Il tondo come metafora

The port of Ischia can be considered the island’s most representative space. It echoes all of the critical elements faced by the island and is both an outpost and a showcase. Yet its character and unique environment now require a drastic reassessment. A reassessment necessary to protect the port against a now wholly disproportionate use that compromises both the quality of its spaces and its very functionality. This text, and the two projects it presents, foreshadow a new territorial equilibrium that, thanks precisely to the uniqueness of the port of Ischia, has the ability to generate reverberations across the entire island. The role of the port as a traffic hub cannot ignore its intimate and introverted character. This in order to safeguard its nature and identify a new equilibrium with the activities it hosts. The projects for functional declassification proposed for the port of Ischia and the structural enhancement of Casamicciola harbour are designed to establish a new balance between the island’s two primary landing points. The intention is to both safeguard and develop the island’s potentialities which are a direct result of the scale of mass tourism that, while demanding the optimisation of basic infrastructures, must also promote the preservation of the particular qualities of place.