Keywords

1 Architecture Beyond the Plan

The research work within which this project was developed aimed to explore an interscalar field in which tools of architectural composition intertwine with those of the project on an urban and territorial scale.

The Alpine landscape constitutively includes a spatial complexity that can only be explored through the interaction of different cartographic and representation tools, which often only partially allow to reflect this complexity.

The territory of Sappada is already in itself an enclave between different borders: terminal valley whose northern mountain crests mark the border with Austria, located on the edge of the Comelico belonging to the high Veneto Cadore in which an ethnic and linguistic heritage of Germanic matrix since 2017 administratively migrated to the territory of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region.

These specific identity traits have determined on the one hand the need to redefine the models of sustainable development of the territory, on the other hand the opportunity to develop a design exploration process. This process is capable of intertwining different tools: cartographic instruments of the Plan, with its analytical and programmatic categories; prefigurations, by arrangement and size, that the urban and landscape project has allowed to define in the various places and themes identified; definitions of individual architectural elements serving mobility networks and public spaces.

This analytical phase unfolded in parallel and in constant interaction with a participatory discussion process, comprising various open discussion tables for the local population, stakeholders, and municipal administration, delineating a series of fundamental shared themes and strategies. From the elaboration of these themes emerged five thematic axes enabling the intertwining of potential relationships with the Plan.

The Plan, therefore, besides conventionally synthesizing analyses and summarizing urban regulations and operational tools, in this instance, selects and indicates short- and medium-term strategies through spatial prefigurations, which the Municipality of Sappada intends to translate into planning phases at different levels. In the wake of a tradition intertwining the Plan and studies on the city with urban design [1], this research experience potentially broadens the scope from Alpine landscapes to other territories, experimenting with a theoretical dimension transcending the Plan, through the exploration of the form as a precise sign that is placed in the reality and meanwhile is the measure of a transformation process. [2].

2 Themes and Methodologies

These distinct identity traits mentioned before have led to two significant outcomes. First, they have explored a redefinition of sustainable development models for the region. Second, they have provided an opportunity to start a design exploration process that integrates the cartographic tools of the Plan (Figs. 1, 2, 3).

Fig. 1.
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Orthophoto of the Sappada territory, Sappada, 2023 (courtesy of the Municipality of Sappada)

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Fig. 2.
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Map of the Sappada territory with its three naturalistic macro-systems, Sappada, 2023 (image created by the research team and owned by the authors)

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Fig. 3.
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The urban organization of Sappada along the east-west axis, parallel to the river Piave, Sappada, 2023 (image created by the research team and owned by the authors)

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These tools include analytical and programmatic categories [7], incorporating the prefiguration of arrangements and scales enabled by urban and landscape projects. [3, 5] They are defined across various locations and themes. Moreover, the endeavor involves crafting individual architectural elements impacting mobility networks and public spaces. Following this analytical phase, conducted with participatory discussion panels addressing issues such as natural resource management, culture and education, tourism, employment development, and social inclusion and safety, five thematic axes emerged. These axes, encompassing the naturalistic system, tourist resources, local economies, territorial infrastructures, and historical identity heritage, facilitated the structuring of a specific proposal for a strategic plan.

The naturalistic system is formed by three main areas, the first one is Piave river park. The second one is Sesis Valley, that represents the higher course of Piave river until its springs. Thus, the Plan not only organizes conventional analyses, compiles urban regulations, and outlines practical tools, but also goes a step further [6]. In this instance, it specifically identifies and recommends short- and medium-term strategies by means of spatial prefiguration.

The Municipality of Sappada aims to convert these strategies into various planning stages across different levels. In case of the lodges located in this mountainous area, that provide shelter and basic amenities to hikers, climbers, skiers. And this wider network of infrastructure will serve plateau of Sappada 2000, that show many potentials for these users. In summary, the key themes that shape this area of study are the Piave river branch, the Val Sesis Naturalistic Oasis, and the naturalistic system of Sappada 2000. These three areas significantly contribute to establishing the prominent “environmental axes” of Sappada. The potential for the community's future lies within these three natural systems: the envisioned path involves strategically linking them with the town center and its associated services, along with the municipal and territorial infrastructure hubs.

