MIT and Politecnico together for the Rocca project

A project to study small Italian towns at risk of depopulation

The project has come to life “Towards the Smart Villages of Italy” finanziato da MIT – Italy Roberto Rocca Project-Politecnico di Milano.

MIT students and professors conducted ten days of fieldwork, travelling to some of the most economically disadvantaged and poorest areas of Europe in  inland Sicily (Favara, Vizzini and Centuripe), exploring the role of cultural heritage, digitization and WFH as tools to promote new forms of sustainable development. From this perspective, the digital transition is an opportunity that cannot be missed. The class also compared similar conditions of marginalisation in the Alps (Valtellina, Tirano and Teglio). Gli studenti stanno ora lavorando ai loro progetti finali, concentrandosi su alcuni temi come: metriche spaziali dell’abbandono in Sicilia, proposta per un piano regionale del lavoro a distanza in Valtellina, sensibilizzazione digitale delle piccole imprese, opportunità della Valtellina in vista delle imminenti Olimpiadi invernali e linee guida di progettazione su turismo e produzione alimentare in Sicilia.

dusp mit
https://dusp.mit.edu/news/smart-villages-italy

The project was developed by Prof. Giovanna Fossa (Department of Architecture, Construction Engineering and Built Environment) together with Prof. Brent Ryan (MIT Department of Urban Studies and Planning) who says:

It is the first time that MIT has organised an urban planning course in Italy on the subject of depopulation and widespread historical heritage. The students were exposed to new and unique situations that bear witness to the cultural richness of the Italian hinterland, but also to the fragility of an economically and demographically impoverished territory.

The research group of this MIT-Politecnico collaboration includes Carmelo Ignaccolo, researcher in urban planning at MIT,  Cristina Boniotti , researcher in restoration at the Department of Architecture, Construction Engineering and Built Environment of the Politecnico di Milano, and  Andrea Pimpinella , researcher in telecommunications at the Department of Electronics, Information and Bioengineering of the Politecnico di Milano.

Credits home: https://www.caldana.it/