Sarah De La Cruz

Lake Como is a small lake town famous for both international and domestic tourism. The quiet village is known for its picturistic lake and its beautiful mountain ranges.
Our studio concentrated on resolving a problem area on the Eastside. A strip of where the old part of the city meets the newer part of the town. The site, which is divided by train tracks, is known to be a traffic and pedestrian magnet because of poor planning. 
Two of the most important buildings sit in the zone: the cathedral and the Ex-Casa del Fascio. Initial planning by architect Giuseppe Terragni laid the foundations for the Casa to be connected visually to the Catherdral, but his intricate planning was not realized. However, the train heavily disconnects these two buildings.  
For my resolution of the situation, I took a step further. Although Como welcomes its tourist, there has been an alarming situation amongst the locals. Because of where the train station is (it is about one block away from the lake), Tourists are heading straight for the lake and provide little business to the shops there. 
My solution is to move the train station from before the lake to a small park a few meters from the cathedral. This resolves issues of hazardous pedestrians crossing and gives more ways for traffic to be redirected and resolved. Another plus by moving the train is that it creates more opportunities for people to move into the city from the train station and provide more business while making their way to the lake. 
With the land that has been free from the train, I propose a park to be placed, where locals and pedestrians can enjoy an open green space. Trees that are placed are set using a grid that has been taken from the old city grid, this also connects the old part of the city to the new part, and the ancient city grid extends into the new part simply by using trees.