Palmanova. Città militare come città civile=| Palmanova. A military city as a civilian city

Palmanova (1593) is a star-shaped city built in the late 16th century on the fringes of Venice’s territory in Friuli Venezia Giulia, of a nonagonal shape and surrounded by three fortified ramparts that enclose an urban plan with insulae framed by a geometric pattern of sestieri. As such, it is an exceptional case, where the relationship between the war machine and the city has been based since its foundation on the city-fortress conception, crystallizing the rationale of the Renaissance utopian city, as it were. In the current issue of its conservation, after depopulation and the decommissioning of 60.000 m2 of military buildings, this historical interweaving of various rationales is resurfacing and constitutes a field of contemporary action whose overall goal is the conservation of the city and, as a corollary, the reconstruction and completion of its multiform identity. To this end comes a study from the IUAV University of Venice for Palmanova, through a Memorandum of Understanding with the State Property Office and the MiBACT (April 2016). Out of the city’s characteristics has come a multi-level and multidisciplinary design approach which has developed different functional proposals and architectural designs in the form of a pilot project, starting from an urban analysis and economic surveys. In fact, the very peculiarity of the theme allows the construction of an experience that can disseminate its findings throughout the region, and, more generally, in the contemporary design context of the reinvention, recovery and conversion of military structures