Neapolitanizing Municipio - Concert Hall Part 2 Project 2001 Robert PrewettSelamije Dauti University of Bath | UK At an urban scale the project attempts to grapple with the diverse demands and context that one now finds in Naples. The aim was to reconnect the city at large with the waterfront and its historic fabric, by creating a new sequence of urban places.The setting of two large urban blocks with a public programme (music) provided for a festive and shared symbol that celebrated the latent performance talent in the region.Such a programme also related to the kind of activities that used to take place in this area, though perhaps now in more a democratic vain. The same can be said for the references to Neo-classical architecture that are unashamedly apparent. The project sums up my general appraoch: a belief in the poetry of abstraction, while remaining pragmatic and never being afraid to using what one finds around. The combined project of these two students addresses the contemporary uses of urban space and the scale appropriate to a historic and living city. Their designs made a bold attempt to re-form and re-urbanise the central part of Naples in Italy, the Piazza Municipo and Piazza del Castello Nuovo in Naples, which have become neglected and abandoned as meaningful urban spaces. Their specific concern was with the castle (castello), the municipal building (municipo), the sea front and harbour, the local urban fabric and the spaces in-between. They proposed the careful insertion of a number of city blocks, two of which they designed in detail. One student designed a dance school and the other a music complex.The beauty of their projects is in the individual design of each building and in the design of the urban spaces between them. Their response to the scale and power of the castle is both sensitive and positive. Their intervention is subtle and modern, and it recharges - revivifies - an outdated urban environment.