In the heart of the Mediterranean, Sicily holds millennia-old stories that reflect the deep roots of the country's culture and tradition. Within it, numerous small inner areas, defined by the National Strategy for Inner Areas (SNAI), such as the Madonie and the Sicani, are rich in history, tradition, and culture. However, they struggle to emerge and demonstrate their potential to create sustainable job opportunities over time. The study of their vocations is crucial for designing innovative services that effectively meet the needs of the population and their propensity to create employment in synergy with the territory's potential. This human-centered approach aims to enhance these territories—an economic imperative but also a social duty to ensure a sustainable future for future generations. By employing Design Thinking, a widely recognized methodology for developing innovation and co-creation processes, and adopting various specific tools of this process, such as the Double Diamond for defining operational phases, SWOT analysis for identifying strengths and vulnerabilities, benchmarking for comparative analysis of results, and interpretation of the territorial specificity of the examined contexts, interaction and constructive dialogue among heterogeneous groups are facilitated, composed of individuals with design skills as well as non-experts. Design challenges will unfold in a Summer School for Sicilian Inner Areas, dedicated to young people under 30 to identify the most suitable strategies for the "forgotten villages". This approach could outline a concrete future in four Sicilian municipalities, namely Polizzi Generosa, Isnello, and Petralia Sottana in the Madonie, and Palazzo Adriano in the Sicani, involving two scientific-disciplinary sectors, design and technical architecture, through the creation of makers, individuals capable of generating employment and future prospects from territorial resources. The research objective is to identify the shared potential of these territories and develop tools capable of generating employment and economic growth, with the prospect of extending this experience and methodology to other inner, national, European, and extra-European territorial contexts. The proposed multidisciplinary approach aims to combine tradition and innovation, promoting the development of a participatory design school oriented towards the future of inner regions. The latter, thanks to their ability to narrate unique stories, traditions, and situations, represent an invaluable heritage that offers job opportunities to the community as a whole, still largely unexplored. In this context, innovation in territorial interaction processes emerges as a primary objective, delineating the landscape and environments of the Mediterranean in an integrated manner, enhancing territories and communities through connections and diversified spaces.
Lombardo, L., Morvillo, S. (2024). Enhancing Sicilian inner rural areas A multidisciplinary approach for the sustainable future of the Mediterranean. In Proceedings of The 7th International Conference on Smart Villages and Rural Development - COSVARD 2024 (pp. 106-118). Melbourne : Smart Villages Lab (SVL) Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning The University of Melbourne.
Enhancing Sicilian inner rural areas A multidisciplinary approach for the sustainable future of the Mediterranean
Lombardo, Luisa;Morvillo, Samuele
2024-01-01
Abstract
In the heart of the Mediterranean, Sicily holds millennia-old stories that reflect the deep roots of the country's culture and tradition. Within it, numerous small inner areas, defined by the National Strategy for Inner Areas (SNAI), such as the Madonie and the Sicani, are rich in history, tradition, and culture. However, they struggle to emerge and demonstrate their potential to create sustainable job opportunities over time. The study of their vocations is crucial for designing innovative services that effectively meet the needs of the population and their propensity to create employment in synergy with the territory's potential. This human-centered approach aims to enhance these territories—an economic imperative but also a social duty to ensure a sustainable future for future generations. By employing Design Thinking, a widely recognized methodology for developing innovation and co-creation processes, and adopting various specific tools of this process, such as the Double Diamond for defining operational phases, SWOT analysis for identifying strengths and vulnerabilities, benchmarking for comparative analysis of results, and interpretation of the territorial specificity of the examined contexts, interaction and constructive dialogue among heterogeneous groups are facilitated, composed of individuals with design skills as well as non-experts. Design challenges will unfold in a Summer School for Sicilian Inner Areas, dedicated to young people under 30 to identify the most suitable strategies for the "forgotten villages". This approach could outline a concrete future in four Sicilian municipalities, namely Polizzi Generosa, Isnello, and Petralia Sottana in the Madonie, and Palazzo Adriano in the Sicani, involving two scientific-disciplinary sectors, design and technical architecture, through the creation of makers, individuals capable of generating employment and future prospects from territorial resources. The research objective is to identify the shared potential of these territories and develop tools capable of generating employment and economic growth, with the prospect of extending this experience and methodology to other inner, national, European, and extra-European territorial contexts. The proposed multidisciplinary approach aims to combine tradition and innovation, promoting the development of a participatory design school oriented towards the future of inner regions. The latter, thanks to their ability to narrate unique stories, traditions, and situations, represent an invaluable heritage that offers job opportunities to the community as a whole, still largely unexplored. In this context, innovation in territorial interaction processes emerges as a primary objective, delineating the landscape and environments of the Mediterranean in an integrated manner, enhancing territories and communities through connections and diversified spaces.File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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