Deadline Call for applications: June 1, 2023

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WalKras is the sixth edition of the walking Summer School promoted by the Laboratorio del Cammino (LdC), an inter-university network of researchers that develops teaching and research projects aimed at exploring the methodological contribution of walking in urban planning and design.

The aim of the Summer School is to understand the extent to which the "oblique gaze", the walking, seeing, listening and slowly entering places are essential ways to read and design territories subject to climate risk . Accompanied by researchers and local actors, the students will be guided to research and describe the metamorphoses of territories at climatic risk and recognize the material and immaterial resources to be activated in order to contrast their negative effects.

The Summer School will take place from August 21 to September 2, 2023. The territories between Friuli-Venezia Giulia and Slovenia will be crossed by walking, starting from Gorizia and arriving in Pirano, passing through Trieste, Doberdò, Duino, Aurisina, Sgonico, Basovizza Muggia. Participants will be asked to investigate with their senses and experience the changes taking place in the territories crossed and to elaborate spatial narratives and possible design trajectories useful for tackling the challenges of climate transition.

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THEME AND TERRITORY

The theme of climate risk is at the center of the sixth edition of the Summer School of the Laboratorio del Cammino. Drought, desertification, prolonged water crises, torrential rains, flooding of watercourses, melting glaciers, hydrogeological instability are just some of the consequences – exacerbated by the global rise in temperature – of climate change, which Italy is also experiencing with progressively increasing frequency and severity of events. To deal with these problems, the policies adopted at international level have placed the emphasis on two complementary aspects: on the one hand, the promotion of effective interventions to mitigate and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, on the other, the planning of adaptation actions and resilience to the changes already underway. Crucial is also the objective to enrich and systematize expert knowledge on the vulnerable conditions of territories, strengthening the ability of local communities to respond to future climate challenges.

 

The case study of the Summer School is the Karst, a cross-border territory between Italy and Slovenia with a complex geography, characterized by a combination of different languages, cultures and religions and crossed by multiple climatic stress conditions. It was the scene of conflicts and frontier of the Western world until the fall of the Berlin Wall. Even today, a borderland and watershed between national political communities engaged in strenuous exercises of cultural and linguistic coexistence; connection between bio-geographical regions (Illyrian-Balkan, Mediterranean and Central European) characterized by different habitats. Palimpsest of agricultural landscapes characterized by very particular forms of management: such as the pastini, terraced landscapes of viticulture and olive trees, or the comunelle, collective properties attributable to ancient land use rights.

 

The walk will start from the cross-border city of Gorizia/Nova Gorica, it will go through the Italian and Slovenian karst plateau crossing rural wooded and wine-growing landscapes, it will touch the karst edge observing the geological fragility on which the city of Trieste rests, and finally it will reach the incipit of the geographical region of Istria along the Adriatic Sea from Muggia (IT) to Pirano (SLO), a splendid Venetian settlement that is still bilingual today. Halfway through, the group will spend a day in Trieste dedicated to meeting administrators and technicians of the Municipality and researchers from the University of Trieste, as well as visiting the city.

 

In the first section of the walk, from Gorizia to Duino, attention will be focused mainly on the combined effect of heat waves, drought and fires in an area that today is mostly wooded but historically it was treeless. In the following section, from Duino to Prosecco - an area historically used for grazing and today mainly dedicated to high-quality and in certain sections "heroic" viticulture - attention will be paid to the effects of prolonged periods of drought, harmful to local crops, and of the hydrogeological risk of the karst edge in the stretches of Aurisina mare and Prosecco/Contovello. In Trieste, the group will observe the vulnerability of urban and coastal settlements to heat waves, floods, storm surges and hydrogeological instability. Finally, in the last part, from Muggia to Pirano, the structural limits that distinguish coastal settlements in the face of critical phenomena such as sea level rise and coastal and urban flooding will be highlighted.

 

While walking, the students will investigate the material traces of the various climatic risks that characterize the settlement geographies of the Karst, and will be guided to produce, starting from the walking posture, a pertinent and critical reading of the phenomena and to develop design actions and devices of mitigation and adaptation to climate risk.

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PROGRAM

Two days of training are planned before the start of the walk, which will offer participants the knowledge and tools useful for carrying out the activities of the Summer School. Participation in the two training days is mandatory. The two days will be held at the University of Camerino (Italy) on Friday 21 and Saturday 22 July 2023.

A seminar on methodological issues related to doing planning and design by walking, a communication on the territory crossed and on the planning tools and policies that interest it, and an initial discussion with the participants, in order to present objectives and method of carrying out the work are scheduled.

