It began as a housing marvel engineered by a foreign architect in the suburb of an Italian city. Forty years later, it is a run down architectural experiment, taking its toll on a population fighting for survival.
In the late 1950s, a small group of young Japanese architects and designers joined forces under the title of "Metabolism". Their vision for cities of the future inhabited by a mass society was characterized by large scale, flexible, and expandable structures that evoked the processes of organic growth. They believed that architecture must be changeable, moveable and capable of meeting both continuous technological improvements and changing social needs.
One of the most renowned followers of Metabolism was architect Kenzo Tange. In 1969, Mr. Tange was selected to build what was envisioned to be a large residential area in the South East part of Catania (Italy). Such project was to incorporate and enhance the principles of Metabolism, creating a technically advanced and functional suburb, ready to accommodate the needs of its population.
Under the pressure of a growing population and the need for modernisation of its infrastructure, the mayor of Catania decided to exploit the grounds of Librino to build a city that would host 60,000 people. Librino, originally a vineyard area, was intended to be built with all necessary infrastructure for the suburb to be independent from the main city i.e. schools, shopping areas, churches, parks, sport facilities, and all necessary amenities.
The project was finalised at the beginning of the 70s and construction was already ongoing by the late 70s beginning of the 80s. Building construction was allocated by the mayor to local cooperatives. From its beginnings, the “new city” attracted middle class families and working couples looking for a convenient area to live close to the city centre.
By the late 90s, it became evident that the housing marvel envisioned by Kenzo Tange was not going to be completed. Lack of financial support by the government, local political void, and widespread corruption contributed to bring the building works to a standstill and left the area without the necessary planning supervision to develop. Librino fell into a downward spiral of vacancy, vandalism and crime that made it into a residential suburb lacking any independence from the city centre and most importantly lacking any social infrastructure.
Nowadays, most of the buildings are “occupied” by a growing population that is almost double compared to their initial projected capacity. Lack of maintenance and investment leads buildings to rot and fall into the hands of the local criminality which uses them for its own business. It is interesting to note that headquarters of Librino’s criminality are an unfinished high-rise cement building.
This reportage tells the story of Librino and its people by looking at its “metabolic” architecture. Although not in the sense that Kenzo Tange envisioned, Librino has metabolised the local social/political/economical tensions and changed/adapted.
Differently from other famous failures of social architecture such as the Pruitt Igoe in US, Librino has not received the media attention that it deserves. Such a mix of international architecture (Kenzo Tange), national political issues (missing financing from government and political void), and local social traits (i.e. criminality, and social stagnation) make Librino an example of all social architecture experiments in Italy, and a paradigm of the social tensions building up in numerous of these suburbs all around Italy and Europe.
The striking contrast between the unfinished buildings, the run down social infrastructure, the dirt on the streets and the decency and tidiness of the interiors where the people of Librino live, show how a poor, growing population segregated in the suburbs of old cities still strives for civil recognition and a decent lifestyle.
Although access to this area is limited due to the widespread criminal presence, this reportage has been possible though the help of local families that supported such story in order to express their desire for change.
The facades, the ruins of unfinished fitness centres and schools, and the interiors of several houses have come to represent the face and the expressions of the people living in them. The reportage willingly avoids showing the inhabitants of Librino to allow its spectators to focus on how the people have changed its structures and what life can be lived amongst those buildings.
This reportage does not intend to criticise the status quo but simply to show it, and leave the audience to dwell on the social tensions building up all around Europe in several of these suburbs forgotten or hidden behind the striking lights of city centres. Librino is not only an example of suburb, it is the result of how cities have changed, and how governments have decided to avoid confrontation with growing social issues.
