1001644_1 - TEORIA DEL PAESAGGIO

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The Calopinace River, a waterway that flows through the central part of Reggio Calabria's urban fabric, fits into this context. The etymology of its name, a subject of debate, derives from the Greek kalòs pinax ("beautiful picture" or "fertile plain"), likely indicating the agricultural importance of the alluvial areas near its mouth during the Magna Graecia period. In the Middle Ages, it was also documented in the form "Alepò," indicating the historical continuity of the toponym.

The Calopinace played a decisive role in the urban evolution of Reggio Calabria. Settlements settled along its banks since the Greek colonization, and its presence influenced the layout of the main roads. However, recurrent floods, often devastating, also made it a risk factor: as early as the 17th century, historical

sources document destructive events that struck the lower city. After the 1908 earthquake, the new master plan for reconstruction (the so-called De Nava Plan) necessarily had to address the presence of the Calopinace, adopting hydraulic regulation and canalization solutions that profoundly altered its appearance.

An urban linear park for Calopinace river’s banks

From a landscape perspective, the river today represents an ecological and morphological break within the urban continuum, simultaneously a barrier because the banks are hidden and partially covered by a motorway, but it represents an high potential green corridor. Recent urban redevelopment projects, linked to the enhancement of the waterfront and the integration of natural systems, have highlighted the strategic value of the Calopinace as an environmental infrastructure, capable of combining the needs of hydrogeological safety, ecological restoration, and landscape enjoyment.

The Calopinace river embodies a paradigmatic case of the interaction between natural dynamics and urban development: from a hydraulic threat and a constraint on settlement, to a potential resource for a sustainable city model, capable of recognizing its defining geomorphological elements not as an obstacle, but as an opportunity for territorial regeneration.

In this context at the students will be required the creation of an urban linear park, as a new vision of the city, along the banks of Calopinace fiumara. The project aims to provide the city of an effective green area, to dismiss part of the motorway, to find innovative ways to capture subsoil and surface waters, to transform the area in a place entirely integrated with the urban tissue.