The geo-political game that is currently developing globally, and from which no territory today can claim to be an outsider, is extraordinarily broad. Every city that aspires to draw benefits and growth thrusts from this situation must build a new attractiveness, not only wide, but also diverse and diversified in its proposals, in a geography that no longer works in concentric circles, but in leopard spots with selective and diversified intermediate relations.

Porto Vecchio is, of course, already an extraordinary real opportunity for Trieste, which makes it all the more evident that, in order to grow, Trieste must attract new active minds, the true commodity of the 21st century. The city needs new inhabitants, who bring with them knowledge and entrepreneurial skills. Researchers who come here to enrich the already very important scientific institutions, but also research entrepreneurs who put their work on the global market. Central European writers to come to the balcony with a view of the former Empire, but also cultural entrepreneurs capable of generating an industry with permanent spin-offs. New sailing champions, but also further entrepreneurs in the nautical sector who will create hulls and equipment that are highly competitive on the global market. All this is called a city, which is made up of diversity, work, research, leisure and, of course, houses inhabited by people and families.

The value of the Porto Vecchio area is urbanistic even before being architectural. The urban scheme, in terms of the power of its volumes and its location on the seashore, is certainly exceptional on a planetary level, well before the value of architectural experiments. The compactness and, at the same time, the generosity of the spaces in the area offers unique potentialities of urban quality, which can determine a preferential factor for a project, addressed to the continental scale, to be more attractive than others.

With this exhibition, the Regional Agency for Cultural Heritage of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region, together with the Department of Engineering and Architecture of the University of Trieste, wishes to promote a debate on the potential of Porto Vecchio, investigating some areas that have not yet been clearly identified.

As part of the first two modules of the Workshop (Architectural Restoration 2 and Structural Problems of Historical Buildings), an overall analysis of Warehouse 20 was carried out, and then, on the instructions of the Superintendency as the future concessionaire, various re-functionalisation projects were developed, with the school’s archaeological restoration use as a destination.

The third module of the Workshop (Architectural Composition 4) identified 4 different hypotheses for the urban and architectural re-functioning of the area composed of Warehouses 6,7,8,9,10,11 for a total of 70,000m2 of covered surface area with mixed use (offices and workshops, commerce, hotels and restaurants, residence, urban park, marina, recreational activities, parking).