Dwelling the spaces below the road. Urban design strategies in the wake of the circular economy

This paper aims to provide some possible urban design strategies for the upcycling of infrastructure residual pockets, in line with the principles of the circular economy applied to urban design. In the building of specialized infrastructure, the functional efficiency of the connections and the safety of the users prevail over the architectural quality of the urban space generated below them. This condition generates the paradox that the "above", responding to the criteria of functionality and safety, contrasts with a "below" in which it is difficult and dangerous to move, characterized by urban fragments whose connections have been severed by insurmountable infrastructural barriers, difficult social conditions, degradation, and crime. The upcycling of these residual spaces, which cannot exclude an interdisciplinary approach, would make it possible to return considerable reserves of urban space to the community and face the phenomenon of land consumption. In this scenario, the urban design has the task of identifying the ways in which the residual spaces of the infrastructures can be used, occupied, transformed, and the way in which it is possible to create physical or perceptive connections between the urban fragments divided by the infrastructural strips, recovering the signs of the roads and urban fabrics. The case study on which this contribution is based is the eastern area of Naples, a former industrial area and an important Italian logistics hub, marked by roads, railways, and pipelines.