Cascina Falchera, Turin, Italy

The neighbourhood (about 8,000 inhabitants), located in the territory of District 6, consists of two settlements: “Falchera Vecchia,” whose development dates back to the 1950s, and “Falchera Nuova,” built in the 1970s. In the area, there is a strip of ponds and artificial lakes to be reclaimed.

In 1999, in order to improve the living conditions of the inhabitants and change the negative image of the neighbourhood, a process of local participatory development was initiated aimed at encouraging the sharing of social and urban planning actions through the active presence of local stakeholders. The Social Table, formed by associations and entities active in the area, gave birth to the Falchera Development Committee, a body that annually plans and implements a program of activities (events, information desk, socio-cultural initiatives) supported by the City.

The period in which the most important spread of farmsteads occurred in the area was between the 18th and 19th centuries, as an e° ect of the emerging capitalist organization of cultivation and animal husbandry, as the structure of farmsteads was particularly suited to a rationalization of agricultural production. It is likely that in 1701 the Falchero brothers purchased a piece of common land.

In the late 19th century, the Falchera area was a predominantly rural area, dotted with agricultural and pastoral land and a fair number of farmhouses like Cascina Falchera. After the second world war, the area has undergone a change and one of the most prominent projects in the post-war architectural and urban panorama in Turin was designed by the architect Giovanni Astengo. The suburb, built between 1952 and 1954, stood apart from the rest of the city, with a series of three-storey blocks of flats with characteristic red brick facades.

The Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities declared for the Cascina Falchera the recognition of cultural interest. This aspect is certainly a value but it is also a bureaucratic limitation that does not allow flexibility and speed of action. Indeed, a new governance concept is under construction to regulate public-private partnerships.

The challenge has connected with the long-standing work of the City of Turin started in the late 90s to invest in suburban areas and promote a collaborative management use of the public spaces.

Moreover, the water management system is central because Consorzio Kairos wants to innovate the traditional system of “bealere” (small streams of water that bordered the farmsteads in Piemonte) used to irrigate fields by the flooding method. It is necessary to modify them so that water collection and distribution are more efficient and sustainable.

Falchera is characterized as an area of high social disadvantage with different targets living in a condition of marginality and hardship. The main challenge is to transform the Falchera area under an idea of circularity in terms of social, economic and environmental sustainability. This circular approach will be reached through three fields:

Regeneration of Falchera lands to improve landscaping and quality of life, with particular reference to those lands as part of the agricultural rural management of the soil implemented in different areas of the district.

high-tech renovation of Cascina Falchera by restoring the ancient splendour of the eighteenth century farmhouse in a modern key that combines environmental sustainability (e.g. solar panels, geothermal heating systems) with the innovative use of technology to support community building and redesign of the spaces in the local community.space for nature by designing new green and environmental friendly areas (e.g. bio lakes) to support local biodiversity and improve the connection of the community with water and water management systems still existing from the ancient age in the Po Valley.