This article is part of our Local Challenges series for Placemaking Week Europe 2025 in Reggio Emilia, where we explore five urban questions shaping the city’s future.
How can yesterday’s infrastructure become tomorrow’s civic platform?
From car-first relic to civic innovation hub. This local challenge is all about reimagining the Ex Gasometro as a shared space for mobility, youth, and community. In the historic city heart of Reggio Emilia, one finds the Ex Gasometro, which is an unused three-story parking structure—an artifact of a car-first era. The site is strategically located between key neighbourhoods, which offers an opportunity to test new ways of using public space, mixing functions, and enabling urban transitions.
Could it be reprogrammed as a hub for mobility innovation, shared governance, and urban experimentation? As a participant, you will engage with ideas of hybridisation, youth-oriented spaces, and proximity-based services, while reimagining Ex-Gasometro as a mobility node and multifunctional civic asset.
By connecting the site to the city’s wider mobility flows and rethinking infrastructure as a platform for experimentation, the Ex-Gasometro could become a model for adaptive urban transformation.
Next in the series: Discover how Via Roma and Parco Santa Maria can become a vibrant multicultural corridor.
