Attraction, Intensity, Synergy: Arts at the Service of Mixed-Use Development

What makes a city attractive is a fascinating pursuit. Contemporary cities suffer from “ghost cities” affliction. The reasons of the disease may be different; a city built up in a short period does not give the time to the inhabitants to contribute with their culture, no roots, no personality, no vitality. A city outside the infrastructural system make its inhabitants excluded, gated communities without any interaction. A city with segregated functions reduces the city-life to certain times of the day or of the season. Even if the problems are widely clear the solution still has to be investigated. Mixed-Use Development deserves to be taken into account as a possible answer, not just as a tool for improving the cooperation of functions in the building itself, but to be considered as a whole system to be applied all over the city, implemented by effective corridors and infrastructures to generate a working organism that merges in a common three-dimensional space the synergy of a whole city. This research deeply studies what Mixed-Use really means, its historical evolution and the results reached in this field in order to achieve a general and comprehensive overview of the topic that sums up the successful elements to follow. . A special attention is paid to three main aspects. Artistic and cultural facilities importance. It is inspired by the greatness of artistic cities which beauty survives among time and attracts tourist from the whole world. It is seen as a driving tool for functions cooperation: in commercial and leisure services particularly. Connection to the urban context. It is a fundamental topic of the whole research. The importance of the integration between the building and the existing system determines the success of the building itself. Public spaces. The connections and the art and culture integrations are part of a general strategy to make public space penetrate indoor spaces. The modern city cannot be divided anymore in inside and outside, they all work together occupying not only the straight field but also the vertical space moving upwards the horizon of the city itself The research outcomes will be the starting point for the design project applied to K11, an avant-gardist shopping mall, office tower, museum, green space, restaurant that experimented the mixed-use integrating the beauty of arts into its spaces. The project tries to improve K11’s system with the improvement and integration of its parts.