Piazza Matteotti is characterized as follows. At the extreme northeast is the nineteenth-century building housing the Scandicci library, but which originally housed the municipal offices and elementary school. In the center of the piazza is an imposing monument, erected in 1926 by what was then the municipality of Casellina and Torri, to those fallen in World War I.
It is exactly because of this peculiar characterization that the project assumes a series of minimal, necessary, and sufficient operations for the arrangement of the piazza.
Mindful of the desire to reinforce the character of the piazza, extending it up to the neighboring Piazza Piave and the former City Hall, the plan involves the restoration and re-design of the pavement, illumination, and furnishings of the piazza.
The neighborhood around the piazza, inhabited by artisans and artists mindful of social rites and daily rhythms, retains the vivacity of weekly markets, the periodic cadence of the antique trade, and the ritual of the afternoon encounter for a chat and a coffee.
Underlining this dynamism does not imply distorting the nature of the piazza, but rather strengthening livability for the people of the quarter: whether seated or walking, seeking shelter from the sun or enjoying the games of children. In this way the piazza renews and encourages social contact.
The project aims to restore the architectural complex to a vision that recovers the preexisting and couples it with today.
The piazza is no longer a mirror of its surrounding buildings, but is now itself something to observe. «