Urban regeneration and integration in Turin (Italy): the example of Porta Palazzo / The Gate project

2009, FORUM, Institute for Multicultural Affairs, the Netherlands Author: Viviana Rubbo i Editor: Vera Marinelli

A incontrarsi o a scontrarsi non sono culture, ma persone. Se pensate come un dato assoluto, le culture divengono un recinto invalicabile, che alimenta nuove forme di razzismo. Ogni identit fatta di memoria e oblio. Pi che nel passato, va cercata nel suo costante divenire. Not cultures but people meet or crash into each other. If you think of them as something absolute, cultures become an impenetrable fence, feeding new forms of racism. Each identity is made of memory and oblivion. More than in the past, identity lies in its constant becoming. Marco Aime, Eccessi di culture

Introduction In the last ten to fifteen years the Italian city of Turin has dedicated increasing attention to neighbourhood regeneration. Since 1990 urban decay is widespread in the suburbs of Turin. These suburbs are places with a high unemployment rate and with a concentration of Italian and immigrant population groups that face social exclusion. A large amount of the recent immigration flows from north Africa, Eastern Europe and China settled in these areas as well. An example to illustrate the urban regeneration and integration policies set up by the city of Turin in one of these particular districts is The Gate project. The Porta Palazzo Committee The Gate is a social sustainable regeneration project, that can be a valid landmark of public policies realisation at a local level. In this paper it is described how in Turin the current urban regeneration policy is related to the integration policy. The interventions through The Gate project are analyzed and the results are shown. At the end of the paper the question what have we learned after ten years of urban regeneration practice in Turin? is answered.

Urban regeneration and integration policies in Turin Since the late 1960s the city of Turin was reached and cut cross by immigration flows. The first immigrants came from the South of Italy during the economic boom. Turin, being a factorycity, saw its population increase in two decades from 719.000 residents (in 1951) up to 1 million (1.167.968 residents in 1971) 1 . Today most immigration comes from different parts of the world: Romania, Morocco, Peru, China, Senegal, Nigeria and the Philippines. In the last 20 years many local administrations in Italy and among these there was Turin started to work at practical solutions to face a growing number of non-national residents. In general, the city of Turin, adopted during this period (till 2006) a sort of ad hoc approach to the immigration event, that means that municipal interventions - through the main local actors (private and public organisations) - were explicitly targeted to immigrants in specific difficult conditions. In the most recent years, consolidation of the intercultural discourse took place, generating a large number of practises and projects based on the notion of dialogue, mutual exchange and social interaction. Neighbourhoods such as Porta Palazzo or San Salvario became, more than others in the city, the hosting-towns for the new immigrants, with complex consequences. On the one hand these neighbourhoods became vibrant melting-pot locations because of the mix of languages, colours and different smells from Moroccan cafs, bars, kebabs, Turkish and Chinese restaurants; on the other hand, all this diversity was accompanied by cultural conflicts, communication breakdown and the lack of social links. Because these neighbourhoods are places where cohabitation and relationship rules are often brought into question over and over again, contradictions and global conflicts are intensified. In Turin, while some parts of the city were affected by big transformation plans (to deal with the large urban emptiness left by the collapse of industrial areas), in other parts the administration became aware of the importance to turn its attention onto suburbs and problematic neighbourhoods. Many diverse urban recovery and regeneration processes were launched in combination with integration projects, either in urban semi-central neighbourhoods such as Porta Palazzo and San Salvario, or in public housing blocks (by the means of Urban Recovery Programs, Neighbourhood Contracts and Local Development Actions) for the recomposition of social cohesion in areas where identity and quality of life conditions were getting worse.

Statistic data from City of Turin populations census

TURIN AND SUBURBS - URBAN REGENERATION PROGRAMS AND ACTIONS - Outskirts Department

In 1997 the Progetto Speciale Periferie (Outskirts Special project) was set up, which later (in 2001) became Settore Periferie (Outskirts Department), to intervene in the urban environment on the habitat and structural settings and on social dynamics. Key elements of this project were: an integrated approach, citizens participation, procedural and organizational innovation, identity and sense of belonging, improvement and development opportunities. Under the umbrella of the Settore Periferie many interventions took place all over the city. One example is European Initiative Programme (Urban II) in the Mirafiori Nord neighbourhood, an industrial area, where a programme took place to accomplish three complex goals: to create a meaningful urban milieu for inhabitants, to encourage trade, social and cultural opportunities, and to connect the neighbourhood with the city through high quality services.

