Int. J. Environ. Res., 2(1): 1-12, Winter 2008ISSN: 1735-6865

Received 15 Aug. 2007; Revised 12 Oct. 2007; Accepted 27 Oct. 2007

1

Metropolitan and rural areas: Interscapes as Interfaces?

Micarelli, R.1* and Pizzioli, G.2

1 Atelier of Mediterranean Landscapes, Tuscany, Italy2 Dipartimento di Pianificazione Territoriale DUPT, University of Florence, Italy

ABSTRACT: The fringes areas interposed between metropolis and territorial ecosystems constitutea new sort of geography of urban sprawl. The difference between urban areas and their surroundingsis at present unrecognisable.From this new context, that represent a new life environment for a largepart of human population, new perceptive dynamics and new relationships emerge. Various socialmanifestations reveal unexpected potentialities, ideas, hopes and desires, ignored by traditionalpolitical or planning approaches. New interpretations and more profound approaches are necessaryto understand such a contemporary condition, where new Interfaces appear and new unexpectedlandscapes originate. From Interface and Landscape, originate a new Interscape where unexpectedrelationships and a new aesthetic arouse. Experimental appropriate approaches are essential to turnthis condition: sympathetic approaches, social perception, friendly reciprocal learning and action-research. These experiential activities involve experts, people, scientific and politicians leading eachother towards new dynamical interscape relationships, as our experiential researches demonstrate.

Key words: Life, Environment, Landscape, Interface, Interscape

INTRODUCTIONAs the satellite taken at night show, and stress

as a symbolic phenomenon, the landscape ofeveryday life for the citizens of the global world isnow constantly and hectically changing. The mapsof Europe, Italy and even Tuscany show howintrusive light has become in the rich, metropolitan,and industrialised areas, in sharp contrast with thedarkness of the territory excluded from the urbandevelopment. A continuous light belt, more or lessa kind of light seal, surrounds all the shoreline areas,while the spots representing the metropolitan areasget wider and wider as they invade the un-urbanareas soaked in the darkness (Fig. 1).

Those hyper-illuminated areas are equivalentto the metropolitan landscape that beingsurrounded by it we know very well. Those arethe landscapes forced every day on manypeople, the landscapes that lead to the verydecline of their perception through thedeterioration of the quality of life (Klee, 1959;Pizziolo, 2003a).

Many examples, though, show us that areaction to such a widespread phenomenon is stillpossible. More and more often we can see thereactions and notice some disagreement surfacingwith respect to the violent and unwanted changesof the life environment, and in many cases wecan directly participate to this reaction. A widevariety of approaches and ways to deal with thesephenomena matches different behaviours andways to show either the personal disagreementor one’s options with regard to the devastation ofmany life environments (Bateson, 1976).Such adirect participation (from the simple sharing of thedisagreements to the actual shared “actions”)means that also experts and politicians will haveto dedicate a very sensitive attention to thesituations, and fight in order to gain the trust andsympathy of the residents, learning and beingaware of the deep meaning of their lifeenvironment, ready to start working from theinside, with the residents, in an experiencing,dynamic, protective, and choral environmentmanaging process (Bateson, 1984).*Corresponding author: Email-rita.micarelli@libero.it

2

Fig. 4 . La Spezia (Liguria) 2005: The famous Gulfof the Poets and its surroundings have been overrun

by the activities of the docks

Micarelli, R. and Pizzioli, G .

MATERIALS & METHODSIn accordance with the European Convention,

landscapes can be conceived as complexphenomena, where human, natural life, and builtenvironments are evolving as one, showing theirdifferent characteristics, contrasts and dynamics.Consequently, it is possible to consider Landscapesalso the particular marginal condition wheredifferent realities meet, sometimes in exasperatecontradiction, as the following extreme cases show(Figs. 1-3).

Fig.1. Absence of citizens Piombino-TuscanyProximity of the industrial environment

Inhabitants and residents are “absent” or, quiteparadoxically, show up only when depicted on the

façades of the buildings

Otherwise citizens get together to complainand fight against repeated and serious attacks tomany historical, precious, and stimulating land-scapes which they feel their own. In Florencethere has been a daily fight against some deci-sions taken by the local administration; in La Speziaand in its bay area - The Gulf of the Poets andPainters- the residents are paying more and moreattention to the constant destruction of their lifeenvironment, by now surrendered to an industrialand harbour policy that is depriving them of theirlife environment (Fig.4), (Pizziolo, 2003b).

