Regione Calabria - Town Planning and Territorial Governance Department
- announces the first “Zero Emission” international competition, Solar
Park South, fully managed online by means of the portal
Newitalianblood.com. Participants are requested to provide
economically, energetically and culturally sustainable projects and
innovative ideas for the reuse of an imposing 10-km highway stretch,
between the municipalities of Scilla and Bagnara, soon to be
decommissioned. Participation is open to architects,
landscape architects, engineers, designers, artists, scientists,
researchers and students worldwide.

> Prizes
First Prize: 20,000 Euros. Second Prize: 7,500 Euros. Third Prize: 2,500 Euros.
Up to 10 Honourable Mentions

> Jury
Emilio Ambasz, James Wines, Mario Cucinella, Vicente Guallart, Patrick
Blanc, Jörg Schlaich, Hans-Rudolf Schalcher, Jana Revedin, Sarah
Ichioka, Vedran Mimica, Edo Ronchi, Gianni Silvestrini, Ezio Terzini,
Tonino Perna, Rosaria Amantea

> Materials
Participants must submit 2 jpg-format images (dimension: 945x450
pixels; maximum size: 200 kb each) with 2 descriptive texts (maximum
length: 2,000 characters).

> Website http://www.parcosolaresud.it
> Direct english link http://www.parcosolaresud.it/concorso01/index_en.html
> Info info@parcosolaresud.it

The Province of Reggio Calabria is crossed by some ten kilometres of
Italy’s Autostrada del Sole (A3 Salerno - Reggio Calabria highway),
constructed, for the most part, in the 1960s and ‘70s and featuring
numerous imposing infrastructures. This stretch of highway is set to
be decommissioned following the construction of a new highway,
composed largely of tunnels, designed to ensure the functional
modernization and safety of this route.
Thanks to a series of elegant and audacious viaducts designed by
worldwide famous Italian engineers, such as Nervi, Zorzi and Morandi,
particular sections of the original route offer impressive views of
the terraced, and in many cases, virgin rural landscape to one side,
and of the sea, the Calabrian coast, the Strait of Messina, Sicily and
the Aeolian Islands on the other.
The aim of the international competition is to stimulate concrete
ideas and revolutionary proposals for the reuse of the soon to be
decommissioned highway. Participants are invited to develop their
ideas-projects starting from the basic proposal to:
- Dedicate one carriageway (south-north) to the creation of a space
for testing the production of energy using renewable sources, the
search for and successive application of new sustainable technologies,
and the implementation of measures focused on integrating the Park
within the surrounding territory through the upgrading, fruition and
valorisation of landscape;
- Reuse the other carriageway (north-south) as an alternative to the
National Road n.18, which is both obsolete and fragile, in order to
ensure better connections between Scilla and Bagnara, and between the
latter communities and the surrounding mountainous and rural
territory, as strongly requested by local inhabitants, through the
reuse of the service roads and technical areas related to the
construction of the new highway.
Rather than completely demolishing the old highway, with its
extraordinary reinforced concrete viaducts, now fully integrated
within the landscape and the collective imagination, the reuse and
redevelopment of certain by-passed sections is proposed as a means of
boosting the production of renewable energy; experimenting with new
eco-friendly technologies; favouring connections between villages and
access to the valuable crops on mountain crests; and, finally,
developing new forms of environmental and land art capable of
stimulating responsible tourism. Instead of spending approximately 40
Million Euros (the estimated cost of environmental refurbishment) to
demolish the decommissioned portions of the old highway, dispose of
the debris and restore the existing landscape, thanks to the creation
of Solar Park South, part of this money can be employed in productive
investments.
Solar Park South adopts a conceptual approach of environmental
acupuncture, promoting the re-use of the existing before consuming new
land, pursuing landscape integration, energy self-production and
economic self-sustainability. By beginning with renewable energies,
the goal is that of developing a new virtuous cycle
founded on the green economy, capable of bringing research,
experimentation, technologies, production, employment and tourism to
the whole of Calabria. Furthermore, considering that the financial and
environmental cost of transforming the 10 km of decommissioned highway
will be considerably lower than that of its fruitless environmental
refurbishment, the creation of the Park optimises public expenditure
and brings value to the potentials of the landscape, energy
production, agriculture, scientific research and manufacturing.
Proposals must provide design and technological solutions in relation
to the values of the local landscape and the application and
enhancement of mature or experimental renewable energies.