As evidenced, the existence of industrial brownfield sites in the Alps, and in mountain regions in general, is a relevant yet largely underestimated issue, worth to be explored. The fact that most of the previous research on the topic, as well as the practical experiences, have a strong local character—in terms of geography, culture and even language—, translates into a substantial lack of comprehensive and comparative international studies. This research gap can be indeed articulated through the analytical and operative stages of knowledge generation. A first ‘analytical’ gap concerns the identification, mapping and characterisation of brownfields in the Alpine region. Identification and mapping deal with quantitative aspects and represent a necessary preliminary step in the investigation of new territorial and spatial phenomena. Although many local and regional databases of brownfield sites are already existing (Modica 2019), developed for either scientific or administrative purposes, their wide differences in methodology and spatial/temporal coverage make any reliable comparative and ‘sampling’ study extremely difficult to be achieved. Characterisation, in turn, should highlight the qualitative aspects of mountain brownfields, that is, focusing on their specific features and structural conditions. The lack of a proper analytical base—distribution and characteristics—leads logically to the second ‘operative’ gap: the development, testing and implementation of specific brownfield transformation strategies in these contexts. The already evidenced shortcomings in planning and design approaches there used—clearly reflected in the prevailing orientation to building or land recycling, without considering spatial and aspatial contextual conditions—are the cause behind the failure to achieve long-term, sustainable redevelopment results. This second gap can be ideally addressed by means of explorative research-by-design methods, capable of integrating the analytical findings into a new procedural model for mountain brownfield transformation. Although extendable to mountain regions in general, the aforementioned research gaps are specifically investigated and addressed, in the framework of the present research, with reference to the Alpine region.

1 Aims and Hypothesis

Given the interwoven analytical-operative structure of the identified knowledge gaps, and considering the arguments introduced in the previous introductory chapter, the research proposes to:

  • quantify and characterise Alpine industrial brownfield sites, providing a first, necessary overview on the ‘size’ and the ‘shape’ of the problem. Through the quantification and characterisation aims, the research will identify the recurring typologies of mountain brownfields, as well as assess their impact in terms of geographical distribution, spatial structure and landscape footprint. The nature of this first aim is therefore purely analytical;

  • develop and test a context-based, reliable and transferable transformation approach, capable of effectively sustaining the complex redevelopment process of Alpine brownfields. This aimed transformation approach will incorporate the already mentioned ‘infrastructural’ understanding of landscape, providing to be sufficiently adaptable (replicable) to a variety of specific situations—as emerging from the quantification and characterisation. According to this second aim, the research is expected to generate an operative ‘planning’ model, as well as the premises for its possible future implementation. The nature of this second aim is explorative and strongly interpretative.

The first aim—quantification and characterisation of Alpine brownfields—is considered as a precondition to the achievement of the second aim—development and testing of a new transformation approach. In turn, the achievement of the second aim validates and sustains the evidence resulting from the first. This mutual relationship between the two main research aims is synthesised and expressed through the following hypothesis, which constitutes indeed the logical basement of the entire research:

The challenging redevelopment process of complex brownfield sites in mountain regions can only be successfully managed through an inclusive, adaptable and affordable landscape approach based on structural-systemic principles.

The effectiveness (usability and transferability) of such an approach is directly related to its capacity of integrating, in a structured but flexible way, the typological site specificity with the given environmental, economic and social contextual conditions.

To favour a clear and immediate understanding of the aforesaid hypothesis, the following key terms are provided:

  • complex brownfield sites: industrial sites which have lost their original function and are currently unused, underused or derelict; with at least two of the following characteristics: most of the original spatial layout and built structures still present, large size/footprint compared to the surrounding built/open fabric, proved contamination issues, proved socioeconomic relevance at the regional scale.

  • mountain regions: geo-economic peripheral regions and enclaves characterised by mountainous topography (reliefs from 1000 m upwards) and overlapping spatial (land use patterns, scattered urbanisation, environmental sensitivity) and aspatial (economic mono-structures, administrative fragmentation, weak market forces) conditions.

