Water: a soft infrastructure for the city of Laterza

This paper presents an urban project for Laterza, a small town in the province of Taranto, which was awarded first prize in the 15th edition of Europan, an international competition for young architects. Laterza is situated on the deepest of the canyons characterizing the evocative landscape of the Parco delle Gravine. With its gorges and vast plateaus, this park shapes the territory of the Tarantino Ionic Arch. The project addresses the competition's main theme ("Productive Cities – Changing Metabolism and Circular Economy") by integrating local heritage enhancement with climate resilience, while preserving a connection to the historical settlement system. The urban structure of the cities in this region was historically conceived as a “hydraulic machine,” designed to manage, store, preserve, and release the most precious natural resource: water. Today, architecture for public spaces must address new needs; it must engage with places that accommodate diverse and unpredictable uses. It should avoid producing static creations based on finalized, crystallized spatial configurations. Instead, it should “infrastructure” public spaces in a way that enables adaptability, allowing places to be modified and reinterpreted in response to evolving desires and needs. All of this must occur in the context of the profound ecological crisis affecting our way of life on the planet. We are called to rethink our relationship with natural elements—not merely to exploit them, but to understand and respect their balance. Water once again shapes public space. On the one hand, it is treated as a resource to be organized, while on the other, it activates a virtuous process of circular economy and enhances public space, unifying and defining its identity. This design process does not establish a fixed configuration but instead creates a "light infrastructure", enabling public space to adapt to the evolving needs of the community.