Kenzo Tange's Business Dicrtict of Naples. Past and Future of a spectacular Modernity

In obvious contrast with the surrounding urban context, the Naples Business District has long been the subject of criticism and is still today a crucial point on the different interpretations of the contemporary city, for its extreme modernity considered for a long time too conflictual with the traditional characteristics of the historical city around it. Yet, the Directional Center still constitutes an exceptional unicum, concentrating within it a multitude of different activities, as well as being a residential area densely inhabited. There are many unresolved questions regarding the restoration operations it needs, technological obsolescence and physical deterioration and incompatibility with current energy standards. The paper, based on a careful historical reconstruction of the project’s history and the various steps taken, aims to redefine the processes of correlation, appropriation, relationship and synthesis between the Neapolitan building tradition and the values of extreme modernity contained in this work, which has become an integral part of a controversial city like Naples, that Tange’s plan has projected, perhaps for the first time, into a tangible future dimension.