The examples we are going to show offermany possible ways to deal effectively with therealit ies of our world under constanttransformation, from the sensitive observationto the dialogue, to the friendly co-partnership,

Figs. 2 & 3. Presence of citizensFlorence 2004: presence of citizens at the rally,protesting against the alteration of the historic

fortress built by Giuliano da Sangallo

Int. J. Environ. Res., 2(1):1-12, Winter 2008

3

to a more structured research, to a research/actioninvolving the traditional competences(official experts) and everybody’s knowledge atthe same level.The links and approaches we haveimplemented, the reflections and elaborations thathave been tied in with our experiences involve awide variety of life environments and socialconditions. They range:• from almost desert urban landscapes, whichdiscourage people from visiting them (absence ofcitizens- in Tuscany, Piombino),• to places of disagreement (Florence), and• to places of imagination (not only protestingagainst devastation, but also suggesting new ideasand actual proposals, as the following exampleshows).

A group of scholars of La Spezia started aworkshop in order to think upon and counsel howto show off their reaction. In this experience theyimagined, projected and built a School in a ship,and a Restaurant for children, both located on thepleasant Promenade along the sea. For once, thegroup of scholars enjoyed the jeopardized seapromenade and invited the whole town to protectthat delightful paradise they share (Figs. 5 -9).

Fig. 5. Citizens react against these macro-technological interventions and propose micro

environmental new interventions as an alternative.Vezzano Ligure, a new panorama of containers

appears like a nightmare at the bottom of the village

• to places of affectivity (where it is possibleto appreciate and enjoy the landscape of one’sown), and in each reality some creative sceneriesmay appear (projects, actions, micro-transformations of the landscape, newenjoyments), as the citizens of Vezzano - a small

historic village, located among the Apuan Alps,the Magra River and the Gulf of the Poets-demonstrate through their creative activities. Agroup of citizens, while the port was spreading,got more and more concerned about the destinyof their life environment. It was at that momentthat they decided: We can react! “see Figures”

Figs. 6 & 7. The local groups welcome People,enjoying and showing their restored fountains

4

Metropolitan and rural areas : Interscapes as Interfaces?

Figs. 8 & 9 . La Spezia - LiguriaUrban promenade, June 2005

Therefore, against such an alteration, theyrediscovered their forgotten values and,progressively conscious of their beautiful village,they took care of their beautiful life environment,starting a new landscaping action. Ancientfountains, deeply and affectionately linked to localmemories, had been abandoned. The group re-discovered and restored all of them with aspontaneous project promoted by the inhabitants.

This interesting landscaping action begansome years ago and is still successfully practicedalso in other places of the local landscape.Everyyear local groups welcome visitors at theirfountains, dressed up in traditional clothes, readyto explain them their local traditions and to offergood snacks.Every fountain is gently preservedby the inhabitants… year after year, in a tangiblefascinating way, as a very choral landscapingaction (Wittgenstein, 1995).

RESULTS & DISCUSSIONNevertheless, it is necessary for these

phenomena to multiply and consolidate, so thateveryone who participates (experts and residents,old and young, schools and associations, politiciansand technicians) finds references and supports, inorder to develop research and action at the sametime in an open shape, unconventional, withmodalities belonging to the evolutionary processes.

From the impulsiveness of the reactions andsocial actions it is possible to get to organizedactivities, accepted by the institutions andacknowledged as permanent reference structures

for the citizens (active in the monitoring and socialprotection of the life environment of one’s ownbut also in the proposals and participation to itstransformation and managing).

The case studies we have followed so fardemonstrate that this is possible in each context.Everywhere many activities are practicable, andthey develop in an appropriate manner bothspontaneous activities and expert researches, andgo more deeply into the problems by way of thefurther following steps:

Social perceptionSelf-awareness of one’s own life styleand environmentCreativity and minimal proposalsResearch with expertsInvolvement and merging of competencesContinuum and resolution of socialprotectionsSpreading of cultural and socialphenomena of creative involvementInterlocution with institutions and politicalinstitutesChange in the traditionally acknowledgedinstruments:

The Research-Action takes root and grows onthese further progressive steps.