Wall-painting in Artom street, Mirafiori neighbourhood

Via Artom, Mirafiori, public housing blocks that had become symbols of urban decay were demolished

Another example is the Corso Grosseto Recovery Urban Plan. This project started in 2000 and focused on the refurbishment of two public housing blocks and the renovation of sport centres and meeting points in the neighbourhood. The Settore Periferie promoted the creation of a social support plan run by architects, sociologists and communication specialists, in order to ensure the inhabitants involvement and their knowledge of all the phases during the urban improvement.

Interventions and local actions such as these have led to a range of policies, tools and best practises set up by the public sector in partnership with the private sector, by professionals, public institutions and citizens networks, to improve the quality of life and the urban fabric in many neighbourhoods. In 2006, after 10 years of Urban Regeneration programmes, the Settore Periferie was replaced by the Urban Regeneration Department, wherein the coordination of integration policies became a new element. A deputy major was appointed for urban regeneration and integration competences in public space. Urban regeneration local action: the Porta Palazzo Committee The Gate A Porta Palazzo c tutto quello di cui Torino ha bisogno ma non vuole sotto casa In Porta Palazzo, Turin can find everything it needs but does not want on its doorstep Operatore del Balon Balon - Flea market - vendor Porta Palazzo lInternet dei poveri Porta Palazzo is the Internet for poor people Yousef, Morocco

Situated two steps from the historical city centre, Porta Palazzo has always been the immigration neighbourhood in Turin. The central square of the neighbourhood hosts the biggest daily open-air market in Europe. It is a dynamic neighbourhood. On Saturdays, as many as 100,000 people visit the open-air market and the flea-market (the Balon) in Porta Palazoo. At anytime and any day of the week, crowds of women, men and street vendors meet in the square, while kids are running around and hide under the handcart of their mother selling vegetables, clothes or cooking-pots. Possibly the peculiarity of the market and street life is what has always attracted newcomers to this area in search of accommodation. During the 1960s the neighbourhood experienced a migratory flow from the South of Italy, followed in the late 1980s by migration from China and Morocco and, most recently from Romania and Albania. Officially some 22% of the neighbourhoods population is of immigrant descent (compared to 3-4% non-native residents in all the city), however when one takes irregular residents into account, the percentage adds up to around 40%. This significant concentration of immigrants means that different languages and cultures are present at the neighbourhood. It also means that Porta Palazzo experiences noise, discussions, legal and illegal negotiations, which are all part of a very complex system of internal and informal rules, overpopulation and a concentration of the most vulnerable people of the city. Porta Palazzo has a rich urban and

architectural heritage and history, but most people consider this neighbourhood as unsafe, dangerous, noisy and prefer to pass through it as fast as possible. In 1996 the City of Turin faced the unfavourable social conditions and overall urban decay in the neighbourhood and presented The Gate-living not leaving project to the European Union, in the context of the Innovative Actions of the European Regional Development Fund. This resulted in the creation of an Urban Pilot Project - the Porta Palazzo Committee The Gate 2 - in 1998. Located close to the market place, The Gate started to work at improving living conditions and the social economic status in the Porta Palazzo neighbourhood. The Committee is a non-profit organisation with mixed participation of public institutions and private bodies. Its programme was mainly financed by the European Union, the City of Turin and the Ministry of Public Works. The Gate implemented a strategy of social, environmental, commercial, economic and physical (of both private and public spaces) regeneration in the Porta Palazzo neighbourhood. On 31 December 2001 The Gate closed the European phase of the project during which it had undertaken 18 actions: the urban regeneration process had been started. The city council of Turin supported the process started up by the Committee and transformed the Porta Palazzo Committee / The Gate in 2002 to a Local Development Agency for complex urban regeneration projects under the Settore Periferie (Outskirts Department). As a Local Development Agency The Gate maintained the same structure: a private body with mixed participation of public institutions, private companies, local community players. Presently, the Board of Directors consist of five deputy majors (Integration, Urban Planning, Economic Development, Social Policies and Security Policies), two Neighbourhood Councils, two Foundations, three trade organisations, the Chamber of Commerce and three local NGOs. This body is able to promote active citizenship, involve local actors and citizens (associations, interest groups, people, etc) on the one side, and on the other is it able to negotiate and coplan with other institutions working in the territory (Police departments, Health care services, Waste agency, etc). The Gate organises fund-raising activities and responds to bids from private foundations, the local authorities, the district Council and national ministries. The vast programme of interventions co-ordinated by the Porta Palazzo Project Committee The Gate is divided into the following five areas: built environment, social environment, cultural environment, economic environment and sustainable environment. In addition, there are also three services: the social support service, the territorial consulting services and the communication and information service.