The Summer School will take place from August 21 to September 2, 2023 and will consist of a walk from Gorizia to Piran (Slovenia). Each day the group will cover a distance between 10 and 15 kilometers to reach the next destination where it will spend the night.

A Final Study Day is scheduled for 23 October 2023 in Palermo at the Department of Architecture of the University of Palermo where students will present the results of the Summer School and the Scientific Committee will evaluate the results achieved. Participation in the Study Day is mandatory to obtain the credits. The results of the Summer School will be published on the website of the Laboratorio del Camino.

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HOW TO PARTICIPATE

The Call for participants of the Summer School is open from May 2 to June 1, 2023. It is addressed to students from the undergraduate and master degree courses in: Territorial, urban and landscape-environmental planning; Urban planning; Architecture; Geography and territorial sciences; Urban Design & Landscape Architecture; Building engineering and related courses, from the partner universities of the Summer School: LAUD/Bilkent University, Politecnico di Torino, Politecnico di Milano, Università degli Studi di Camerino, Università degli Studi di Cagliari, Università degli Studi di Palermo, Università degli Studi della Basilicata, Università degli Studi di Bologna, Università degli Studi di Firenze, Università degli Studi di Parma, Università degli Studi di Trieste.

Students from other universities can also apply. However, their acceptance will be subject to restricted availability. The maximum number of students admitted will be 30.

To apply, students should send by June 1, 2022 via email to laboratoriodelcammino@gmail.com an academic curriculum vitae, a motivation letter and a portfolio with a selection of projects.

Acceptance of the application will be communicated by the LdC organizers by Monday June 12, 2023.

During and after the walk, the participants will have to prepare, in groups, a book in a format of their choice, and a diary-map in A1 format to represent the outcome of the research and activities carried out. The groups will have an inter-university nature, namely they will be formed by students from different universities of the network.

At the end of the Summer School, participants from LdC partner universities will be recognized between 3 and 6 credits (ECTS) (depending on the study plan of the university to which they belong) assigned on the basis of the elaboration of the book and diary-map, evaluated by the LdC Scientific Committee during the final Study Day of the Summer School, scheduled for October 23, 2023 at the Department of Architecture of the University of Palermo.

Each group of students will be supported by two mentors who will offer support to the development of their work.

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HOW MUCH DOES IT COST

Participation in the Summer School is subject to payment, to be made at the time of registration, of overnight stays, bus/train/ferry transfers and the rental of a van with driver for the transport of luggage. A preliminary estimate of the aforementioned expenses is equal to 185 euros per person. The journey to Gorizia and from Piran is the responsibility of each participant. During the walk, the group will spend the night in tents at campsites or public areas granted by the local administrations crossed, and in hostels or accommodation facilities chosen for their economy. Participants will be required a spirit of adaptation and a sense of sharing, while respecting individual values. Most meals will be prepared by the group itself on the basis of a common fund collected at the beginning of the Summer School directly by the organizers.

 

For information, please send a mail to laboratoriodelcammino@gmail.com. 

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Organizing Committee

Massimiliano Granceri (Università IUAV di Venezia), Sara Basso e Elena Marchigiani (Università di Trieste), Luca Lazzarini e Serena Marchionni (coordinatori LdC).

 

Scientific Committee

Cristiana Rossignolo (DiST/Politecnico di Torino), Marco Mareggi, Chiara Merlini, Andrea Rolando, Luca Lazzarini (DAStU/Politecnico di Milano), Filippo Schilleci e Annalisa Giampino (DARCH/Università di Palermo), Anna Maria Colavitti (DICAAR/Università di Cagliari), Chiara Rizzi e Maria Valeria Mininni (DiCEM/Università della Basilicata), Massimo Sargolini e Flavio Stimilli (Università di Camerino), Elena Mucelli e Stefania Rossl (DA/Università di Bologna),  Maria Rita Gisotti (DiDA/Università di Firenze), Michele Zazzi e Barbara Caselli (DIA/Università di Parma), Elena Marchigiani e Sara Basso (Dipartimento di Ingegneria e Architettura/Università di Trieste), Hatice Karaca (LAUD/Bilkent University), Daniele Cinciripini e Serena Marchionni (Ikonemi), Daniela Allocca (Progetto Fiori), Marcella Turchetti (Associazione Archivio Storico Olivetti), Pierangelo Miola (EQuiStiamo/Progetto Vaghe Stelle).

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