Scandicci New Centre, Florence Building Project, News, Design, Property Image

Scandicci New Centre Florence, Italy

Tuscan Building Development – design by Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners (RSHP)

20 Jun 2014

Nuovo Centro Civico, Scandicci

Design: Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners

Nuovo Centro Civico is a new town centre in the suburbs of Florence. The project is part of an urban plan commissioned by Scandicci Council which is transforming the area from classic edge city (rather placeless and spatially dispersed) into a series of urban centres which new public spaces, public and private buildings and a new tramline connecting Scandicci with Florence.

The piazza which lies at the heart of the project sits astride two pre-existing axial routes, and alongside six storey tenement style housing with shops built there in the 1950s and 60s. Rogers’ intervention takes the form of an ensemble of buildings…tenement housing above shops, community hall, an office building laid out around three sides of the square. The fourth side is formed by Scandicci’s existing brutalist town hall. The buildings replicate the scale of other buildings in the area being 5 to 7 storeys high.

Scandicci’s new tramline runs into the square where there is a busy tram stop. The project still only part complete has taken ten years to come to fruition.

Judges commended the admirable strategic ambition of the project that brings together disparate elements. Tram system, public hall, shops, business space, housing which in combination are beginning to affect a significant cultural and economic transformation.

The architecture (concrete and steel framed buildings clad in glass and terracotta) is modest. It puts the piazza itself, its fountains and benches and the civic/public life of Scandicci and its people, centre stage.

Scandicci New Centre – Building Information

Address of Scheme: Scanidicci, Provence of Florence, Italy
Architect: Rogers Stirk Harbour + Partners
Client: Nuovo Centro Civico
Contract Value: 3395000 euros
Gross internal area in sq m: 15500