The valley of 17.000 square meters created by the rio Carbonara is located behind the Albergo dei Poveri, the largest historical structure of the city of Genoa, from the second half of the seventeenth century it was a place of shelter, education and work for the poor, today it is one of the sites of the University of Genoa.

Valletta Carbonara is encircled by Corso Firenze, the urban thoroughfare of Castelletto, a historic and elegant Genoese neighbourhood.

The valley was used for agricultural production in connection with the Albergo dei Poveri, and then from 1874 for the municipal greenhouses of the City of Genoa. This activity was progressively scaled down until it disappeared in the 1990s.

The voluntary organisation ‘Le Serre di San Nicola’ takes care of the northern part of the area while the social promotion association ‘Alle Ortiche’ takes care of a portion of Valletta Carbonara outside and bordering the project area where the cultural and environmental centre of the same name is also located.

The lower part is used as warehouses by Aster, a complementary health care organisation for workers in commerce, tourism and services.

In 2019, the Azienda Pubblica di Servizi alla persona Emanuele Brignole will re-enter the direct management of Valletta Carbonara.

The project aims to make the area more accessible to all people despite the steep gradients; to create new architecture and flexible spaces for all generations; to maintain the productive character of the area and to create a new urban natural environment capable of mitigating and adapting to the effects of climate change.

Instead of the “officina” warehouse, a new larger volume has been built on 2 levels, which follows the Corso Firenze wall. Facing the valley are large windowed fronts that with the overhanging roofs and the green against the opaque parts help to lighten even more the building’s presence in its context. The new functions within the building will be both to support the museum lower down the valley through a new ticket office and bookshop in the highest part of the building, and to provide visitors with services and catering through the introduction of a restaurant seating approximately 50 people, located on the floor below the ticket office. The floors will be accessible both by an external metal staircase and by the group of lifts previously mentioned.

The great greenhouse to the east is restored and transformed. The design choice to cover the entire structure, and therefore both internal spaces, with polycarbonate panels stems from the search for maximum energy performance within the building, the flexibility to adapt to the irregularity of the existing and the reduction of load on the structures, ensuring maximum brightness and comfort within the working areas.

While referring to the original appearance of the greenhouse, the opal polycarbonate panelling allows for a bright environment without having an excessive thermal load and therefore avoids the need for passive shading elements. The newly built pavement located in the co-working part fills the elevation jump given by the existing terraces to ensure the maximum coplanar surface.

The demolition to the north of the 5 central greenhouses of the 11 ‘comb’ greenhouses, in a critical condition, allows the creation of a central plaza with a pergola reminiscent of the previous greenhouses’ profile. The floor before the long greenhouse is consolidated and all remaining ‘comb’ and long greenhouse glass is replaced with polycarbonate panels.

A conservative restoration of the metal elements is carried out in the five historic greenhouses in the north just below Corso Firenze; missing or damaged glass is replaced with glass that complies with regulations.

The green outdoor spaces are adapted by creating thematic areas: the retaining walls are restored in the former seedbed areas, the promenade to the northeast is provided with benches and new concrete flooring, the large central green is reclaimed and backfilled to ensure a slope of no more than 3%, with seating and large trees and playground equipment.

Some historic terracotta flooring in the area is removed, and the recovered material is reused to repair and fill the gaps in the other restored terracotta flooring.

A complex challenge for the accessibility of the park was to make the whole valley accessible without ever exceeding an 8% gradient; for this reason a new pedestrian path was designed from the wall under Corso Firenze up to the level of the restaurant; all the secondary routes branching off from this are also made up of additional ramps with preassembled metal carpentry walkways. Sometimes the ramps are instead made up of walls, fills and flooring in concrete, with simple handrails in wire mesh.

To cope with the storm water collection system and to achieve the hydraulic invariance values required by municipal and regional directives, a design combination of a raingarden concept with a water runoff control system by exploiting the existing loading and mowed clippings basin has been devised.

One of the existing depots has been converted into a bistro, with new flooring and the demolition of internal subdivisions. Routine maintenance is carried out on the “Associations House”.