The research-action can be experimentedanywhere problematic conditions appear, and areprogressively implemented and propagated, fromthe level of the project both in small and widecontexts of life, to the building and garden scale,to the use of collective spaces (pedestrianization,traffic, areas for social use, etc), until the level ofthe plan (wide areas, areas at the city limits, parks,industrial areas, etc.).

Traditional, political or planning approachestend to consider the problematic areas as “problemsolving places”, ignoring or underestimating thepotentialities often hidden in these misunderstoodrealities. On the contrary, from the widest areasto the micro territorial contexts, these so-called“waste uncontrollable areas” constitute the placeswhere new Interfaces teaming with life appear,new unexpected Landscapes originate, alive andready to flourish or to vanish.

A different interpretation and a deeperapproach are necessary in order to understandthese unexpected contemporary conditions, going

Int. J. Environ. Res., 2(1):1-12, Winter 2008

beyond all traditional interpretations, project andplanning methods or the classic terms of restoringthe equilibrate coexistence between human lifeand ecosystems. Interfaces are often endowedwith extraordinary potentialities, which have to bere-discovered, through appropriate researches/actions, in terms of social creative participation.

Complexity deeply characterizes the situationof contemporary cities and, what is more, it isshared by many themes of other subjects andaffects our life on an everyday basis.

Two opposite trends appear when dealing withthe issue of complexity, even dealing with the city,the territory, and the landscape:• the reductionist trend, which aims at the biggestimmediate efficiency as possible, by focusing onsome “strategic” goals and neglecting all sideeffects, almost taking advantage of the verycomplexity in order to adopt “extraordinary”measures, without caring about the oftendevastating consequences affecting people, placesand all living beings involved;• The evolutionary trend, which takes oncomplexity as the basis for its own development,in discontinuity as well as in unpredictability, in acontinuous creative process.

Along with the successful reductionist trendsof new-economy, neo-liberism, “intelligentwarfare”, and bio-technologies, also in our specificfields we can relate to the successes of thestrategic urban plans and to the “mainstreamarchitectures” which transform and targetselectively our cities, consistently with urbanplanning in reductionist thinking.

The evolutionary thinking, on the contrary,struggles in order to find its way of achievementand often has burned its reference ideas, such assustainability and participation, which have beenmisunderstood, badly used, often falsified andineffective. Nevertheless, the evolutionary thinkinghas managed to deploy in various areas whatshould be considered its main characteristic: theactivation of open processes, the creation offavourable conditions for exchange and relations,the immersion in the becoming flows. Accordinglyto this idea, some trends are slowly appearing, atleast within the realms of landscape and territorymanagement.

All these things considered, then, why nottrying to imagine the dissemination of thosebehaviours and this way of thinking just in themanagement of the territory?

Both in Italy and in France, within theimplementation of the European Convention of theLandscape, some experiments are being spread,such as the Action Paysagère, and the SharedLandscapes. These experiments aim at joiningpopulation/life,environment/public administration/aesthetic, social awareness/shared landscape,values/research and action projects within openand discontinuous cycle processes of territorial andknowledge innovation.

In environmental planning, especially parkplanning; some examples of shared evolutionarytemporal proposals are beginning to show up. Theytry to include these procedures, closer to naturaldynamics, inside the body of law in force,paradoxically linked still (at least in Italy) to anextension of the urban zoning to the prevalentenvironmental contexts, with consequent strongoperative and theoretic limits.

This is the beginning of what we may call Slowplanning, the territory and landscape managingwhich assumes slowness, reflection, sweetness,joy, and the friendly relations and mutual reactions,as the preconditions for a renewed relation amongthe self, the others and the life environment, in acreativity flow, choral and material, aimed atprefiguring territorial, renewable, flatly and deeplydurable figurations.

In wide suburban cities, at present dominatedby virtual ghosts and real interventions ofreductionist kind, everything is more difficult andcontroversial, but spontaneous movements, besidesresisting and opposing, are beginning to implementnew forms – partly spontaneous, partly inspiredand prefigured – of vitality, learning, creativesetting, deeply slow and friendly, which we couldtherefore name slow and friendly Planning.