  • landscape approach: to consider brownfield sites as infrastructural elements of a wider cultural (man-made) landscape; to adopt an outward perspective on the site, i.e. focusing on the spatial, functional, ecological and visual relationships between the site and the context, rather than just on the content of the site itself; to consider landscape as a medium to analyse the site and its surroundings as well as to spatially implement transformation; to equally consider built and open spaces, as well as vertical/plan/detached and horizontal/view/attached analytical and design perspectives.

  • inclusive: the transformation area has to include the core site (industrial plant) and those surrounding spaces having a direct or indirect functional connection to the core site.

  • adaptable: the transformation process has to be structured in a way that the same results can be achieved independently from the site typology and conditions as well as contextual circumstances.

  • affordable: the transformation process has to be structured in a way that its activation and further progress are made possible even with limited technical and financial efforts.

2 Methodology

As stated in the hypothesis, the research aims to understand and deepen the actual physical condition of mountain (Alpine) brownfields, as a precondition to outline and test their (potential) transformation in the framework of complex redevelopment processes. This dual analytic-operative structuring of the research invokes the integration of different levels and methods of knowledge generation, from the review of existing theories, concepts and facts towards more explorative and interpretative research-by-design approaches (de Jong and Van der Voordt 2002). The construction of the research methodology is derived directly from the hypothesis, which functions as ‘synthesising collector’ of research questions and thus provides the methodological vocabulary.

The first part of the hypothesis statement incorporates the problem and the proposed solution respectively in the beginning and the end of the sentence. The problem is “the challenging redevelopment process of complex brownfield sites in mountain regions”, while the solution is “an inclusive, adaptable and affordable landscape approach based on structural-systemic principles”. Accordingly, the first research step towards validating the hypothesis is to define and study both the problem and the prospected solution. In other words, it means to ‘extend’ the relative parts of the sentence into a wider, more articulated discourse. This process constitutes indeed the theoretical framework of the research, in which the background of both the problem and the solution is investigated and unearthed by means of reviewing previous works and findings. However, this reviewing process is not a linear, flat enumeration of theories, but rather a highly constructive and ‘oriented’ assembling of selected and relevant sources. In addition, given the multifaceted and cross-disciplinary character of the issue under investigation, this reviewing process has necessarily to integrate literature and findings from different scientific fields, although afferent to planning and landscape studies.

Concerning the aforementioned ‘problem’ sentence, the complex redevelopment process of brownfield sites in mountain regions is broadened and signified through the description of the overall contextual conditions that affect former industrial sites in the Alps, based on existing literature and previous research. The Alps as context of brownfield redevelopment means to understand why brownfields can be found there, what are their originating causes, and how their transformation is challenged by specific economic, environmental and social conditions. The theoretical research aims here therefore to set the ‘territory’ of the identified problem.

Similarly, the ‘solution’ sentence is addressed by means of existing theories and approaches that understand and treat brownfield transformation from the perspective of landscape. As for in the problem section, the argumentations in favour of this particular focus are not existing per se, but they have to be detected, integrated and partially re-interpreted. Issues such the codification of brownfields as transitional landscapes, the derived transformation approaches and their inherent semantics, the use of structuralist and systemic principles in the transformation practice, are therefore considered and discussed. Both these theoretical inquiries on problem and solution are producing, as preliminary conclusion, an interpretative image of the object of the research (i.e. Alpine brownfields), that is, a functional add-on to the testing of the hypothesis.

