Il disegno di luoghi e mercati a Torino

Turin is one of the cities in Italy with the highest number of markets. The Balôn, Porta Palazzo, Crocetta, piazza Benefica, piazza Bengasi, and Santa Rita - these are places that the Turinese know mainly because they are the sites of important markets. As markets interact with their settings, they go about influencing how these spaces are used. Thus they help draw an image of the spaces they occupy in the minds of city dwellers. This was also true in the past, when the piazzas of the old city center were sites of lively traveling street markets that no longer exist or have moved elsewhere. This book approaches markets from a contemporary as well as a historical perspective as its authors analyze market design over the centuries.
They offer us a mapping of Turin's market areas that acquaints readers with each market's uniqueness as well as its links with its urban surroundings. This mapping is done with various tools - designs, surveys, graphic digital images, and computer data analysis. This research project was conducted in relation to the Turin city government's general plan for upgrading market areas. The plan is a means of gathering the whole traveling street market system into a single project, of balancing the supply and demand, and of guaranteeing that every area of the city is adequately served. The book puts a special focus on the Porta Palazzo and Balôn markets with their unique historical tradition, vitality, and identity. These two markets occupy a space important for their economic worth and their value to the cityscape. However, they are more important for the construction of the social fabric as points of interest and encounter.