The Centro Direzionale The new Naples Civic Center, the Centro
Direzionale, is
visible from almost any point in Naples or from the bay.
Depending on who is doing the talking, you will hear various
descriptions: a
futuristic satellite city of gleaming towers; a white elephant; a sore
thumb.
It is—again, depending on the source—just what the city needs, or else
an
unacceptable break with the urban history of the city.
Thus we come to the 1964 plan to create a
new
Civic Center
in a relatively undeveloped part of town, the east. This was to be the
first
effort in Naples at true skyscraper technology. The Centro
Direzionale follows
the
1982 design of prominent Japanese architect, Kenzo Tange, whose work
includes
the urban plan for Tokyo in 1960, the design for the grounds of the
Tokyo Olympics
of 1964, and, in Italy, the designs for the Bologne Civic Center and
Fair
Grounds in 1975.
One
interesting plan that fell through was the idea of the
local NATO headquarters, AFSOUTH (Allied Forces Southern
Europe—currently in
Bagnoli, on the far western side of Naples) to move to the new Centro
Direzionale. The plans were finished and the professional video
presentation looked good. Then there was underworld- connected arson
against one
of the buildings in the Center, and some member nations of NATO simply
said,
"Look, the mob is trying to burn it down, and it's next to a prison. We
are not moving our troops
and their familes in there." (AFSOUTH, thus, changed
its mind and has recently broken
ground on a new headquarters so far out of town in the other direction
that
they may have to change the name to AFNORTHWEST PASSAGE.) The layout of the Centro Direzionale is impressive. There are 18 "islands" of buildings, with high-rises up to 100 meters. There are office buildings as well as residential flats. It is, essentially, a small city: a pedestrian zone at ground level with shops, restaurants and hotels that are easily accessible. There is a mammoth undergound parking facility with escalators running up right into the middle of the pedestrian concourse, an area adorned with fountains, benches, greenery and even a church (photo, top). The Centro Direzionale will eventually have its own underground train station; construction of the new metropolitana line is inching its way (and if I could say "millimetering," believe me, I would) in that direction. All
in all, the main problem is one of perception. In spite
of the modern trend towards supermarkets, malls, and all–in–one
shopping, most
Neapolitans still live with the idea of the local neighborhood. They do
not
willingly go out of town to do their business and do not easily accept
the idea
of a new, built "neighborhood." That is something that grows over
time; you don't just build it. |
Naples
has a long history of episodes of explosive urban
development. The Spanish were responsible for the first such episode in
modern
times when they broke down the old city walls and built modern (for the
1600s)
blocks of buildings, creating what today is still called 
The Centro
Direzionale is more than one square
kilometer set in the Poggioreale section of the city near the central
train
station. That part of Naples is, bluntly, the worst part of town; the
Center,
itself, is right next door to the large Poggioreale prison, an
institution built
almost a century ago for 1100 inmates but today holding twice that
number. The
location, thus, presents some problems with the over-all perception of
the
Civic Center, quite apart from aesthetic considerations of
architecture.
Occupancy, at least so far, is much lower than what one might expect
for a plan
that called for the displacement, sooner or later, of municipal
office
space from their current locations in the traditional center of town