(29 February, 2016) The students of the University of Cagliari bring home a new international success, after attending in recent days in Vienna the 13th edition of the international design competition “Europan”, aimed at young designers under 40. The team, composed of Francesco Marras, PhD student in the Department of Civil, Environmental and Architecture Engineering (DICAAR) of the University of Cagliari and seven other fellows and graduate students in Architecture, received the most coveted award of the evening: first prize. Celebrated every two years, “Europan” is the most prestigious European award bringing together this year 15 different European countries, with 1,305 submitted projects (by a total of 90 young architects from over 11 nations) for about forty sites, 35 of which for St.Polten near Vienna. The project presented by the University of Cagliari involves the design of a new housing system (150 in the first phase, 500 in the final stage) in a marginal site of the city, a polluted area that once hosted a Nazi labor camp, subject to frequent flooding, located between the railway and the river. The project is based on the design of detention basins and canals that form the foundation of the new housing system, and explores the relationship between landscape, urban development and habitats in line with Europan’s expectations, addressing the complexity of the marginal and peri-urban areas of contemporary cities. (Red)
