Learning from Pietro Porcinai: The Current Relevance of the Debate on Motorway Architecture and Landscapes in Italy During the 1960s and 1970s

This article proposes a reinterpretation of the 1960s and 1970s debate around the construction of the Italian motorway system. It focuses specifically on the experiences of landscape architect Pietro Porcinai in the Brenner motorway project, to better understand current elements and anticipation regarding problems that affect motorway infrastructure projects today. Keeping the landscape debate in the background, along with the denunciation of risks and threats that fueled scientific literature and technical journals at the time, we revisit the hypotheses formulated, but never fully realized, by Piero Porcinai. These sought to merge the concepts of motorway, landscape and garden during the design of this infrastructure. Then, we present a research hypothesis that attempts to update and re-propose the method proposed by Porcinai. Finally, we outline the challenges, opportunities and obstacles that a robust ecological and infrastructural project faces today.