Within a broader perspective, the Plan operates on two fronts: firstly, intervening within the three natural systems by structuring a mobility framework, with a specific focus on sustainable transportation and public transit services, and enhancing their utility through the addition of new service infrastructures. Secondly, efforts are directed towards fostering connections between the three overarching systems and the town center.

The first phase of the research allowed an analytical reading of the territory from multiple disciplinary viewpoints: from the geographical to the naturalistic-environmental dimension, from the historical-cultural to the socio-economic aspects. This initial phase was conducted parallel to the development process of the participatory Strategic Plan “Sappada/Plodn 2050,” undertaken by the administration in collaboration with ComPA FVG (a public body focused on strengthening the institutional, planning, organizational and management capacity of local authorities, bodies and of public companies in Friuli Venezia Giulia region), aimed at gathering input through open work tables involving citizens, local stakeholders, and external references. [4].

The elaboration of the general map of the river landscape, illustrating the overall state of existing elements, reaches a basic definition that includes, superimposed in layers, all the systems relevant to the park project: morphological, hydrogeological, and fluvial, both natural and anthropic. Alongside the research process, five thematic tables were organized in response to the aforementioned issues, conducted by the Municipality of Sappada with the University of Padua, enabling a better understanding of Sappada’s critical issues and potentials through dialogue between citizens and experts, aiming for a more calibrated solution to the emerging problems. The role of the administration has been to participate without guiding the choices of local participants, but rather by introducing the issues discussed from time to time, contextualizing them within the social and political landscape of the community.

The thematic tables are integral to the understanding process of Sappada's territory and have been divided according to the different areas of interest indicated above. They also conclude the elaboration of the programmatic framework, aiming to obtain a concrete response to the critical issues raised for each theme, addressable and achievable over the next 10 to 20 years through properly planned interventions. Once the addresses and research topics have been collected and specifically identified, and subjected to content synthesis, the main macro-themes have been further explored, covering various territorial problems and potentials of Sappada on several fronts, to achieve their full recognition and development, leveraging their resources and opportunities.

For each macro-theme, cartographic elaborations have been identified to allow direct comparisons, seeking the broadest spatial understanding of the local reality, and to realize proposals that adequately meet the needs of the community and citizens of Sappada. Georeferenced files, photos, and images from municipal archives, including existing data in initiated and ongoing plans and projects over the past 20 years, have been collected for the construction of this diagnosis. To enable a direct comparison with research conducted in parallel, each macro-theme has been juxtaposed with analytical data on project initiatives emerging from discussion tables (Figs. 4, 5, 6).

Fig. 4.
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General map of the river Park of Piave with the three project focuses, Sappada, 2023 (image created by the research team and owned by the authors)

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Fig. 5.
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General map of the Val Sesis Oasis with the four project focuses, Sappada, 2023 (image created by the research team and owned by the authors)

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Fig. 6.
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General map of Sappada 2000 with the three project focuses, Sappada, 2023 (as above)

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2.1 First Focus: Piave Park

This first focus, which frames an extension of about one kilometer, includes the access point to the Piave Park, the expansion of the craft area and the first thematic place represented by the vision of an Art Park.

The vision of an Art Park within a river basin, which provides for the semi-immersion of the stalls, guarantees an unprecedented type of tourist and cultural use. Within an aquatic dimension, the installations will take on a significant landscape value, which will create an authentic pole of cultural production capable of attracting new categories of users throughout the year.

The development of a linear park with specific functional areas, distributed throughout its extension, requires specific modular service blocks within the route, as indicators of a change in the landscape, capable of reverberating the material-environmental characteristics of the river landscape.

A second focus is dedicated to an eastern area along the Piave river, where will be possible to reach directly the river for bathing and walking.

A third focus is centered on food products coming from local agricultural activities, in connection with a previous dismissed military area.

This area was involved in a teaching activity in University of Ferrara since September 2022 to February 2023: students of 3rd year attending Master degree course on Architecture have developed architectural design exercises for the reuse of this area and its surroundings to get different scenarios, as outlined in a further chapter (Fig. 7).

Fig. 7.
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Art Park along Piave river. Axonometric view, Sappada, 2023 (image created by the research team and owned by the authors)

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2.2 Second Focus: Val Sesis

The main element that characterizes the Nature Oasis of Val Sesis are the springs of the Piave River, as well as the river itself in its first stretch that descends with a torrential character until the height of Cima Sappada. It is precisely from this first village that a paved path starts, parallel to the riverbed that connects the town center to the springs, located at the foot of Mount Peralba.

