Urban Redevelopment in the Abruzzo Castle. The prestigious Belvedere is reimagined.

The intervention in the belvedere area in front of the Ducal Castle. The Castle of Crecchio, a historical artifact of great value, had lost its splendor due to repeated urban interventions, therefore requiring a redevelopment capable of enhancing it from a tourist point of view. To achieve this result, it was necessary to restore unity to the urban context through sandstone stones very similar to the rock with which it was built, while the surrounding road area was brought back to a single level and pedestrianized.

Furthermore, the ancient 18th and 19th century pavements have been recovered, and the area at the entrance of the village has returned to its social aggregative function. Throughout the village, paths have been created that frame the castle itself, now visible from all sides. Of particular interest are the specially designed urban furniture elements: made of corten steel, the lampposts under the castle evoke the torches of a camp, while those in the main squares have minimalist geometric shapes. The traffic bollards, empty corten cubes that can be used as seats, echo the rhythm of the castle walls' battlements.

Compared to the initial state, the entire square has been extended towards the entrance of the village, with the creation of a new parking area. To create this new parking area, part of the embankment that flanked the road leading to the village was excavated. The new parking area has allowed the elimination of the parking spaces under the walls that marred the main view of the village and has restored monumental importance to the ducal castle with its imposing perimeter walls. The old connections between the school square area and the belvedere square of the Castle have been redesigned, creating new paths to enhance and visually frame the points of cultural and landscape attraction that characterize the historic complex of Crecchio.

Particular attention has been given to the design of the furnishings and lighting fixtures. The bollards that delimit the roadway from the rest of the belvedere square are made of corten steel and designed as modular removable elements that can be assembled together and used as seating. The ground position replicates the rhythm of the battlements of the castle walls. Each cube is composed of a plate folded into three equal parts forming a C shape. A second plate, serving as the base of the cube with a central square-shaped hole, has been welded to this. Triangular reinforcement elements have been inserted inside the cube, which also act as asymmetric diffusers.

The square hole on the lower face is used to allow the cube to be positioned on a common walk-over ground spotlight, and the light projected into the cube, bouncing asymmetrically on the internal faces of the cube and the two triangles, creates interesting light effects on the surrounding pavements. The area lighting was achieved using LED spotlights positioned on top of a corten structure, formed by 3 tapered triangular base rods intertwined with each other. The effect is that of medieval torches. The three poles are arranged in such a way as to create a silhouette reminiscent of ancient tripods.

The material used for the cubes and the lighting system is corten steel, a material that has the advantage of drastically reducing maintenance costs and, with its natural rust appearance, is strongly evocative of the past. The entire Belvedere Square below the Ducal Castle is characterized by this material, typical of central Italy. Therefore, walnut-colored travertine was chosen mainly because with its elegant and evocative appearance, it manages to integrate with the color scheme of the historic center.

It has been used in elements of different sizes arranged to run and woven horizontally with respect to the walls of the castle, generating a sort of dialogue and a proper visual relationship with the walls and the building. Cobblestone is the typical pavement of the historic centers of small Italian villages. All the ground signage and the edges of the sidewalks, the limits of the driveways, are made with bands of cobblestone directly inserted into the screed, in such a way as to obtain completely flat spaces without the presence of level changes, managing to insert the signage as if it were an artifice, a deliberate design in the pavement, always keeping chromatic and material combinations under control

These stone blocks have been used to mark the pedestrian path alongside Piazza Belvedere Castello, the only element that differs in material on the entire surface of the square, but still in harmony with it. This is a reference to the original early twentieth-century pavement of the historic center of Crecchio. All retaining walls, balustrades, and urban furniture walls in various parts of the project are clad in local sandstone. Sandstone has also been used to pave some paths: the road that runs alongside the castle walls and the pedestrian ramp that connects the school square area to the belvedere square.

The effect that was intended to give to these new areas is that of chromatic integration with the place, therefore with the warmth of sandstone and brick, with walnut-colored travertine, and with corten. This particular shade of screeds with combed finish allows us to respect the design intentions