Airolo, after 100 years... Back to the future!
Andrea Kuepfer
Airolo is a historic hub in the heart of the region of Gottardo, where the almost uncontaminated Bedretto Valley meets the Leventina Valley. During the years this area was fragmented by different linear infrastructures such as the railway, the A2 motorway, the canalization of Ticino River or the construction of the Airolo basin. Therefore the connection between the two sides of the valley is very hard. The entire planning concept for the redevelopment of the Airolo valley offers the ideal vision of a restored district where the fragmentation produced by infrastructures is replaced by a vast naturalistic and leisure zone. Airolo can emerge from its infrastructural cage and revalue its landscape trough airy, flat green-fields, new woodland areas, functional and sport fields, an accessible and restored riverbank.