Vittorio Mazzucconi - Architecture

B.1.4.12

FLORENTIA

THE DAWNING CITY
by
VITTORIO MAZZUCCONI

The Duomo Square

Florence 1970 - 85

Project for the new Centre of Florence

The Duomo Square	above: present state
	below: the projetc

Florence's Duomo Square is very confined. On three sides there is merely a street surrounded by tall houses; on the fourth side, facing the facade, there is the Baptistery, which Leonardo had already proposed to move slightly backward, towards the Archbishop's Palace. There is, however, a block in which the Loggia del Bigallo is encrusted, that may offer an excellent solution. It was built in Eighteen-hundred, embodying the Loggia and some small houses and towers that may still be seen in its interior part. The project aims to demolish it, to highlight these elements, that must be restored and reunited. This beautiful area would give a new vitality and a resolving expansion to the square. The name Villaggio (Village) would be given to this small group of structures. Its function would be that of filtering the huge space which otherwise would extend from the Duomo Square to OrsanMichele and also that of valuing the great monuments that would be near it (by comparison with its small scale). The diagonal of the big upside-down, pyramid-shaped assembly-room of the City Hall points towards the Square. It is closely related with Baptistery's roofing; both are characterised with the same inclination, though one is in marble and the other in shining steel, though one is closed and collected like in the moment of conception while the other is open and "combative" in its moment of youth (where the City Hall constitutes its centre of action). Please note, near the Baptistery, the archaeological excavation that highlights the Porta ad Aquilonem's foundation, of the ancient Florentia period.