On the re-claimed ground between the docks which supplied the raw materials for the steelworks, a series of interlinked process-oriented vessels are embedded between raised boardwalks and basins set into the re-claimed ground between the docks which supplied the Italsider steelworks. Swimming pools, a wastewater treatment plant(WWTP), and a pumping station for seawater injection wells work down into the contaminated ground below, cleaning the soil. Elevated walkways prevent visitors from disturbing untreated soil and provide growing facilities for plants not yet mature enough to cope with the lingering toxicity of the ground water. Solid fins carry support facilities, changing spaces, and infrastructure; they subdivide and structure the landscape. Lightweight steel and timber vessels above house on-site management facilities, a conference centre, and shelters for the botanical nurseries. The ground becomes multi-layered, with each layer offering the local community access to a new urban landscape, rehabilitated through slow processes of bioremediation and urban regeneration. Such access raises awareness of the damage caused by industrial processes, and recognises the significant part that industrial processes will have to play in delivering coastal regeneration schemes and increasing climate resilience.
Framed by this balance of reflection and projection, Vectors and Vessels of Bagnoli imagines Bagnoli as a forest, of trees, water and animal life. It imagines people jump into swimming pools, supported by sustainable water infrastructures, birds and insects pollinating the landscape, and fish returning to once-polluted waters. It sees a research vessel and tourist ferry departing for the islands in the bay from a new dock, which re-figures this contaminated coastal edge.
