A former tramway track in Turin, Italy has been transformed into an urban linear park open to the community.

Precollinear Park, which stretches for 800-metres, is a temporary placemaking intervention in the pre-hill area of Turin, starting from the central corridor of the Regina Margherita bridge and running all the way to Hermada Squadre. The park unites four bordering districts: Borgo Po, Madonna del Pilone, Vanchiglia and Vanchiglietta.

The park came about last June after the first lockdown, when city imaging project, Torino Stratosferica invested part of its own resources to carry out its first placemaking initiative, transforming an abandoned strip of land, once a section of the overground Line 3, in a temporary urban park.

During the course of the initial months the space was enriched by the first elements of urban furniture, that are still central today for the community's everyday use of the area. During the summer and autumn the park hosted numerous cultural and leisure activities, becoming a space of creativity and sharing — open to all.

The placemaking project, based on a sustainable and participatory approach to the organisation of public space has urban ecology as one of its inspirational elements: the improvements have involved the care of the greenery and the installation of seats (benches, chaise longues) and flower pots which now give the residents the opportunity to enjoy on a daily basis an otherwise abandoned space.

According to Torino Stratosferica, Precollinear Park demonstrates the great potential of an approach to the organisation of public space based on three essential elements: low invasiveness, rapid implementation and low costs.

Torino Stratosferica

Rosa Medea is Life & Soul Magazine's Chief. She writes about lifestyle including sustainable and green living. 

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