Recycling rural heritage

The main reconversion strategy proposed for the Grangia of Larizzate, tends to redeem the existing heritage (rural and productive), as a collective urban opportunity, aiming to build new opportunities and new objectives linked to the themes of energy, environmental and social sustainability.

The proposed project, starting from the valorization of the disused rural heritage and by virtue of its proximity to the environmental, naturalistic and agricultural system of the Vercelli rice fields, defines an overall vision that does not diminish the identity character of the village and the context. At the center of the new vision are two fundamental actors, namely man and nature; the functions envisaged are grouped into five macro areas of intervention: - the "health care" area (Health residences, the guest quarters and educational projects); - the "environment and landscape" area devoted to the enhancement of the natural environment (reactivation of the environmental biotype, the recovery of waste, the upgrading and forest management); - the "research and development" area as support for agricultural activity (agri-food research, training courses, culture of the environment, spaces for experimentation, the technopole); - the "commercial production" area for a tourist vocation of the area (developed through the farm, museums, food culture); - the "bio-architecture and energy" area referred to the eco-sustainable project interventions, the production of renewable energy and the redevelopment of the rural architectural heritage.\nThe system of relations between the selected functions is not limited to considering the "connections" between the different parts, but builds a model that puts the potential for combined exploitation of resources, waste and functions into a network, giving life to a system urban metabolic, through a series of adaptive devices capable of reactivating the existing: technological, plant and energy devices, wooden facades juxtaposed with the existing (for the reconstruction of the front elevations and for an improvement of the quality of the interior spaces), technological-productive condensers and greenhouses, rainwater collection, observation towers and towers for nesting in the urban forest, new volumes and additions, and spaces for the different socio-cultural, housing and production functions.