In September 2001, in Venice, Cage,Rauschenberg, and Cunningham introduced“Interspace, a musical/scenery/choreographicevent that we could define a research case - inartistic, metaphorical, and experimental terms -of the “Interaction Place.” Such is in fact therelational Landscape, almost the Environment of

5

Micarelli, R. and Pizzioli, G .

the possible interactions among arts and messages,their languages and the generation of emotionalreflections of the public in attendance. This doesn’thappen through linear and harmonic processes, butrather through the creative richness ofdiscontinuous procedures, through constantly variedand unpredictable processes, and throughunexpected inside/outside flows.

Likewise, we think it is possible to suggest asimilar procedure to deal with the city and theterritory, therefore the environment – the wholeLife environment-, in constant transformation. Wethink that this situation can be dealt with throughlogic beyond the systemic logic, well suited toexploit the relational dynamics and reflections, andthe unpredictable creativity which continuouslyappears from living contexts.

The concepts of Ecological Environment andBuilt Environment have already been frequentlyinvestigated, especially the second one, so importantfrom many points of view to the human societyand human science. On the other side, the conceptof Life Environment seems to balance the formulaof those recent results, strongly conditioning andconditioned. This way the Life Environmentappears to offer new perspectives, from ecological,human and social points of view, aimed ataccomplishing a conscious participation of theEnvironment and the communities which live thereto the making of the life condition, in cultural andoperative terms.

We speak of Life Environment with referenceto two different contexts, the first being the contextof development and appreciation of life, both in anecological/evolutionary meaning and as the primarycondition for every transformation; and the secondbeing the context of the economic, social andcultural life of people, for their becoming inprogress.

The Life Environment is therefore the basiccondition for the living processes. It is the materialand mental requisite for the evolution and thedevelopment of human societies, the temporalspace of Places and their becoming. As a result,Landscape is the material structuring of the veryplaces, but at the same time it is most of all thesocial and human awareness of their deep meaning,their value, and their aesthetic value. We could aswell name all the above Wellbeing, a sort of

“sustainable well-being.” (There are manyresearches on this subject, more than on lifeenvironment itself).

Beyond any linguistic definition, we think it isimportant to stress that Wellbeing and LifeEnvironment are not for purchase or for consume.On the contrary, they are prerequisites we shouldreach, better yet, we should create. Following thisconcept, the reconstruction of our life environmentbecomes the rediscovery of a deep human,structural and essential dimension. Thisreconstruction, though, cannot be practiced throughsystemic and previously arranged projects. Itrather has to be achieved by following the‘Research/Action practices,’ in other wordsshared practices of experimentation and reflectionupon the very experiment.

All of us have to acknowledge that in manycountries of the world, Italy included, at presentthere are not the right conditions to support thefulfillment of such an experiment. Nevertheless,even if the situation is frequently confused,dialectic and conflicting, it can still become thesubstratum - chaotically creative and dynamic –from which an unpredictable life environment maybe born, perhaps a temporary one.

At present we think that shared practices tothe creation of ‘Participated Landscapes’ - whichfocus the attention from the city to the wholeterritory in which it is located- are necessary andurgent. They can be accomplished through theacknowledgement and the conscioustransformation of the life environment - inecological and cultural terms - and of the survivingand the Wellbeing, of the individual as much as ofthe collectivity. By community we mean all thepeople who live in a defined place, even if on atemporarily basis.

Our contemporary society, the community inprogress, is open to different flows of people ofdifferent cultural and social status, coming fromdifferent countries and areas of the world, andhaving therefore a different knowledge andmeanings to tribute to places and to a specificenvironment. In order to deal with such a specificaspect of our society we don’t think it is stillpossible to refer to systemic and quantitativethinking, nor to systemic reasoning, profitable, asit is well known, to situations of steady statuses

6

For that reason, in this current and sounbalanced situation, a new thinking is required inorder to deal with the society. According to ourexperiences, such a requirement can be fulfilledby the Relational Thinking, a kind of reasoningwhich develops on the basis of reciprocalrelationships, plentiful of unpredictable evolutionscreated within the Relational Fields, in other wordsgravitational fields of relations, created only bythe dynamics of the very relationships.

