Publications
Il domani e le comunità utopiche
Utopian communities, from 19th-century visionary experiments to modern gated enclaves, reveal enduring human aspirations for cooperation and equality. This study traces the evolution of ideal urban forms—from Edward Bellamy's fictional Boston to Ebenezer Howard's Garden Cities—culminating in industrial villages like Crespi d'Adda and Olivetti's Canavese communities. While these experiments aimed to reimagine collective life through planned design, their legacy is ambiguous, reflecting tensions between public ideals and privatized urbanism. The analysis highlights how utopian impulses persist, even as they adapt to contemporary contexts.
How Cultural Tourism Management Initiatives Come to Light Starting from Local Needs: The Case of the Crespi D’Adda Company Town
A groundbreaking integration of cultural tourism initiatives with UNESCO World Heritage Site (WHS) management is demonstrated at Crespi d'Adda, Italy. The study highlights how actions proposed through the Horizon2020 TExTOUR project—focusing on social innovation and sustainable growth via participatory tourism—were seamlessly incorporated into Crespi d'Adda's UNESCO Management Plan. This bottom-up approach, involving local stakeholders and residents, ensured that locally identified needs aligned with broader conservation and promotion strategies for the site. The research underscores the potential of collaborative, participatory processes to shape effective heritage management, offering a model for other WHS sites seeking sustainable cultural tourism development.
Crespi D'Adda. Paesaggio, Programma, Progetto. Dal macchinismo alla vita liquida, questioni di entropia
Crespi d'Adda, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a prime example of a 19th-century industrial village, is perceived as a relic of its past rather than a dynamic, evolving landscape. However, this perception overlooks the site's ongoing historical and geographical significance. The study argues that Crespi d'Adda's unique landscape, shaped by over a century of industrial activity, remains a living entity with untold narratives waiting to be rediscovered. It challenges the notion of the site as a static ruin, proposing instead that its evolution reflects complex interactions between human and natural forces. The research emphasizes the need for systematic interventions to make this 'landscape in becoming' more readable and coherent, positioning Crespi d'Adda as a valuable laboratory for urban studies, architecture, and cultural innovation. It also highlights the role of labor in shaping social identity within the village, suggesting that reintegrating work as a cultural medium could revitalize the community's sense of belonging.
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