Macrolotto Zero is the third pilot area of the Prato Urban Jungle project. The Prato Urban Jungle intervention has been carried out in the Metropolitan Market and has been part of an even broader plan of redevelopment of the neighbourhood carried out by the municipal administration through the implementation of services and the creation of new buildings and public spaces for study, meeting, trade and outdoor activities. In this historic neighbourhood characterized by underutilized spaces, the City is also completing a cultural and social innovation project of urban regeneration (PIU) financed by the ERDF.
In Macrolotto zero a city market has been built, whose facades have been covered with plants and whose air has been purified by the largest Air Factory ever built. It has been possible to consume local products and enjoy the benefits of a space regenerated by plants. Thanks to the plants, we have brought air quality, sociability and value to the former industrial area. " The project for the city market in Macrolotto Zero has been divided into various interventions of plant-based solutions. The external surfaces of the former industrial warehouse have been covered with plants managed with low-maintenance technologies, and the open spaces have been re-naturalized. These interventions have generated benefits in terms of regulation of the environmental microclimate, temperature mitigation, air quality, thermal and acoustic insulation and rainwater regulation. The conversion of the former industrial warehouse, in which the market was created, has been a model of reuse of the abandoned industrial heritage of Prato. Plants have been the technological and vital fulcrum of the space, the first Prato example of highly innovative biophilic design. The interior spaces have hosted a market for local agricultural products and a large Air Factory, a system designed and developed by PNAT to completely remove air pollutants through plants. In this way the whole building has enjoyed a healthy and comfortable environment: between ficus, kentia, monstere and luxuriant strelizie, you could buy vegetables grown at km 0, consume local foods and spend time in a real Urban Jungle, enjoying of the psycho-physical benefits of a full immersion in nature.