down or for simply passing through on a relaxing stroll. In contrast, the urban area encompassed by via Marconi, via Grandi, via Menotti and via Garibaldi has an irregular shape. The design for this area of Soliera would involve a further division into quarters. This would offer additional opportunities for integration and interaction resulting in a widening of the existing historical center. The work to be carried out on Piazza Sassi would involve reclaiming the actual piazza, which today is largely unused, and transforming it into a public space ideal for relaxing and socializing, even during its restoration. The transformation would begin with an overhaul of the piazza’s surface, eliminating uneven sections and steps with the goal of creating even walkways on the piazza, including under the arcades, for a completely handicapped-accessible zone. Areas for gathering and socializing are a recurring theme in this project. These spaces are designed for encouraging integration into the community with citizen services and greenery incorporated into an overall design that doesn’t offer just a single center but many. The area between via Mazzini and via Menotti that is currently used as a parking lot is envisioned as the perfect space for street fairs, markets, events and/or shows as part of a larger greenbelt project for the surrounding, mostly residential buildings.