Building Collective Knowledge Through Design: The Making of the Contrada Nicolò Riparian Garden Along the Simeto River (Sicily, Italy)

Abstract

Insurgent movements advocating environmental protection have garnered attention from design disciplines for their capacity to envision sustainable powerful transformations of human environments. In the last twenty years, the recognition of this potential has entered into research agendas, which have mainly focused on explaining through case studies how these phenomena have been able to affect institutional planning efforts in relation to environmental issues. Following a Participatory Action Research approach, this article presents a design experience carried out by a partnership established between a grass-roots association and university researchers in the Simeto River Valley (Sicily, Italy). It shows how design research techniques, borrowed from place making and community design approaches, can be used as instruments to promote goals of community-based organisations and advance their capacity in conceiving actions to transform local environments.

Key Words:

• Insurgent movements
• community design
• place making
• participatory action research
• landscape
• Italy

Acknowledgements

The author wishes to thank all the friends and members of the Simeto River Valley Community met during the design experience mentioned in this article. The author specially thanks Turi, Graziella, Nirav, Valentina, Angela, Paolo, Luigi, Giuseppe, Alfio, Alfonso, Pippo, Orazio and Vincenzo. The author also wishes to thank Giusy Pappalardo at the University of Catania for her fundamental contribution to this project and Dan Harper at the University of Memphis for his comments and feedbacks on the first draft of this article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The Simeto Valley fauna includes a diverse population of non-migratory and migratory birds. In particular, birds migrate from continental Europe to Sicily on their way to Africa, using zones along the Simeto as resting areas during migration seasons.

2. The term contrada refers to an urban or countryside subdivision of administrative boundaries. In this article, however, it refers to a specific site as indicated by local communities.

3. The Consorzio di Bonifica is an Italian public institution that rules public infrastructures related to watershed management.

4. CAAA can be translated as Autochthonous Avifauna Amateurs Club, while AOP as Paternò Ornithological Association.

5. AAF can be translated as Department of Agriculture and Forest.

6. ECOLab reached out to the Genio Civile di Catania (the City of Catania Civil Engineer Department), the Polizia Povinciale (the Provincial Police Department) and the Soprintendenza (the Regional Board of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Environmental Conservation).