New Awareness.

New Awareness is a survey of contemporary French design strategies. Like the “unfinished” architecture, they are the result of neoliberal politics. The aim is to provide a reference system for intervening on unfinished buildings, with the idea of doing more by building less, improving the quality of spaces, resorting to a \"non-finished\" aesthetic.

The former Amato pasta factory marked the beginning of Salerno's industrial area in the eastern part of the city. With its large size, the factory \"looms\" over the railway, and is clearly visible from the commercial \"strip\" to the south, with its characteristic unfinished- looking facade. In the north was later built the working-class Mariconda neighborhood, from which the pasta factory tower is a landmark. The space in front of the mill is an abandoned area of almost 17,000 m2, perceived by citizens as a large foreign body.\r\nAfter a participatory process, together with a sustainable idea of the future pasta factory, the new Factory is based on a mixed program, with public spaces on the ground floor and on the rooftop, cultural spaces, working environments and temporary housing.\r\nThe design idea is to propose a freer use of the existing spaces and to define new additions that facilitate their use, access and hybridization. With an approach consistent with the French approach, the design starts by defining three new circulation elements: one abutting the \"billboard\" facade visible from the street, one for the \"lighthouse\" tower visible from the neighborhood, and one for the silo, visible from the tracks. The location of these three elements is suggested by the main views of the pasta factory. Their size is related to the idea of not just having connectives but real places to stop, admire the landscape and meet people.\r\nIn offices, spaces are flexible of a different arrangement, with an micro-circulation system, and collective spaces close to the silo. In the temporary housing, the accommodations are distributed along a gallery at the ends of which are two communal spaces. Inside the silo, the configuration of space is linked to the new slabs: their arrangement creates spaces with different heights and views.\r\nThis type of approach to the existing is also intended to demonstrate the economic viability of the intervention: reusing the existing structure and increasing the amount of space by about 2,000 sq.m has a cost of about €10 million less than the demolition and the recostruction.