Interreg AI SMART provides an infrastructural interventions for the requalification of port areas in the Municipality of Mola di Bari.
The port, characterized by the presence of several fishing boats that represent a strong tourist attraction, has two piers, one to the east and one to the west. The infrastructural intervention concerns the first section of the Ponente pier for a length of about 200 meters, which consists of a seawall that divides the pier into two portions: a quay on the port side and a quay on the seaside. The purpose of the intervention is to increase the tourist attractiveness and competitiveness factors of the place reached through the enhancement of traditional economic activities and cultural, historical and architectural resources. The design idea of the redevelopment of the western pier, consistent with a land-sea engagement strategy already initiated by the Municipality of Mola di Bari with the implementation of important projects, develops around the concept of public space, intended as a collective place.
The pier, once redeveloped and reorganized, becomes a landscape infrastructure, a predominantly pedestrian area, a promenade with a viewpoint over the port, a passenger hub, an area that can be easily equipped for aggregative activities, characterized by green and usable spaces. The new system involves the creation of a path parallel to the existing walkway through a floating floor useful for creating a carpet-platform that delimits the space of the museum itinerary to which urban furniture is added, a pedestrian shelter (light steel structure), structurally independent from the existing pier, having a height of 3.70 meters which will house the passenger hub.
The project will enhance the system of existing stone arches through the installation of backlit Corten steel panels to tell the history of the area, emphasizing its fishing tradition and its tourist and economic vocation linked to the activities of the sea. The second intervention concerns the redevelopment and renovation of the existing former Port Authority building, located in the entrance area of the pier, currently in a state of decay and without security systems. The project includes, within this building, the construction of a conference room, offices, info point and tourist services. The aim of the intervention is to create a new public space, equipped rest areas, an exhibition of Land Art installations that add aesthetic and cultural value to the naturalistic/productive infrastructural system of the port, allowing citizens and tourists to enjoy and experience the place as an integral part of the city of Mola di Bari.