Rigenerare le periferie urbane di Bari: PICTOR OPTIMUS, un coworking hub delle arti pittoriche nel quartiere Poggiofranco [Regenerating urban peripheries of Bari: PICTOR OPTIMUS, a coworking pictorial art hub in Poggiofranco district]

Cities, over the years, have radically changed their conformation. At the same time, the dynamism of building interventions in the urban suburbs has led to an uncontrolled expansion of the urban apparatus, generating within the marginal contexts satellite dormitory neighbourhoods partially or totally independent and detached from the metropolitan life. The wildfire development phenomenon of the cities, characterizing the urban policies of the Seventies of the XX century, has left unused urban voids or agricultural plots, called wastescapes, which accentuate the already rooted gap between center and periphery. The strategies of reorganization of the anthropized territory and the processes of sustainable regeneration of peripheral urban settlements implement interventions aimed at defining innovative projects in the filter spaces set in the consolidated suburbs of contemporary metropolises, renewing the most socially and functionally fragile territories or strengthening the districts already equipped with services, public spaces and green areas. The research deals with the theme of urban regeneration focusing on a model of transformation of the Bari suburbs and, more specifically, of the Poggiofranco district for educational and cultural purposes. The Pictor Optimus project is the result of careful morphological, infrastructural, social and environmental analyses that have allowed the formulation of a sustainable architectural project of coworking pictorial art hub focused on the production and exhibition of graphic and pictorial arts and on the study of painting techniques and use of raw materials. The aim of this architectural plan is to enhance the cultural and artistic offer in the city of Bari, mending a fragmented urban fabric over the years. The thoughtful and rational use of latent resources scattered throughout the territory must be considered a feasible modus operandi to develop smart models of the city of tomorrow.