Synergic redevelopment of the industrial heritage: the case study of the iron city of Lecco

Many cities characterised by a strong industrial connotation were affected by a deep metamorphosis of the de-industrialization process due to the economical and productive sector transformations and to the market globalization process. The urban regeneration of these areas requires strategic urban visions able to provide a synergic framework supporting single local interventions. In particular, a common framework connecting the city structure with built resources is needed in those cases where the presence of an industrial heritage, which once was a usual, daily one and not only exceptional, characterizes the urban contest. The paper describes a multi-scalar methodological approach supporting the whole design process from the urban and architectural context knowledge (identification of resources) to the definition of urban strategies and functional revitalisation of industrial dismissed resources. The method is applied to Lecco context, an industrial city which historically is connected to iron manufacturing. The paper illustrates the regeneration course strategic to the urban scale with particular focus on the individuation of characterizing resources on whose bases it is possible to outline the use destination of a complex series of areas as a whole, so that they can be in synergy one with the other in order to create a system, complete in all its parts, able to balance and sustain itself. The paper presents two cases developed in the LeccoLAB didactical path that is an innovative “on field teaching” experience in which were (and are) involved the main local stakeholders (private ownership, Municipal Council). The two refurbishment cases presented developed in-depth analyses (emblematic for both building and morphological typology) and guidelines and hypotheses for the regenerationof the existing industrial heritage located around the railway in Lecco (Ex Biokosmes, Ex Mario Frigerio).