Abandoned to itself, mutilated and orphan of the only walkway that once connected it to the mainland, the “Idroscalo” designed by the rationalist architect Giuseppe Pagano still stands firm in all its monumentality as a sort of ancestral guardian of the river.

The unquestionable historical and artistic value of the building, the uniqueness of the architectural typology and the worrying state of decay in which the structure has been for decades, are just some of the reasons that would urgently require its recovery. Furthermore, the rare and valid testimony of such an interesting architectural style, which is that of the transition period between the Secessionism of the early 1900s and the Modern Movement of the following decades, is in itself a sufficient reason to motivate its conservation.

The competition explicitly requires full attention to the social and cultural aspects of the project, encouraging designers to work on a program linked to an everyday use, open particularly to the youngest generations and generally to the entire local community.

How would it be possible to transform the hangar into a community hub lived 7 days a week? What kind of uses could be successful in obtaining the long-awaited rebirth? Participants are thus invited to experiment openly without any fear of the existing building, testing an infinite number of possible innovative design solutions. Both the more conservative proposals, characterized by a more discreet and respectful approach to Pagano's original project, and the more ambitious and visionary ones, defined by more radical interventions, will be equally accepted.

Chosen from well known academic institutions and international firms, our jury members are highly qualified to evaluate the proposals thanks to their specialised knowledge and experience in design and architecture.