This kind of urban intervention represents a real change for the future of our city - Mrs Brenda Barnini, Mayor of Empoli
The Urban Innovation project HOPE is moving forward!
On 13 January, restoration work on the former hospital "San Giuseppe", the most significant site of the great program of restoration in the historic center of Empoli, official started. The project includes not only the restoration but also the conservative restoration, static consolidation and eco-efficiency of the complex located between Via Roma, Via Giovanni da Empoli, Via Paladini and Via Ridolfi. The former hospital founded in 1765 and closed in 2008 will become a cultural and social center in the hearth of the City.
The site was part of the third Study Visit of the transnational activity of the EURE project: the partners partially visited the abandoned old hospital during the transnational activity and meeting that took place in Empoli in January 2020, a few weeks before the Covid 19 outbreak all over Europe.
The budget of HOPE amounts to 3,365,763€, financed by the ERDF Fundings for 1,276,812.81€ and co-financed by the Municipality of Empoli and by other fundings from the central Government and by Regione Toscana.
The area was characterized by widespread urban decay, due to the partially abandoned buildings and a general decline of the functions of the city center over the last 20 years. The recovery of the buildings, characterized by static consolidation and their historical enhancement, aims to create a multidisciplinary creative center where new activities can live in close synergy with the existing ones.
The project includes the creation of a modern coworking space (second floor), a cafeteria and a refreshment area (ground floor) and the complex system of courtyards and public connections that characterizes the external part of the former hospital.
All functions will be strongly integrated within the rest of the city and with the system of open spaces through new public connections that will make the entire complex a dynamic and permeable place which will enhance the effects of regeneration of individual interventions to the entire portion of the historic center concerned.
Urban centralities were identified as:
- Neighborhood functions: spaces for associations.
- Functions for the city: centers for social inclusion; cafeteria and refreshment space; public library and public offices.
- Functions for the metropolitan area: co-working spaces
This innovation and regeneration urban project seems now even more fundamental to improve the social integration of vulnerable citizens which is likely to become more serious in the nearest future.
More details (in Italian): www.empoli.gov.it
Pictures: Città di Empoli
