The international competition on urban planning for the new Cornaredo district (NQC) wishes to offer a moment of reflection on the search for innovative solutions to the development of a new “gateway” for the city of Lugano in an area with great development potential.
Since July 2012, given the opening of the “Vedeggio-Cassarate “ tunnel (3km-long), the north sector of the urban center is directly connected to the motorway. This has allowed the Cornaredo district, one of the suburbs, to be open to new development perspectives . The new Cornaredo district (NQC), which covers approximately 1 million square meters, will become the new “gateway” to the urban center, because it will permit to solve important functional requirements related to the new road link, such including a large intermodal node with park-and-ride facilities for commuters.
The agglomeration of Lugano is one of the most important urban and economic centres in Switzerland. The aim of the international competition was to find urban planning solutions for the one million square metres of the NQC, which will prove attractive for both users and investors. The winning entry, which integrate the functional requirements of mobility with the formal aspects of qualitative urban development, resulted in a Masterplan NQC. In June 2010, the local Zoning plan was approved by authorities, and the implementation is delegated to the NQC Agency, that has been operating since 2012.