London / Buenos Aires / Caracas
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London / Buenos Aires / Caracas
ALL
SELECTED
ARCHITECTURE
URBAN
ART
PUBLICATIONS
ACADEMIC
ABOUT
Cross-border Urban Regeneration / Cultural Hub
International Competition
Gorizia, Italy / Nova Gorica, Slovenia, 2020
Architecture can be an act of repair.
The project proposes a cross-border urban regeneration strategy for Gorizia and Nova Gorica: two cities historically divided by a border that no longer exists as a physical barrier within today’s European Union.
The intervention focuses on the creation of a common central area around Europe Square — Piazzale della Transalpina — and the transcultural hub EPICenter. Rather than treating the former border as a line of separation, the project transforms it into a shared cultural ground: a place of memory, encounter and future exchange.
The proposal follows the trace of the border through time. First, it looks to the past, burying the line below ground as a museum and a reminder of human arbitrariness. Then, it moves into the present, where the line becomes light, edge and public celebration in Europe Square. Finally, it projects towards the future, crossing out the old division and turning it into a new landmark for transcultural life.
The former border becomes both wound and path, scar and threshold: a spatial device through which the two cities can recognise their history while imagining a common future.
Client: EGTS GO, Municipality of Nova Gorica and Municipality of Gorizia
Endorsed by: International Union of Architects — UIA
Program: Transcultural hub EPICenter / Europe Square regeneration
Location: Gorizia, Italy / Nova Gorica, Slovenia
Year: 2020
Authors: Karla Montauti and Juan Vicente Pantín
Team assistance: Pablo Zapata and José Vicente Fazio
Renders: Pablo Zapata and Karla Montauti
Museography: Duality Exhibition — designed below the line that once divided both countries