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The term ‘territorial policy’ that
we use in this section is strongly linked to all public or privateinitiatives and tools that
pursue the objectives mentioned above.
We focus on electric power generating plants and
their educational, tourist and
culturalvalue-added. This means
that the files that describe each of the power stations
will include its planning authorities and resources, which
vary widely from plant to plant. As for the authorities,
in some cases there are public players such as municipal
or provincial administrations, and in other cases it
is associations of volunteers and private citizens who
examining the development projects for power plants in
due observance of the law and in accordance with the
requirements of the competent public bodies. |
Different ways of generating
power, various political leanings
There are four hydroelectric power plants (Grosio,
Roncovalgrande, Trezzo on the Adda, and Vigevano). Two
others (Ostiglia and Tavazzano) are thermal plants.
The final two are related by their highly specialised
and innovative technology (the Milan-Bicocca fuel
cell-powered plant and Brescia’s waste
incinerator).
- Without doubt, the policy
for developing the educational,
tourist and cultural values isfocused
on the hydroelectric power plants. This
may be due to several factors.
Firstly, this type of power plant
obviously presupposes the
presence of a river. In
the three cases described – Grosio,
Trezzo on the Adda and Vigevano – there
are major rivers like the Adda
or the Ticino rivers which cross
valleys of great importance, (the
Valtellina, for example). Thanks
to the creation of regional and
national parks, these areas have
been protected for many years.
Many development policies for power
plants situated in areas like these
may therefore stem from the initiatives
of the management companies
that run these parks.
In addition, some of these plants
were designed at
the beginning of 19th century by
the most famous architects
of the day, or have been incorporated
in a context of industrial archaeology that
hasanundoubted
historical value. Roncoval Grande
is a particular case amongst the
hydroelectric power stations. This
plant is newer than the other plants
mentioned above, and is situated
in a rather isolated zone on the
Lombardy side of Lake Maggiore,
on the Swiss border. A number of
rather diversified initiatives,
carried out by Enel in agreement
with the local authorities, have
allowed the plant to become a cultural
and meeting place for
the local community and visitors.
- Issues concerning the thermal
power plants aremore
complex. For many years they have
been using polluting substances for
producing their power, and this
has awakened concerns and negative
attitudes on the part
of public administrations and local
communities. So it is not a good
moment to mention developing the
value-added of these plants. During
the past few years, the thermal
power plants have been
modernized and thus have very
much reduced their negative ecological
impact. Moreover, the
nationalised companies carried
out a number of initiatives designed
to improve ‘transparency’ towards
the outside world, and to improve
their relations with local communities.
These measures range from opening
the power plants to the public
as far as obtaining ecological
certificates to show their compliance
with European Union regulations.
It is important to note that there
is still much to do here: the public
sector and civil society still
harbour a defensive attitude towards
these projects, and suspect that
some information is still concealed.
- Finally, we are going to examine
two highly innovatory power plants.
Even though the Milan-Bicocca fuel
cell-powered plant has designed
by the great architect Vittorio Gregotti,
and is situated in a highly dynamic
area, it is not at the moment the
subject of any particular initiative
to develop its educational,
tourist or cultural aspects.
The Milan-Biccoca University has
taken some steps in this direction,
though these projects are still at
an early stage. On the other hand,
the Brescia waste incinerator
plant presents a particular
issue that is worth highlighting.
As has already happened in the past,
thermal power stations have often
aroused ecological concerns.
In Brescia, the plant’s management
has adopted a defined attitude of collaboration
and transparencytowards
the local community, which
has led to a considerable reduction
in conflicts that could have ended
up in court. Instead, the plant,
having opened itself to public, has
now become quite a popular ‘tourist
spot’: now other public administrations
and private association representatives
want to assess the feasibility
and impact of building similar plants
on their territories.
The
layout of territorial policy files
The above general comments
seek to provide understanding on how
the explanatory files on territorial
policy have been set up. These files
consist of:
- An introductory
note giving
the history and
architectural description
and main characteristics
of the generating
plant;
- A ‘geographic’ description that
seeks to identify
the general ecological
elements that are
important for territorial
policy planning in
connection with each
specific plant;
- A note on the likely presence in
the surroundings
of this plant of
any restrictions
that are important
from a historical,
cultural or ecological
point of view (for
example, an industrial
archaeology system
strongly linked to
the plant’s
presence). These
restrictions contribute
to place the power
plant in a context
of wider interest,
and therefore connecting
to the territorial
policy for developing
the power station;
- A section dedicated
to territorial policy
that pays particular
attention to any
existing policies
that might exist
on the educational,
tourist or cultural
value-added of power
plants.
