Designing Unstable Landscapes

Abstract

The concept of «unstable landscapes» refers to sections of territory produced by the contact/crash between different and conflicting morphological conditions. Contexts irrevocably exposed to the dynamics of the world, natural events and use way; processed, rejected, forgotten and recycled over the centuries; in-between lands grew up without a permanent order that however can be recovered. This condition is typical of the rivers, whose untamed nature, combined with the necessity to exploit their resources, has produced a particular condition of instability related to different conditions: the urgent requirement of infrastructural intervention due to a constant and increasing risk both for urban and rural areas; the request to reduce the marginality of these spaces whose landscape is impossible to recognize because fragmentary and dominated by the disorder; the necessity to find solution useful to readdress unsustainable ecological conditions. The urgency of intervention, combined with the lost potentialities and the latent richness of these spaces requires an integrated approach within which the role of architectural and landscape design is crucial. The purpose to minimize the risk, to return a sense to these territories, especially working on the public space, and to re-establish sustainable ecological conditions are singular objectives to express through a plural vision. In this sense the ability of the architect to address each problem from the point of view of the space (shape, values, relations) is fundamental. Thinking to the design process as a “therapy” or “treatment” implies an “anamnesis” process (collection of data related to the conditions of the landscape), the formulation of a “diagnosis” (development of a strategic view) and the identification of possible solutions (proposals of construction, maintenance and care). Those are indispensable preconditions to the formulation of operative strategies oriented to clear, to protect, to connect and to restore order within different the parts and to the disposition of architectural works characterized by technical and formal rigor, relationship with the spaces, multi- functionality and open possibilities of completion over time.