As it is easily understood, this approach isextremely useful to the participated making of theLife Environments, especially of those that happento be inhabited in a discontinuous way, withdifferent rhythms of the local nature, of the settledsociety, of the human flows passing by, yetreassembled like in a jazz improvisation, in aconsonance/dissonance of blended superiorrhythms.

In Europe at a scientific level, in good practiceand in official documents, there are manyresearches and experiences designed toaccomplish this. Speaking of Landscape, forinstance, we find the European Convention onLandscape. When read in accordance to theinnovative principles, which characterize it – notfrom a bureaucratic point of view – such adocument can become a very important tool inthe experimental drafting of new environmentaland human practices. According to the Convention,in fact, besides being a complex, multidisciplinary,holistic and dynamic phenomenon the Landscapeis considered also a social phenomenon. A newapproach appears, the social perception of theenvironment, from which derives the idea ofLandscape as a shared value of the habitat, inconclusion the idea of “Landscape as LifeEnvironment.”

We believe that the concept of LifeEnvironment is an innovative, extremely interestingidea, whose knowledge deserves to be deepenedfrom theoretic and experimental points of view.The European Convention represents afundamental basic reference for all new activitiesand the promotion of a new way of dealing withthe life environment for the involved populationsas we have above explained. According to allthese principles, we can change the whole

approach to Landscape, walking out on the oldand obsolete scientific Western-style paradigmsand choosing new criteria in order to create alltogether a renewed and richer way of living andmanaging the life environment of one’s own. Sowe can assume theoretical pr inciples andaesthetical suggestions - derived from theEuropean Convention and from the musical eventInterscape – as two mainstreams which flow inconcert within the same research-actionprocesses.

Sensitive and participated observation of thephenomena (by experts and citizens together),experiment and research constantly and mutuallycomparing (without a hierarchic power privileginga specific point of view), pre-figuration andcreativity always in touch, open dialogue with theliving context where social awareness-knowledgeand aesthetic participation, all together, will be ableto sustain and to keep the whole process alive.

Keeping these two suggestions in mind, manypeople can reach a renewed and richer way ofliving and managing the life environment of one’sown, feeling at home and being welcomed, gettingout from standard perceptions and behaviourpatterns, and participate in an unconventional wayto the transformations of the territory of one’sown.

The following Study Cases exemplify twoapproaches - still in progress- of territorial planningand micro project experiences. Both have beenstructured on the theoretical principles pointed out,and while being developed they assume thecomplexity of Interscapes.

The territory of Montioni in Tuscany is awooded promontory overlooking the Gulf ofFollonica, in front of the Elba Island. This areabears witness to the former greatness of theEtruscan civilization (whose woods fuelled theiron industry) and reminds us of the mixedfortunes of the iron industry of this territorythrough the centuries, until the contemporaryage. Recently this forest has not been consideredas an industrial resource anymore, and at presentthe whole promontory is at risk of loosing itsoriginal archaeological values and of goingtowards a progressive and unmerited neglect(Figs. 10 and 11) .

Int. J. Environ. Res., 2(1):1-12, Winter 2008

7

Fig. 10. The gulf of iron

Fig. 11. Montioni panorama

have been proposed for the Montioni Master Planand at present their experimentation is in progress.Therefore the tradit ional Plan has beentransformed into an evolutionary process and itsrigid rules have been changed into a guidebookorganised in a temporal-spatial process, wheredifferent themes, rhythms, suggestions andproposals, are interwoven -like musical themesusually do- in a sort of musical score. So theMaster Plan of Montioni Forest is turning into anacknowledged system of dynamic rules aimed atevolving the life environment processes within thePark. In short, this Park can be developed by threeitineraries, indicated in a framework whichconsists of three maps (Figs.12-14).

Despite this, the Montioni Forest can reviveby being transformed into a Park, by re-discoveringits ancient history and setting of its forgotten values,in a new fresh perspective. Around the MontioniPromontory a lot of contradictory, sometimesexaggerated, conditions co-exist - such asdifferent human settlements, a contemporary ironsteel industry, intensive agriculture, tourisminfrastructures - which make its revival verychallenging. The Park could increasinglyharmonise these latent or manifested tensionsaround the area, maintaining their diversities andpreventing further lacerating contrasts. All theseproblems are not solvable anymore by usingtraditional planning methods.

