Here are a couple of stunning entries from Italy's Solar Park South design competition, which sought environmentally-friendly proposals that could be integrated into the Salerno-Reggio Calabria highway.
The winning entry (from the French quartet of Philippe Rizzotti, Vermet Tanguy, Manal Rachdi, and Samuel Nageotte) proposed a "vertical village" built into one of the highway's bridge structures in a volcanically active area. Geothermal power would provide juice for inhabitants, and the verticality of the structures would provide a good use of what's normally dead space occupied by pilings. Large horizontal decks would provide both public space and a means of capturing rainwater.
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