Educational project
Coexist – Fontana, Bosco, Mondada
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Fontana, Bosco, and Mondada are the “Lands” of Val Bavona that were severely affected by the storm of 2024. In a year dedicated to the Vallemaggia area and the unifying theme of Regeneration, the choice of this location for the fifth semester project enriched us all, thanks to its unique characteristics and the dramatic nature of the event, transforming an educational theme into an experience of coexistence and humanity.
The first collective moment focused on both the landscape (with the representation through plans and large-scale models of the state of reality before and after the landslide) and the built environment, with a systematic redesign of the three "nuclei" to obtain a complete typological plan.
Starting from this basis, the project laboratory was organised into two groups of students - each supervised by a pair of teachers - who developed two distinct master plans as a general conceptual outline for the subsequent individual interventions. The two interpretations presented some similarities, particularly in the choice of a perimeter route between the banks of the valley to connect the three damaged areas, but with an almost opposite spirit in their characterization. On the one hand, resilience, with the acceptance of risk, with lighter but calibrated interventions to protect against probable future events; on the other, resistance, where the new structures were designed for greater protection.
Emblematic of this diversity is the proposal for the new road: in the first case, a layer of reclaimed stone laid on the ground, protected upstream by the new large extension of the riverbed, which in extraordinary events can flow over it without destroying it. In the second case, a concrete infrastructure protects the new section, defying the forces of nature. In both master plans, small themes of recovery, preservation, and innovation have been developed along the route, all highly relevant to the Bavona Valley, with the sense of hope that a young architect must possess.
Starting from this basis, the project laboratory was organised into two groups of students - each supervised by a pair of teachers - who developed two distinct master plans as a general conceptual outline for the subsequent individual interventions. The two interpretations presented some similarities, particularly in the choice of a perimeter route between the banks of the valley to connect the three damaged areas, but with an almost opposite spirit in their characterization. On the one hand, resilience, with the acceptance of risk, with lighter but calibrated interventions to protect against probable future events; on the other, resistance, where the new structures were designed for greater protection.
Emblematic of this diversity is the proposal for the new road: in the first case, a layer of reclaimed stone laid on the ground, protected upstream by the new large extension of the riverbed, which in extraordinary events can flow over it without destroying it. In the second case, a concrete infrastructure protects the new section, defying the forces of nature. In both master plans, small themes of recovery, preservation, and innovation have been developed along the route, all highly relevant to the Bavona Valley, with the sense of hope that a young architect must possess.
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Site plan before the landslide
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Site plan after the landslide
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Atelier Bartke Canevascini, masterplan
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Atelier Bartke Canevascini, model
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Atelier Cattaneo Inches, masterplan
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Atelier Cattaneo Inches, model