“MOBILITY IN A SMALL TOWN” | Terra Viva Workshop n° 10 | 13-17 May 2018 | Sardinia

Orani, a small city of 3,000 inhabitants, sits in the hilly interior of the island of Sardegna, about 30 km from Nuoro. The hilly region is known as the Barbagia, once famous for its bandits. In previous times the local economy was sustained by talcum mines and leather, wood, and ceramic artisans as well as the typical agricultural base of olives, grain, and wine. The artist Costantino Nivola was born here in 1911, but made his fame in New York during the 1950s as the “architect’s sculptor”. After his death in 1988, a foundation was established and a museum dedicated to his work was set on the southern edge of Orani.

In this fourth workshop organized by Terra Viva Workshops, under the rubric The Living Museum, and associated with the Politecnico di Milano, students will be engaged in researching and proposing solutions for urban, social, and landscape issues. The Nivola Museum sits in a spectacular natural site below the pilgrimage mountain of Monte Gonare. Aside from the gardens already installed, the museum owns over 20 hectares of land, some of it olive terraces, and one stone quarry area that forms a natural amphitheater. The Comune of Orani and the Museo Nivola have recently launched a program known as Geoartnet, a search for ways to improve the connections among local artistic and geological resources. We will continue to work on mobility issues, such as transportation to Orani, parking, pedestrian connections to the town, the access to the abandoned mines beyond Orani, and the value of a community gardens on the museum grounds.

Each year there are an estimated 3 million tourists who come to Sardegna, but the majority are beach tourists. The interior is graced with spectacular unruined landscapes, and marvelous archeological sites with over 7000 Iron-age Nuraghe towers. Students will visit and analyze the local urban and natural landscapes, consider the urban and cultural functions of the land, theorize new connections considering factors of local identity, economic prospects, ecological concerns, tourism, museality, and urban agriculture. The final projects will be presented both at the museum in Orani and at the Politecnico in Milan.

The ten projects will be presented on May 17th at noon to all who are interested. Critics include Prof. Alessandro Floris, the tutors Arian Heidari Afshari, Eugenia Bolla, Stefano Lardera and the Program Director Richard Ingersoll.

Photo Credits © Eugenia Bolla, Stefano Lardera