The project has come to life ‘Towards the Smart Villages of Italy’ funded by MIT – Italy Roberto Rocca Project-Politecnico di Milano.
MIT students and professors conducted ten days of fieldwork, travelling to some of the most economically disadvantaged and poorest areas of Europe in inland Sicily (Favara, Vizzini and Centuripe), exploring the role of cultural heritage, digitization and WFH as tools to promote new forms of sustainable development. From this perspective, the digital transition is an opportunity that cannot be missed. The class also compared similar conditions of marginalisation in the Alps (Valtellina, Tirano and Teglio). The students are now working on their final projects, focusing on certain topics, such as: spatial metrics of abandonment in Sicily, proposal for a regional WFH plan in Valtellina, digital awareness of small businesses, opportunities for Valtellina in view of the upcoming Winter Olympics and planning guidelines on tourism and food production in Sicily.
The project was developed by Prof. Giovanna Fossa (Department of Architecture, Construction Engineering and Built Environment) together with Prof. Brent Ryan (MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning) who says:
It is the first time that MIT has organised an urban planning course in Italy on the subject of depopulation and widespread historical heritage. The students were exposed to new and unique situations that bear witness to the cultural richness of the Italian hinterland, but also to the fragility of an economically and demographically impoverished territory.
The research group of this MIT-Politecnico collaboration includes Carmelo Ignaccolo, researcher in urban planning at MIT, Cristina Boniotti, researcher in restoration at the Department of Architecture, Construction Engineering and Built Environment of the Politecnico di Milano, and Andrea Pimpinella, researcher in telecommunications at the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering of the Politecnico di Milano.