The whole question can instead be tackled onthe condition that the park is carried out throughsuitable tools. For this reason, innovativeprocedures and a new way of prefigurationtowards a social construction of the Landscape

Metropolitan and rural areas : Interscapes as Interfaces?

8

Figs.12, 13 & 14. The Masterplan in evolution

Multiplicity of themes, different rhythms andscientific, social experimentations work togetherat various levels, being involved in the samecomplex process.Here a new LandscapeInterface as a new Interscape is concretelyforming through appealing experiential activities:A) The step zero – only apparently comparableto a traditional plan, with zoning, bonds and ‘no-doing’ list- is not a rigid system of rules. It isinstead a sort of steady state map endowed ofbasic itineraries on which the processes go on, inthe direction of a progressive complete incubationof the park. These itineraries represent also theguaranty of the sustainability and the suitabledevelopment of the whole process.B) This map, with its itineraries, is completelydedicated to social participation in the constructionof the Park. The map indicates where and howlocal population, visitors, experts, public policies,can experiment the ways of working together anddeveloping the park in an appropriate manner,through a wide range of research-actions.C) The third map shows another possible evolutionof the park, achievable in the course of experientialactivities, and orients the course of the progressivebuilding of the Park and its process trends. In thisPark many participated processes will be possible:

• Construction of the Woodland Gardens, as awelcoming to the park, as shared place torediscover anthropological /natural relationships(Figs. 15-18):

• Restoration and construction of many explorationitineraries;• Walking and biking around the ParkRediscoveryof animals, from archaeology to contemporarytimes.• Rediscovery of the former relationships withthe towns located by the park through their oftenforgotten histories, cultures and social knowledge(twenty five centuries of iron industry based onthe forest.

So, this multiplicity of themes, differentrhythms and scientific, social experimentationscoexist and evolve at different level, involved alltogether in the same complex process.

Fig. 15. A small, abandoned water basin, a suitableplace to practice new experiences of landscaping art

Fig. 16. Animals from archaeology

Int. J. Environ. Res., 2(1):1-12, Winter 2008

9

Fig. 17. The iron church, built during the Lorena’sreign, eighteenth century

Fig. 18 . Pedestrian promenade in the Forrest

• experiential training workshops where socialeducation is practiced in an innovative experientialmanner .The three itineraries start simultaneously… but each one proceeds according to its owncourse and the Master Plan will take care of theharmony of the whole process …This way, theMontioni Park grows!

At present, the Gulf is seriously jeopardisedby an unsustainable tourist expansion andconsequent degradation of its life environment.The small villages of this territory and theirdelightful bays are at the risk of overexploitationand poisoning devastation: industrial fisheries,tourist docks as well as shipyards and sportinginfrastructures are spreading everywhere and thelocal life style is constantly undermined, withincreasing disagreement among the residents (Fig.19).

Here -since the year 2005 - a workgroup ofcitizens is involved in a participative process ofresearch-action which is still in progress, accordingto a cyclical process of social perception, reciprocalfriendly learning, reflections, discussions withexperts, thematic workshops, and so on.

Within this cyclical process new ideas andproposals have been constantly emerging in theworkgroup, and the people involved becameprogressively conscious of the devastatingconditions of the life environment (Figs. 20-22).

Within this process a new LandscapeInterface as a new Interscape is concretelydeveloping through appealing experiential activities.In these activities many groups of experts, citizens,scholar groups, go on in integrated reciprocalcollaboration, dealing with specific activities likethe following:• construction of the welcome areas shaped aswoodlands gardens, where traditional agricultureand forest co-develop in a fresh aestheticconfiguration;• restoration of ancient abandoned itineraries(seasonal migration of shepherds and sheep alongancient routes; halt green areas for sheep);• rearrangement of thematic landscape routes(roman and medieval itineraries, cycling andwalker routes)• restoration of archaeological – industrial andmining areas in relation with all the old industrialsettlements, from prehistory to contemporary times.

Fig. 19. Le Grazie: the Bay Portovenere and itssurrounding landscapes (small villages, bays,

traditional Mediterranean agriculture, and nicepanoramas) represent a very historic and

monumental cornerstone for the Gulf of La Spezia,also famous as the Gulf of the Poets and Painters.

Micarelli, R. and Pizzioli, G .