www.comune.torino.it/portapalazzo

The Gate organisation scheme

Since the beginning The Gate has developed projects and actions aimed at activating urban development, working on a wide range of sectors in order to trigger key processes that today are finally making the district renewal visible and remarkable from a social, economic and architectural point of view. The Gates strategy has an holistic approach, looking at the economic, social, cultural and physical aspects of the urban regeneration process. Interventions in the built environment Most of the Porta Palazzo residents rent their houses. The few landlords who live in the neighbourhood are elderly or newcomers. In their condominiums the property management is complicated by no sense of belonging, indifference or no sense of responsibility. Owners dont take care of their property and dont know how to manage their possessions, or how and why to share responsibilities regarding communal areas. As a result, the building decay is getting worse and consequently the urban surroundings as well. Also, too often landlords overpopulate their flats with irregular immigrants (who are obliged to pay a stunning high rent for a 2 roomflat that they share with 20 people). Between 2000 and 2002 The Gates project Bando Facciate (Faades competition) encouraged landlords to restore their condominiums, renewing the building facades facing the

streets, and to take care about their own properties. A total of 58 condominium facades were restored. In 2004 the Abitare Porta Palazzo project (Living Porta Palazzo) was born, aimed at offering economic support and advice to landlords on the refurbishment of the condominium common spaces. At the end of the project, in 2006, more than 36 condominiums were refurbished for a total amount of over 2,5 million Euro. This project was followed in 2007 by the Abitare a 360 project (360 of living). Meetings were set up in the courtyards for condominium residents to learn about domestic safety, energy savings, house-managers and inhabitants rights and duties. In the course of the project 46 condominiums in the neighbourhood were involved and more than 30 housemanagers worked together with The Gate to improve the quality of life in the properties they managed. Since 1978 Italy has a national law that allows local authorities in the case of strong urban decay to force landlords to maintain and fix up their property. The so called Obligatory Recovery Plans are placed into motion by the City of Turin in 2001, under the project Piani di Recupero Obbligatorio in the Porta Palazzo and Borgo Dora area. In 2005 The Gate, in collaboration with the Urban Regeneration and Integration department, the Urban Planning department, the Housing department of the City of Turin set up a wide range of consultation and support services, information and funds to help house managers and landlords to accomplish the renewal interventions. 4 blocks and about 400 flats have been involved in the project. In all these interventions in the built environment The Gate used Arabic and Chinese speaking mediators, to ensure the involvement of the immigrant landlords and residents. Economic interventions The Gate also works on improving and strengthening the economic fabric of the neighbourhood. Some examples of economic interventions are: Via dalla Strada (Out of the street) gives vocational training to young immigrants. Se leconomia sociale (If the economy is social) introduces rules and procedures of the Italian labour market to newcomers. lSciangai: economia informale e cittadini stranieri (LSciangai, informal economy and foreign citizens) supports the integration process of immigrant citizens, who through informal or illegal economic activities try to make a living for themselves in the neighbourhood. In some cases economic activities can be regularized. In other cases The Gate tries out creative initiatives or solutions for the negative impact of the irregular and informal activities. Cultural interventions To invite people to stay and live in the neighbourhood and to promote Porta Palazzo as a cultural and touristic resource for the city, The Gate works on the enhancement of local resources and of local cultural products. Turisti per casa is a project in which diner walks were held in the neighbourhood, so people could taste the cooking of the three most represented communities in the neighbourhood: Islamic, Western African and Asian food. A mobile library (Bibliomigra) has been created, that travels once a week around the neighbourhood. People can choose from 700 books in 14 different languages. Three times the football tournament 2 tiri a Porta Palazzo was organised in the main Porta Palazzo square. Among the teams competing to win the Cup were Romanian, Chinese and Moroccan residents, Porta Palazzo traders, the police department and Turin musicians.

