Porta Palazzo is a short distance from the
historic centre of Torino, in fact it is with its boundaries. Yet it
is made to feel as if it were in the suburbs. From the beginning The
Gate project has been working so that the people of Torino return and
live in Porta Palazzo rather than just pass through it. To recreate
this link between the neighbourhood and the city, but also to overcome
the limits of the city boundaries, culture and tourism are preferential
tools to be used. Starting with the riches that the neighbourhood has
to offer, in terms of history and traditions, but above all in spaces
where culture can be developed, the project is working to promote the
neighbourhood as a cultural and tourist resource for the city by continuing
its initiatives valorising, connecting and supporting cultural development
in a creative multi-ethnic environment in which leisure and free time
find opportunity.
The fascination of transformation
In recent years Porta Palazzo has often been the subject of study and
research by university students and specialists and, it has been a source
of curiosity for foreigners and tourists. It has often been the focal
point of visits by foreign delegations who wanted to gain knowledge
of the neighbourhood.
The Gate Project is now working to organise routes through the streets
of the area to make the most of the regeneration that has already been
completed and to raise interest in that which is still underway. The
proposal is aimed at professionals as well as the curious and tourists
The Balôn - a well of resources
There are many initiatives by cultural associations or the traders of
the Borgo Dora area to promote the area of the Balôn through artistic-cultural
shows. The Gate Project aims to support these initiatives, by offering
logistic and organisational support to the associations, linking up
the various inputs, in order to create a common programme for the promotion
of the area.
Cultural spaces: the resources of the neighbourhood at the service
of culture
Porta Palazzo has always had a central role in the way of life in Torino.
As a neighbourhood, it has been interpreted as a suburb, but in reality
it belongs, by right, to the historic nucleus of Torino. For newcomers
who first visit Porta Palazzo the neighbourhood seems to be teeming
with popular life, voices, smells, flavours, colours, within a context
that recalls its historic tradition, the memory of daily life as it
has been repeated day after day for decades.
However, for the people of Torino, Porta Palazzo is also a place to
avoid, especially at night, a place to pass through quickly as they
make their way home. In this way the wealth of the neighbourhood is
lost, mixed in with a sense of degradation and fear.
The Gate Project is trying to work on this aspect, the links of the
neighbourhood with the rest of the city: bringing back the people of
Torino to visit and to live in the area. The project wants to propose
a structured and systematic re-launch of the neighbourhood as a theatre
for artistic and cultural shows. The numerous interventions in building
and urban regeneration, the commercial revival with the opening of numerous
new activities, the interest that has been shown by the public and private
sectors through their investments in the area have triggered a revival
process that could re-awaken the attention of the cultural world for
an area rich in resources and spaces that are suitable to be used and
lived for these kinds of initiatives.