Landscapes of
Mugello
11th International
Design Workshop
2>14 September
2024
Vallombrosa, Firenze
promoted by
Designing Heritage Tourism
Landscapes
International
network of schools of architecture
organized by
Università degli Studi di Firenze, Dipartimento di Architettura
project coordinators
Paolo Zermani, Gabriele Bartocci, Riccardo Butini, Francesca
Mugnai, Andrea Innocenzo Volpe
with
the patronage of (to be defined)
Regione Toscana, Soprintendenza per l’Archeologia, le Belle Arti e il Paesaggio, Fondazione Architetti Firenze, Municpalities of Barberino di Mugello, Borgo San Lorenzo, San Piero a Sieve e Scarperia, Dicomano, Pelago, Pontassieve
features of Mugello
Mugello
is a vast basin north-east of Florence bordered by the Morello and Giovi
mountains on the southern side, by the Apennines on the northern side, and
crossed by the Sieve river, one of the Arno's major tributaries.
The
interest of these places lies in the rich layering of the landscape, the
natural and environmental qualities of the area, and the close bond with
Florence, to which Mugello has always been a reservoir of intellectual,
spiritual, and material resources. Thanks to the proximity of the Apennine
passes, the Sieve Valley had been a crossroads of strategic political-military
and commercial routes for more than two thousand years. The Via Bolognese,
built by the Lorena family in the 18th century, definitively established
Mugello's role as a passageway linking central Italy to the Po Valley.
It
is precisely the trans-Apennine road network that is at the origin of an
elaborate anthropic structure that combines agrarian landscape and urban
settlements that differ greatly from one another in function and type.
Giotto,
Beato Angelico, and Lorenzo Ghiberti, who came from these places and were
important figures in Florentine artistic history, brought Mugello to the heart
of Florence as the backdrop for their pictorial or sculptural cycles, in which
one can recognize an anthropic structure that is still markedly medieval, made
up of castles, parish churches, and abbeys. From Mugello came the Medici
family, who built here the first two villas - Trebbio
and Cafaggiolo - of the fourteen scattered in
northern Tuscany, thus initiating the Florentine expansion towards the Mugello
country and paving the way for other families attracted by the productivity of
these lands. The Florentine families settled in elegant farm villas destined to
become nodal points of the whole rural system and later of the mezzadria model (sharecropping) made up of poderi (farm estates) and case coloniche
(farmhouses). Despite the changes imposed by the valley floor's industrial and
artisanal development and the presence of a heavy infrastructure belt running
through it, Mugello still retains an authentically rural feature, also thanks
to the variety of cultivations ranging from seed crops in the upper Sieve
valley to wooded areas in the lower Sieve valley.
Despite
its historical and cultural richness and its proximity to Florence, Mugello is
still a neglected destination by tourism and is nevertheless threatened by the
pressure exerted by private investors who are purchasing ancient villas and
transforming them into luxury resorts.
design themes
The
workshop will concern the design of a staging points system for slow tourism
along the valley of the Sieve River. The system will complete the proposal of a
50 km cycle-pedestrian path, a theme the Florentine group will investigate in
the coming months to explore the possibilities of extending the current route -
now limited to the stretch connecting Borgo San Lorenzo to Vicchio - from San
Piero to Pontassieve. Along this route, which will
pass through places differing in terms of features and typologies - a
palimpsest representing the multiple layerings of the
landscape of Mugello - the design activity will focus on the following themes:
1.
Transformation of the San Martino Medici Fortress in San Piero a Sieve
including a new wing. As the starting point of the route, the fortress is to be
reimagined as a territory museum where visitors can become aware of the
landscape they will pass through.
2.
Renovation and transformation into a guesthouse of the farm buildings next to
the Medicean Villa of Cafaggiolo.
3. Bilancino Lake sailing centre.
4.
Set of punctual elements placed in key sites to mark the links to other routes
or to highlight notable historical and cultural points of interest. These
elements will be a) two pedestrian bridges b) a chapel c) a belvedere for
viewing the rural landscape from a higher point of view.
5.
Riding stable for horseback excursions between Vicchio and Dicomano.
6.
Guest house and wine tasting hall inside the ancient Castle of Nipozzano.
goals
The
workshop aims to design a slow travel route that can be walked from west to
east integrating with the already existing paths, such as the Way of the Gods
that reaches San Piero a Sieve and crosses Mugello north-south.
The
outcomes of the workshop will form a coherent corpus of design proposals to be
submitted to the local municipalities taking part in the project for the
valorization of the Sieve Valley.
didactic organization
The
participation of a maximum number of 60 students is proposed. The enrolled
students will be divided into 6 teams with 10 students each. The supervision of
the work of each team will be overseen by teachers and tutors.
The
teaching method provides:
-
the organization of mixed groups by origin of teachers and students in order to
encourage
discussion
on themes and approaches to the project from different perspectives;
-
the participation of representatives of the territorial management
(municipalities and Regione Toscana) and protection
bodies (Soprintendenza per l’Archeologia,
le Belle Arti e il Paesaggio);
- a
seminar with professors and scholars who are experts in the landscape and
architecture of Mugello.
study trip
One
of the first days of the workshop will be dedicated to survey the design areas
along the Sieve River from San Piero to Pontassieve.
Afterwards, a tour of Florence dedicated to the most recent museum
interventions (such as Cappelle Medicee,
Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Ospedale
degli Innocenti) is scheduled. Bus transfers for
study trips are offered by Università di Firenze.
deadlines
21
May 2024: Call for the selection of students
11
June 2024: Closure of the selection
18
June 2024: Confirmation of participants
program
Monday,
2 September
Arrival
of participants in Vallombrosa
16.30
workshop presentation
Tuesday,
3 September
8
> 19 study trip
Wednesday,
4 September
10
>13 seminar
15
> 19 workshop
Thursday,
5 September
9
> 19 workshop
Friday,
6 September
9
> 19 workshop
Saturday,
7 September
9
> 16 workshop
16.30
discussion with local mayors
Sunday,
8 September
visit
to Romanesque churches
Monday,
9 September
9
> 19 workshop
Tuesday,
10 September
8
>19 visit to Florence
Wednesday,
11 September
9
> 19 workshop
Thursday,
12 September
9
> 19 workshop
Friday,
13 September
9
> 19 workshop
Saturday,
14 September
9
> 16 workshop
16.30
final presentation
21.00
closing party