Abstract
Turin has a long history of religious diversity, much of which is driven by migration. After suffering persecutions and socio-spatial reclusion, during the second half of the nineteenth century, its historical minorities celebrated their emancipation with the construction of outstanding temples. Today, the city faces unprecedented religious diversification. In order to cope with religious spatial needs, the city council issued a call for proposals to provide the town with a multi-faith space dedicated to local minorities. The project for a Casa delle religioni was chosen in 2016. A three-year participative process involved twenty religious organizations in the shared definition of needs, practices, and intentions with regard to the common use of space.
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Notes
- 1.
This work is an updated version of the article La Casa delle religioni di Torino: tra inclusione ed esclusione, published by the authors in “Annali di Studi Religiosi,” 20–2019, FBK Press, Trento, pp. 145–171. Although almost two years have passed since the most recent publication in Italian, the Casa delle religioni project has not moved forward.
- 2.
Covid-19 health restrictions and social distancing measures have forced us to forgo interviewing a sample of believers belonging to the different religious organizations involved in the project.
- 3.
Thanks to her experience in the design of prayer rooms, multi-religious and otherwise—particularly in the Turin area—Giorda was initially engaged as a consultant. The results of this first study phase were published in a dossier by M. Giorda, D. Campobenedetto, S. Hejazi, and M. Robiglio (2016). See: http://benvenutiinitalia.it/wpcontent/uploads/2012/03/House_of_one_multifaith_spaces_2016.pdf
- 4.
For this reason, the contents reported in this article are to be considered up to date as of December 2020. The authors plan to dedicate future publications to the discussion of other relevant dimensions, as well as to updating the in-progress process.
- 5.
- 6.
It should be noted that the committee does not have any non-religious people within it.
- 7.
- 8.
As Omenetto (2020) notes, the city of Turin is home to four active cemeteries, two of which provide burials for religions other than the Roman Catholic confession. They are the so-called Monumental Cemetery (Cimitero Monumentale) and the Park Cemetery (Cimitero Parco). The Monumental Cemetery offers a Jewish and an Evangelical field, as well as a section dedicated to cremation, complete with a cremation oven and a farewell room. At the Cimitero Parco, one can find burial areas destined for members of the Baha’i, Evangelical, Muslim, and Orthodox faiths.
- 9.
- 10.
In this regard, see: https://www.stanzadelsilenzio.it/
- 11.
In Turin, there are multi-religious places in the buildings of the Giovanni Battista-Molinette, Mauriziano, Regina Margherita, and Giovanni Bosco hospitals. Sandro Pertini airport in Turin-Caselle hosts an area dedicated to prayer: the boarding gates offer employees and waiting travelers a “multi-faith room,” a musallah, and an ecumenical Christian chapel.
- 12.
Department of Urban Planning, Private Construction Department, interview #27/13-12-2017.
- 13.
To illustrate, here is an excerpt from an interview with the Private Building Department (ibidem): “There was no direction […] the master plan, I repeat—enjoying this flexibility—has never created a real bottleneck, and therefore more or less everyone has adjusted. [If someone then arrives asking to settle in a neighborhood, which areas are available?] They must look for them. [Starting from the master plan maps?] It is easier for them to first go andfind a place according to their budget. That is, it is quite the opposite: we are not able to govern it from above, we only verify that it is not in conflict starting from below.”
- 14.
Significantly, the application form to request the regional contribution makes explicit reference to funds “in favor of the church […] located in Turin in…,” and thus formally excludes non-Christian buildings. See: http://www.comune.torino.it/luoghidi-culto/moduli/mod_1_istanza.pdf
- 15.
- 16.
For the whole documentation, see: http://www.comune.torino.it/bandi/20151229_exincet/# (In Italian).
- 17.
By their nature, mission, and involvement, the Interfaith Committee and the Intercultural Centre occupy a hybrid position between public/political institutions and secular/religious organizations. In fact, they are the only two public institutions that have concretely supported the project.
- 18.
As of November 2020, this has not yet gone into effect, but the situation remains in a state of immobilization since many activities have beenstopped during the pandemic. See Scarpone S., Edit, la resa di Aurora “Non si riesce a tagliare neanche l’erba”, La Stampa, 22 luglio 2020, p. 3.
- 19.
According to the Cambridge Dictionary, ghosting is “a way of ending a relationship with someone suddenly by stopping all communication with them.” See: https://dictionary.cambridge.org/it/dizionario/inglese/ghosting
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Bossi, L., Giorda, M.C. (2021). The “Casa delle religioni” of Turin: A Multi-Level Project Between Religious and Secular. In: Burchardt, M., Giorda, M.C. (eds) Geographies of Encounter. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-82525-6_10
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