10

Fig. 20. social perception and discussion oflandscape

Figs. 21 & 22 . Dreaming, thinking, counsellingtogether, as in a fascinating play….We are able tothink, and imagine our life environment as a new

beautiful place …why not? So …We can also createOUR Map of DESIRES, conceived as an open

INTERFACE, as a new WATER FRONT … which isour very INTERSCAPE

In the course of this experience theparticipants have been encouraged to express theirdisagreements as well as to highlight theirproposals, and to put at everybody’s disposal theirlife experience, competences and aesthetic ideas.This Map of Desires - new Interscape is neitheran abstract representation nor a pure dream, yetit represents a first step of the cyclical activitiesand at the same time the very starting point for afurther participative research-action.

All these activities demonstrate that a beautifulGulf, a good quality of life, a social managementof the life environment, are within reach througha constant, friendly learning with experts andscientists.

Moreover, this first cycle of experiencesshowed that new relationships between localPublic Bodies and new groups of citizens can beestablished. In the years 2006 and 2007 thisexperience has been successively enriched withnew participative activities. At present, havingbeen acknowledged by the local government, thegroup is developing a further participativeworkshop, focused on the area of local WaterFront. This area, at present in dreadful conditions,could be transformed in a very significant Interfaceamong their small village, its bay and the widerGulf of Poets. This idea has been conceived bypeople and experts, involved together in a newparticipative process in order to take care of thisextremely fragile interface. The care of the waterfront is becoming a social, cultural and creativeactivity, more and more deeply rooted in the residentworkgroup, engaged also in this new project.

This experience allowed the veryreconstruction and ecological renovation of thelocal landscape both of the small village “borgo”and of its bay as a new living space in the widerGulf of Poets.

CONCLUSIONThe two Study Cases of Parco di Montioni

and Portovenere show that all kinds of experiences,as we described above, can be implemented inevery life context, from the smallest territorialstressed realities to the widest areas which seemsemi-abandoned.

From the “darkness” of the marginallandscapes new, multiple, widespread evidences

Int. J. Environ. Res., 2(1):1-12, Winter 2008

11

of vitality appeared, in contrast with thephenomena of globalisation that dominate thescenery of our “metropolitan night maps”, leadingus “to live more consciously in the whole territory”.The examples we have showed are significant,because they allow us to understand howwidespread is the social perception of thelandscape and the people’s sensitivity andintelligence. These examples also show that newInterscapes can emerge everywhere, as theplaces where the lacerating tensions among socialculture, sensitivity, aesthetics and trivial violenceof the global world – can be transformed into freshexperiences of social researches-actions.

What we mentioned above makes clear howsuch a consciousness rising spurs citizens to reactand fight – as in Florence – or to fight with newactivities and proposals the forced and dominantpolitical choices. Social groups, schools,associations and also not aggregated peoplerespond with their imagination, creativity, andaction (a landscaping action) to the growing andwidespread devastation phenomena.

We imagine how to live differently in ourundermined environment, we rediscover itsbeauties, we live in it all together, we transform orkeep what has so far made our living culture, we

invite other persons to take part with us to joyfuland involving events, and yet we keep dissenting…

The European Convention of the Landscapeencourages and supports many of these actions,and yet it may become a starting point as well formore structured and continuous landscape actions,evolving in time, leading to the flourishing of social,scientific, creative activities, so far unknown tothe official policies of territorial managing.

REFERENCESBateson, G., (1976 ). Steps to an Ecology of Mind –Italian edition Verso un’ecologia della Mente , Adelphi,Milano.

Bateson, G., (1984). Mind and Nature – Italian edition– Mente e natura , Adelphi,Milano.

Klee, P., (1959). Das bildenrische Denken, editorJ.Spiller, italian edition Teoria della Forma e dellaFigurazione, Feltrinelli, Milano.

Pizziolo, G. (2003a). Micarelli R., L’Arte delle Relazioni,Alinea, Firenze.

Pizziolo, G., (2003b). Micarelli R., Dai Margini del Caos,L’Ecologia del Progettare, Alinea, Firenze.

Wittgenstein, L., (1995).Tractatus LogicoPhilosophicus, Einaudi, Torino.

Metropolitan and rural areas : Interscapes as Interfaces?

12