Built environment recovery for the right to public spaces: the design of Corso Garibaldi railway station, in Naples

The design realized in 2005, for the railway station in Naples in Corso Garibaldi, addresses the themes of urban decay, poor functions and degraded habitats, to the creation of new social ties, giving answers to settlement needs with distributive and constructive solutions. The area including Garibaldi Square and the Circumvesuviana Station is a crucial crossroads in the transport system of Naples: pedestrian mobility, intersects with surface and underground mass transport, private transport, parking. The Station, about 500 metres from the main Garibaldi Square, is the terminal of a regional network of rail services, that has been gradually invaded by immigrants from outside Europe, particularly from China. The paper deals with the preservation, promotion and integration processes applied to public spaces in order to return to citizenship the right to public space, educating residents and newcomers. The cultural assumptions behind the choices are due to the principles that a design of outdoor public spaces, may be a precondition for the creation of an intercultural dialogue. Spaces shaping, morphology design, construction are the shared framework among individuals, groups and communities (Gifford R.1987), that can convey messages of coexistence and dialogue supported by technical solutions compatible with local conditions (Butina G., Bentley I., 2007).