PUJ - Prato Urban Jungle

Reintegrating nature and natural processes into built areas through nature-based infrastructures is being increasingly considered as a solution to land use challenges in cities. The Prato Urban Jungle project fosters creative and visionary urban design for re-naturing Prato’s neighbourhoods in a sustainable and socially inclusive way.
Urban Jungles are high-densely green re-designed areas, immersed in the urban structure, that multiply the natural capacity of plants to abate pollutants, while restoring unused soil and space to community fruition, turning marginal and decadent areas into life-giving green active hubs within the city. They will constitute a ground-breaking solution for sustainable land use within the city
Urban Jungles will be developed in three areas:
-    The 1st pilot will create the Urban Jungle in a company-owned area. The ESTRA building and surroundings located in a complex area, overlooking the busiest thoroughfare with a daily transit of 50,000 vehicles.
-    The 2nd pilot will affect a highly populated and social housing area, with social marginality. A complex building with 152 dwellings inhabited by around 500 people will be the testbed for this pilot.
-    The 3rd pilot will focus on Macrolotto 0, a former industrial area with underutilized spaces; the target area is close to the Macrolotto Creative District and the new metropolitan market that are being rebuilt through another ERDF urban regeneration project.
The project will adopt a community-led approach to designing, developing and maintaining the Urban Jungles, through the creation of Green Hubs or innovative communities of stakeholders, citizens, businesses, civil society actors that will mobilise the urban creativity and resources to nurture the Urban Jungles.