Porta Palazzo football tournament, 2 tiri a Porta Palazzo

Bibliomigra

Social interventions To promote social cohesion, reduce marginalization, conflicts and feelings of insecurity, The Gate works on the participation of social actors and on establishing networks and coalitions between residents, entrepreneurs and social actors. In piazza simpara (learning on the square) offers free lessons in Italian (to newcomers), Arabic, Chinese, Portuguese and Romanian. These lessons takes place on the main Porta Palazzo square. Percorsi di cittadinanza attiva (active citizenship paths) develops competences of citizens and their associations to analyse and resolve conflicts. The idea behind this project is that safety and social conflict issues are more effectively resolved if not only institutions intervene but that citizens can assume an active role as well if they improve their interpersonal communication skills. The results of the following projects emphasize the importance of working in the neighbourhood and to involve a public partner: In 2000 The Gate social support unit set up an empowerment action directed towards those Balon operators (the flea market traders) that work without a regular permit. Tensions among non-regular and regular sellers were running seriously high. The project staff worked directly in the field with the positive groups 3 of sellers and support them in forming an association. The Vivibalon association today is able to manage the market services: it represents an important voice in the neighbourhood and it interacts with the public administration. The Comitato Sicurezza was born in 2001 at the request of the neighbourhood council, the Turin Prefect to the police forces and the mayor of the city. The Comitato Sicurezza tasks were to increase the institutional collaboration on public safety and to promote a direct relation between the police and the neighbourhood. The Comitato Sicurezza held special meetings in which citizens belonging to local associations and committees could speak directly with representatives of Turins institutions and authorities. Another important project for networks is Tavolo Giovani di Porta Palazzo project (youth table), which started in 2003 and involved all the local actors dealing with youth (at risk). This project has strengthened the cooperation among local actors by organising meeting points to realize socio-cultural events for youngsters, by setting up video-making laboratories for youngsters. Youngsters were able to discover new communication channels and to build up a new sense of belonging.

Meaning the groups of sellers who were open to look for solutions and were willing to accept support from The Gate

The In piazza simpara project in Porta Palazzo

Sustainable/Environmental interventions Apart from specific projects as Energia di quartiere (Neighbourhood energy) and Da rifiuto a risorsa (From rubbish to resource) to deal with the waste of the market, The Gate is trying to pay attention to sustainability in all its projects, encouraging awareness of wastefulness and environmental consequences. Results on the neighbourhood level When one compares the situation in Porta Palazzo before the beginning of the interventions by The Gate and the situation at present, the neighbourhood has made a turn for the better. Young people start to move to the neighbourhood and house-managers and residents are more confident in their abilities and responsibilities to take care of the housing heritage and want to participate to the urban regeneration process. They ask for improvement of public spaces yet untouched, participate in the European Neighbours day initiative, and they start to make contact with their neighbours. What the experience in Porta Palazzo shows, is that the regeneration of urban public space can offer a chance to start a process of negotiation on neighbourhood rules. The regeneration process can bring citizens, local actors and stakeholders closer, revealing that they share interests, wishes and expectations about their neighbourhood. As in many cases, the public spaces (squares, streets and courtyards) in Porta Palazzo formed the scene in which social exclusion, cultural conflicts and intolerance were visible. And at the same time the public space represented the opportunity to meet each other, to share rules of use and also share expectations about the transformation of the neighbourhood. When people meet on Sundays in the main square to learn Italian, Chinese or Arabic, they all understand the importance to be there, together, to share the same space and contribute to a positive and lively atmosphere of the neighbourhood. The regeneration process is still ongoing, but he interventions by The Gate have already resulted in the enthusiastic participation of associations, committees, organisations, entrepreneurs, stakeholders and individuals, believing again in the social-economic and cultural renaissance of Porta Palazzo. People from other parts of the city are coming back to live or visit the neighbourhood and appreciate its potential. The Gate worked hard at building networks throughout the area. Citizens and organisations are constantly invited to participate actively in the reduction of conflicts, taking up their own responsibilities, to find new ways to contribute to the regeneration process and not just complain. The participation of first and second generation immigrants in local initiatives and development opportunities in the neighbourhood as any other inhabitants in Porta Palazzo is a real demonstration of a growing sense of belonging and of a successful local approach to integration.

