Need, Interest and Problems

Regarding the current condition of the internal territory, it is possible to observe three countertrend dynamics (Lanzani e Curci, 2018). The villages and hamlets well connected and connected to more dynamic urban realities perform important services for the well-being of the community. The social innovation processes that characterize the agendas of this territory are varied and present ample opportunities for development in terms of life and work projects. Finally, new trajectories of re-habitation of marginal and abandoned villages can be observed in migratory flows, through the reactivation of pastoral economies, forest management, and mining.

The need for a new metromontane, metro-rural vision is clear, based on the interdependence and cooperation of the various territorial systems. The concept of metromontanity can be observed as a central node that can allow us to overcome the current stalemate between city and countryside, the contrast between urban-centric and localized visions. An overall vision must be envisaged, based on a new settlement model, on a new way of re-inhabiting the internal area of Italy.

This crisis faced by all the elements that integrate the landscape of Monte Cimone can become an opportunity to reflect on a new sustainable economy toward a more resilient landscape. It is necessary to understand the landscape as the social, economic, and spatial narrative driver of territorial regeneration. The forests as one of the most important capitals in which to invest with a vision of the future as an environmental, historical, and economic heritage for the area. Additionally, the mobility in the place could be cataloged as not very sustainable and not well accessible which encourages the use of private cars but with a great potential due to the different bus, bicycle, and trekking routes the area already has. Finally, the interest in activating the main settlements as they are the main points of reception and the transitional spaces between the natural environment of Monte Cimone and the main cities of Emilia Romagna.

The most important aspect that emerges from the most interesting experiences of culturally based social innovation in internal areas in recent years is precisely the ability to recombine these and other elements in a unique and specific way. The task of culturally based social innovation that wants to be truly effective is to make the local community accept the possibility of consciously putting themselves in crisis and exploring unknown roads, through a symbolic re-foundation of a place that will inevitably tend to transform itself into a symbolic reaffirmation of the existing.

Lanzani, A. Curci, F. (2018). Le Italie in contrazione, tra crisi e opportunità. In De Rossi, A. Riabitare l’Italia. Le aree interne tra abbandono e riconquiste. (pp. 87-89). Donzelli.

Objectives

The proposed research and design theme focuses on the productive landscapes in mountain environments and how these can lead to regeneration processes and activation of degraded and abandoned territories towards new economies based on their natural resources. To study the relationship between the wood environment and the old, abandoned villages and settlements of the area of Monte Cimone to rediscover the landscape values of the place as a pillar of regeneration of the productive landscape system and the local economy. The key question to start from is: How can a renewal of the natural and built abandoned rural heritage of the landscape of Monte Cimone lead to an economically sustainable activation and regeneration of the territory?

Cultural-based social innovation today represents a great opportunity to give new planning attention to the Italian villages and marginal inland areas. To make sense of marginal territories, it is first of all necessary to rethink the sense itself, glimpsing its latent potential. Culture is constituted with individuals and the relationships they establish, how can a landscape project contribute to the creation of specialized places for the growth of local communities? In this case, the landscape project is both a starting point and a means for creating a community and starting the path of social innovation.

Following these objectives, the vision of the future should materialize in a broader territorial system design capable of outlining a reference framework and influencing a policy of reorganization of the Italian landscape.

This initiative is based on the Metromontagna landscape concept, which response to the need to break down the prejudice that considers urban spaces as the exclusive place for growth, dynamism, and innovation. The deconstruction of these implicit images is an act that has design value.

The graphical interpretation of the territory will be preparatory for the development of the strategic proposal. In this process, the role of representations will be decisive for the construction of the right images of the mountain’s future, to significantly influence today’s panorama and the long-term dynamics.

The initiative will contribute to the territorial planning of the area of Monte Cimone with a regenerative systemic vision and will improve its economic development through sustainable tourism alternatives that offer an experience in the rural landscape, generating a gradual reactivation that, from an economic, social, and environmental point of view, not only contributes to drive the territory into a more resilient landscape but also find a way in the tangible and intangible values of the place to transmit them to the future through generating a large landscape reserve for the enjoyment of its inhabitants and as an attraction for its visitors.

Innovations with a cultural perspective are today a potential laboratory of innovation on whose results the future of these territories and therefore of the country of Italy may depend. The internal areas are the right place to start working on bottom-up planning, centered on people and communities, supported by a clear, well-designed and transformative territorial political vision.