In a few cases either
the ‘geographic’ sections
or the sections regarding ‘presence’ have
been left out. This does
not necessarily mean
that this information
is not interesting from
the historical, tourist,
landscape or ecological
points of view; however
it might indicate that
these elements have not
been considered important
in the development policy
for these power plants
for the reasons mentioned
above. |
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Taccani’s hydroelectric
power plant is at
the center of numerous initiatives of didactic, tourist and cultural
valorization. Beyond a significant architectonic
value , the plant is placed in a rich industrial
archaeology context, developed mostly between the end
of XIXth and the beginning of XXth century along the Adda river.
Great part of the plant’s valorization initiatives was
presented by the North Adda Park management
body.
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Historical Notes
Taccani’s
hydroelectric power plant is located in Trezzo, on the Adda
river, at the foot of Visconti’s
castle western escarpment. The plant was built up around
1906 for the manufacturer Cristoforo Benigno Crespi will,
the owner of an omonym textile factory in Crespi d’Adda,
few kilometers southward the river. The project was entrusted
to architect Gaetano
Moretti who worked in close collaboration with engineer
Adolph Corvi, in charge of technical side . The alliance
between engineering and architecture is
characteristic for the first years of XXth century when a belief
was strong that the industrial buildings, positive signs of
progress, had to be ennobled by an accurate stydying of forms.
Crespi requested the plant’s insertion in the river landscape
in order to avoide excessive visual effect. That’s why,
the structure in concrete was completely covered with stone
extracted from the river. The numerous openings; the thick
indentations of the facade and of external ornament; the embattled
crowning recalling the shapes of above-situated castle echo
a variety of eclectic forms and allow to
minimize the building’s showy volumes and to insert them
in the surroundings’ chiaroscuro.
Between the end of
XIXth and
the beginning of the last century the exploitation
of the river’s hydric power called forth the deep
territorial, economic, productive and social transformation
of the area . To the first spinning, paper and flour
mills joined more and more complex plants, infrastructures
and industrial villages. Between Brivio and Rivolta of Adda,
were constructed other seven hydroelectric
power plants , all opened between 1895 and 1928.
Today
the power plant and its numerous vestiges of industrial
archaeology along that stretch of Adda together
with the natural patrimony of river and surrounding territory
is the target of environmental,landscape and tourist valorization
initiatives of the area, protected by creation of the Adda
North Park.
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"Geography" and
territory: the river
This area has an indissoluble bond with
the river. Adda
was always an important communication route between the upper
and lower Lombard plain; and for many years also a natural
border between the Duchy of Milan and Republic of Venice.
There are numerous vestiges of fortifications constructed
for the river area defence.
One of them, the Viscontis’ castle
of Trezzo of Adda, as says the legend, was built up by Teodolinda,
a Queen of Lombardy. 90 kilometers of navigable canals with
their 25 locks crossed the territory of Milan between 1457
and 1475. Among them, the Martesana canal , wished
by Francesco Sforza to connect the river to Milan,. The canal
was realized only after 1574, under Ludovic the Moor reign. Leonard
da Vinci in 1482 studied improvements to this canals’ network.
In the middle of 16th century the Engineer Meda found how to
overcome more than 23 meters of Paderno’s rapids rise.
He devised the "Basin of Castello" which became the Paderno’s
Canal under the rule of Maria Teresa of Austria. Between
1887 and 1889 was realized one of the symbols of Italian engineering:
the iron bridge "San Michele" that
connects Paderno and Calusco d’Adda. The river plays
in these years a leading role in the industrialization
process. In this period started to arise spinning,
flour and paper mills. They used the force of water to move
the machinery and thus rid the region of the foreign coal consumption.
From 1895 until 1928 between Brivio and Rivolta d’ Adda
arose eight hydroelectric power plants. Nowadays, these industrial
archaeology vestiges and great naturalistic value of the river
make this zone an important target of landscape and environment
safeguard.
