The square Martiri Partigiani re-qualification project aims to give back to the Sassuolo community its central place (now divided into discontinuous spaces) which has lost for a long time the value of “center”. The idea is to turn it into a representative “place” and make it the contemporary expression of the community. To achieve this, the requalification should involve the community: exemplified for us by the “ceramic district“. Referring to the city coat of arms (“born from rock gems”), the idea is to give birth to the Sassuolo’s “gems” out of ground. Gems are though as modern TOTEM: made of gres porcelain and realized in synergy with the “ceramic district” companies and know-how; so they became the “gems” of the local excellence and “shine” for their forefront as best expression of local product (gres porcelain), local firms’ abilities and their technical qualities.
The project is strongly influenced by urban and local historical references which are interpreted and used in a contemporary way to give back monuments of the square their formal and philological urban meaning. Synergy and interaction between the historical urban planning theory and the contemporary architectural composition allows us to reconstruct the environment of the square maintaining the peculiarities and specific historical and cultural references of each of its parts. The decision to create an multipurpose cultural and commercial basement (client’s optional request), fits strategically within this planning.