In 2004, the tower blocks were seared into the popular imagination when a feud exploded between the ruling Di Lauro Camorra clan and a breakaway faction, the Secessionists. Their fight for control of the drug trade raged for almost a year. At its zenith it saw more than a murder per day, and more syringes per square mile in northern Naples than in all of Italy combined. [...]
But the demolition also marks the symbolic failure of Italy’s postwar dream of social housing. Built between 1965 and 1980 by the Neapolitan architect Franz di Salvo, Le Vele was meant to replace the slums and squalor of the medieval city centre. Di Salvo, inspired by Le Corbusier, was operating in the spirit of the case per tutti, or houses for everyone. The seven blocks (three have since been demolished), each to house between 210 and 240 families, were to fulfil the role of the traditional neighbourhood, with a central backbone walkway running through the heart of each tower to encourage community relations. [...]
When finished, the corridors were narrower than planned, the tower blocks closer together and the proposed transport links and social spaces non-existent. The effect was to isolate hundreds of the city’s most destitute families without access to work in a vast concrete slum. [...]
Meanwhile, in the absence of services – the maintenance company contracted to look after the blocks never showed up to do any work, and was eventually indicted for embezzling state funds – it was the Comitato that became a de facto state. It documented the residents, mediated relationships between them and helped the unemployed find work.
No comments:
Post a Comment