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Lessons from 10 years of urban regeneration experiences in Turin: conclusions and recommendations Nowadays cities are places of plural identities. City neighbourhoods are now more than ever laboratories where contemporary citizenship and a new sense of belonging are being formed and where the rules of cohabitation are tested everyday. They are places of extraordinary creativity [] 4 The contemporary challenge is to build social cohesion and new form of citizenship. The city of Turin is starting to absorb a still young second generation of immigrants of some 19,000 young people. There are 15,000 non-Italian entrepreneurs, mostly working in care services, registered at the Turin Chamber of Commerce. This new generation citizens has its own cultural and social needs and ask to be considered as a resource of the city. The public administration of Turin is aware of the issue of social sustainability in urban transformation. Any process of urban regeneration holds the risk of gentrification, forcing the most vulnerable population out of the neighbourhood. It is necessary to protect those residents, by providing them with tools to increase their quality of life, to work with them on the development of local identity, memory and history. Its necessary to [] deal with the different social groups that meet or clash into each other in the arena of the public space5 . Therefore Turin linked urban regeneration and integration policies in 2006 and is it trying to incorporate an intercultural dimension in all its policies (housing, labour market, social services, culture and education, transport, urban life). At the same time new citizens are empowered to play an active role in the social, economic and cultural life, and on a neighbourhood level the interaction between residents is stimulated. Immigrants are not a specific target group anymore: In the ever changing contemporary city, aware of a common responsibility to face the complexity of urban life, it is not possible to allow there to be citizens with no right to play the game, who are left out of all negotiation processes and are never asked to participate 6 . The Turin Porta Palazzo experiences provides us with some recommendations for successful urban regeneration: Invest in the empowerment and participations of residents

Residents must be made aware of their own responsibilities so that they can express what they really want and wish from the transformation of the neighbourhood. The voice of residents must be made heard. Negotiation power must be given to different interest groups in the neighbourhood.

Stimulate a social mix

Policies on housing and urban quality should encourage a social mix, stimulate the cohabitation of socio-cultural and economic different groups and avoid the concentration of disadvantaged people.

Ilda Curti , Urban regeneration and Integration policies deputy mayors speech published the 4th of February 2009.

Ilda Curti, Integration and Urban Regeneration Policies Deputy Major.

Ilda Curti, Urban regeneration and Integration policies deputy mayor

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Pay attention to the economy and economic potential of the neighbourhood

Find local resources and attract new stakeholders that are able to invest in the neighbourhood and make the transformation possible Public-private partnerships work

The juridical shape of the The Gate Committee as a private body allow it to apply nimble procedures flexible to the neighbourhood needs (able also to answer to emergency circumstances) but in the same time the public presence guarantee the coherence to the public policies Avoid gentrification

Be conscious during urban renewal interventions about the risk of underprivileged people being forced out of the neighbourhood. Pay attention to the support of marginalised or deprived population groups. Be present and visible in the neighbourhood

The location / local situation is really important. You have to be present to capture the input of the surroundings and to connect with the neighbourhood (for instance with a daily opened information desk where residents can be informed).

i Viviana Rubbo, born in 1977, worked as an architect at the local development agency The Gate (www.comune.torino.it/portapalazzo) in Turin (Italy) from 2004 to 2009. She carried out public policies and housing programmes to improve the regeneration process at a local level. Particularly interested in local development processes Viviana joined in 2004 the YLDA Association (Young People for Local Development Association:www.ylda.org), to investigate, together with private and public partners, youth community behaviours in Turin and find solutions to youth accommodation problems. She believes it is important to know what people really want when neighbourhoods are transformed.

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