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Presences
Between Brivio and Rivolta of Adda, eight
hydroelectric power plants were constructed between
1895 and 1928. The most important among them, after the
Taccani power plant, are the Bertini plant in Porto d’Adda,
inaugurated in 1898; and the Esterle power plant in Cornate
d'Adda, opened in 1910. Both are characterized by their
monumental neo-renaissance style.
The Paderno’s
iron bridge, with
its 266 meters of lights and two-level (railroad and
highroad) structure, is one of the symbols of engineering
progress of the end of XIXth century. To testify an economic
and industrial progress of the Lombard society during
the last century, can be cited the Velvis Velvets
Plant of Vaprio; the Cassano National
Linen and Hemp mill; and the Molinazzo
and Abegg spinning factories of Garlate and Brivio.
A particular case represents instead the Crespi’s
cotton mill, constructed on the banks of Adda
river in 1877. Beside the factory, on the initiative
of Cristoforo Benigno Crespi, arose in 1890 an homonymous “ideal
industrial villagge". In this village the
phylantropy, paternalism and reformist ideology of predominant
Anglo-Saxon inspiration correlated with economic interest
for a control of the labour. Crespi d’Adda was
organized according to a rigid hierarchy. The factory
was located at the city center and a road was separating
the working places from the residences and leisure infrastructures.
The houses, ( large-family houses for workers , mono
and bi-family town houses for clerks and even the Crespi’s
villa-castle) were settled in function of their relevance,
most prestigious were located farer from the factory.
The disposition of graves on the village’s cemetery
and their decreasing monumentality mirrored the hierarchies
as well. In 1995 UNESCO recognized the
village as "Patrimony of humanity".
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Tourist and cultural
valorization policies and projects
The main initiatives of the area protection and valorization
born from creation of the North Adda Park and
of relevant Territorial Coordination Plan (TCP). The
Park has been instituted in 1983 by the Region of Lombardy
and is managed by a consortium of 32 Communes and Provinces
of Bergamo, Lecco and Milan. The protected area comprises
Adda’s territories along a stretch, which crosses
the plain downhill from the Lecco Lake until Truccazzano,
for more than 50 kilometers. The Park’s
management body joints to the most traditional naturalistic
and ecological protection projects
a number of safeguard, conservation and valorization
initiatives of important industrial archaeology
vestiges. Also can be mentionned a tourist itineraries
project along the Adda and equipping of varied sports
infrastructures: cycle and walking tracks; climbing
practice walls; and several runs . Five Park’ study
centers offer information points and panels,
classrooms, libraries, didactic farm as well as the congress
and exhibition centre.
The park’s
TCP clauses have been immediately integrated into the The
General Regulatory Plan (PRG) of
involved Communes and replaced the unlike clauses of the Province
of Milan Territorial Coordination Plan (TPCP) that had included the aforesaid area within the "Martesana-Adda" territory.
The TPCP provides for the development of cycle and walking
tracks between the historic monuments and green spaces; and
at least two important projects: rehabilitation of disused
flax and hemp mill in Cassano d'Adda and valorization of the
Leonardesque Adda’s landscape. In the frame of the first
project is under consideration the realisation of a Technopark (technology,
production and research centre) and a Museum of Energy
and Water. These initiatives are integrated in the
so-called "Vie d'acqua viventi" project (Ways of
Living Waters), approved in 1998 by the European Commission
within the Structural Funds program "Earth" and
aimed to create an international research and experimentation
network for the development and recovery of peripheral watercourses
in Europe.
ENEL included the Trezzo power plant in its project "Open
Plant" started in 2002: 30 Italian power stations, representative
of different electric power productions (hydroelectric, thermal,
wind, geothermal) are open to public.
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Bibliography
and websites:
- AA.VV., Archeologia
industriale in Lombardia,
Edited by Mediocredito Regionale Lombardo, Milano, 1981
- Grandi
M., Pracchi A. (1980),
Milano, guida all'architettura
moderna,
Zanichelli, Milano.
- Provincia di Bergamo (2002),
Aree
protette in Provincia di Bergamo.
-
Provincia di Milano (2003),
Le schede
del Piano Territoriale di Coordinamento Provinciale. L'ambito
Adda-Martesana.
www.comune.trezzosulladda.it
www.parks.it
www.provicia.milano.it/pianificazione
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