The project is one of the underground car parks realized on municipal-owned land following public tenders and the granting of surface rights.

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Piazza Rapisardi, which occupies a trapezoidal area of approximately 2,500 sq. m. on the eastern edge of the Pegli district, constitutes a sort of eastern entrance to the town centre.

 

Over the years, various changes in use and layout have erased the image of the public square, transforming it into a "largo" (open space) used for parking, which once a week hosted the local market. The materials applied, such as the bituminous paving, and advanced degradation over time, further contributed to its impoverishment.

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The administration's desire to restore the square to its original use with private funding motivated the public design competition for the construction of an underground car park for 68 individual garages (boxes) and the subsequent redevelopment of the square.

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The preponderant structural challenge was of a geotechnical nature due to the necessity of carrying out the excavation in the presence of a strong water table, requiring a depth of approximately 7 meters at a distance of about 50 meters from the sea.

 

The technique used to reach the bottom of the excavation involved the use of diaphragm walls combined with water pumping through three large-diameter wells.

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The architectural aspect was carefully addressed in the definition of the new road system, the attention to the choices for the new emerging volumes, and the selection of materials for the paving and cladding, aiming to resolve both the aesthetic and functional aspects.

 

For the materials, the choice was directed towards resistant porphyry cubes for the paving, long-lasting materials such as pink granite for the cladding, and transparent materials like glass for the emerging structures. The suspended cable lighting system was replaced with the typical Genoa lampposts.