The second part of the hypothesis statement explains the causal link between the problem and the proposed solution, or how the solution will ensure the “successful management” of the problem. All the key elements are included in the sentence: the effectiveness of the proposed approach, which entails its usability and transferability as well; the required ‘functioning’ of the proposed approach, i.e. the “structure but flexible” integration of the “site typological specificity” with the “given environmental, economic and social contextual conditions”. The complex unfolding of this second hypothesis statement constitutes the explorative and interpretative content of the research, that is, the empirical work. In order to approach the latter logically, i.e. by following the argumentation line within the hypothesis, the empirical analysis is performed through different stages, consequential yet independent. Being strongly spatially defined, these stages are indeed scales of analysis, which progression develops as a sort of zooming-in process from big to small, from the overview to the details. The first scale aims to quantify and qualify the brownfield issue in the Alpine region, that is, to identify how many sites are existing and where are these located. The second scale performs a typological analysis on representative categories of sites, with the aim to highlight recurrent landscape structures and the attached transformation potential. The third and last scale, finally, concretely and actively explores a selection of case study sites, condensing in this process the elements of knowledge accumulated so far in the research—both theoretically and analytically. As highly explorative and interpretative procedures, all the three scales encompass a vast set of methods and techniques of analysis, from desk research and focused literature review to interviews, from remote geo-surveying to photographic field documentation, from virtual mapping to explorative design. Due to the density and complexity of the empirical work, the detailed methodology for each stage/scale is explained in each respective introductions, rather than in the current section. This allows to better frame and understand the preliminary results of each stage, as well as to clearly link them to the previous or upcoming ones.

In conclusion, the empirical results are critically and comparatively evaluated according to the previously established theoretical framework, with the aim to read the hypothesis anew and check for its (eventual) validity. So described, the ‘method-o-logical’ construction of the research is clearly reproduced in the structure of the work itself.

3 Structure

According to the research aims and methodology, the work is structured around two main sections and six chapters, besides the present introductory framework (chapters 1 and 2) and the conclusive part (chapters 9 and 10).

The first section, Foundations, sets the theoretical base of the research, while providing the key arguments for the final critical discussion. Its structural organisation is based on a careful selection and integration of sedimented as well as emerging theories and concepts from diverse yet adjacent disciplinary fields.

Chapter 3, “The Alps as context”, introduces the issue of brownfield redevelopment in Alpine region according to consequential perspectives. An overview on industrialisation and deindustrialisation processes in the Alps provides first the background causes and the reasons for the presence of brownfields (origin). A review of the contextual economic, social and environmental conditions influencing the redevelopment of Alpine brownfields provides then the elements to shape this latter challenge. Accordingly, a description of mountain brownfields as territorial infrastructure is put forward.

Chapter 4, “Brownfields as landscapes”, presents a methodological excursus on landscape-oriented approaches to brownfield redevelopment, illustrated through the most relevant thinking patterns as well as concrete reconversion experiences. According to a holistic understanding of landscape, structuralist and systemic approaches to brownfield revitalisation are identified and discussed, especially with regards to their potential useful application in the Alpine context.

The second section, Explorations, constitutes the empirical part of the research, logically organized and developed on the basis of data collection, presentation, analysis and discussion phases. As already mentioned, the empirical analysis is presented through a multi-scalar perspective, which allows a gradual and closer approaching to the investigation of the main research questions.

Chapter 5, “Mapping”, unveils the first analytical scale, which provides a comprehensive overview of the brownfield issue in the Alps by means of a territorial census of sites as well as a survey among key regional stakeholders. As preliminary result, four regional types are identified based on territorial aggregation.

Chapter 6, “Characterising”, describes the typological specificity of the most representative Alpine industries, by focusing on the associated landscape structures—inherited by the related brownfields. As preliminary result, recurring and recognisable landscape structures are identified in association to specific site typologies.

Chapter 7, “Testing”, contains the rich and detailed analysis performed on the four international case study sites, for which a prospected transformation is outlined, developed and visually represented. As preliminary result, a taxonomy of transformative interventions is identified.

Chapter 8, “Matching”, assembles and systematise the three previous preliminary results into an operative tool, the matrix of redevelopment.

The conclusive section of the research, Findings, critically evaluates the results and, in particular, it defines a specific landscape approach for the transformation of Alpine brownfield and for its transferability.

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