The entire naturalistic compartment has an extraordinary landscape value that nevertheless presents few elements of tourist, recreational, receptive and cultural. The Piave springs themselves appear to be choked by parking lots, are barely visible, small in size and marked by a precarious arrangement of elements commemorative, protective, urban and landscaping totally inadequate to a monument with a very strong historical, cultural, symbolic and identity value for the entire nation.

The general project strategy begins with the intervention in the village of Cima Sappada, which is to be decongested from car traffic through a new parking area and the activation of a public transport service by bus-shuttle that solves the connection with the springs, maintaining the stops in the intermediate shelters. A specific stop module is designed at these points, also equipped with support equipment for cyclists. Then there is the provision of some parking lots for all the periods in which the service of public transport is not provided. The intervention on the springs of the Piave River involves the complete redesign of the area to give a wider scope to the springs themselves, attempting to simultaneously restore dignity and sacredness to the site (Fig. 8).

Fig. 8.
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The new access and reorganization of the Piave springs. Axonometric view, Sappada, 2023 (image created by the research team and owned by the authors)

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2.3 Third Focus: Sappada 2000

The naturalistic territory of Sappada 2000 limited to the peaks arranged on the northern side of Sappada, develops only at high altitudes, bordering to the north, along the crests of Monte Lastroni, with Austria, to the east with the first virgin stretch of the Piave river, to the west by the Monte Ferro line and to the south by the town of Sappada. The intervention envisaged in this naturalistic context must develop in a scenario of amplification of the offers inherent to the high altitude, admitted only by the elaboration and implementation of the strategy for connecting the historic center to Sappada 2000.

The general objective is to structure a program no longer based only on sport users, but extended and aimed at family groups, at children, therefore, at all those activities generated in the recreational-sports-excursion field (Fig. 9).

Fig. 9.
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The new sports and recreational infrastructures of Sappada 2000. Axonometric view, Sappada, 2023 (image created by the research team and owned by the authors)

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The first focus of the intervention envisages the restructuring of the Sappada 2000 refuge, through some interventions: a system of naturalistic residences, built on the same ridge, together with a covered observatory; new playground built on the natural slopes of the land, near the refuge itself; a zip-line with departure at high altitude and arrival at the valley station; a paragliding starting point, with dedicated platforms, built just east of the Chapel dedicated to the fallen soldiers in Russia.

The design of the new panoramic service module for the entire territory of Sappada 2000 is the result of a sophisticated thematic development, supported by a severe need for adaptability to the context, from a geological, structural, meteorological and, above all, identity point of view. It is a module that can be positioned in different points of the high-altitude region, a decision resulting from the desire to restore the extraordinary visual observation potential in some of these places, thus enhancing those naturally generated panoramic points.

3 Didactic Experience

The didactic experience conducted in the Design Studio 3 of the University of Ferrara, within the framework of the Master Degree Course in Architecture, focused on the adaptive reuse of the site of the former Alpine Barracks Fasil in Sappada (Fig. 10).

Fig. 10.
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Exercise on adaptive reuse of former Alpine Barracks Fasil in Sappada. Model, Ferrara, 2023 (photo by Alessandro Tessari, owned by the author)

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The Studio, structured into three ateliers, engaged 133 third-year Architecture students, organized into 39 design teams. These teams grappled with formulating a design approach that meticulously considered the urban and landscape configuration of the Sappada region. Under the guidance of 7 instructors, the projects were geared towards three primary functional scenarios: innovative tourist accommodations; educational facilities rooted in the region’s excellence; pioneering residential and coworking spaces. The projects developed challenged the conventional approach to existing heritage, particularly the abandoned barracks building. These proposals presented design solutions where the interplay between the existing structure and the new intervention was encapsulated within two overarching morphological strategies: “inside” which focused on the barracks building itself and involved processes of addition and subtraction, and “outside” which focused on extensions and clusters of new buildings.

This didactic experience underscored the complexity in intervening within a multifaceted landscape, rich in identity, urban and architectural significance and memory. The multifarious nature of the solutions presented underscored the complex features of the site, offering a glimpse into a multitude of potential adaptive reuse scenarios.