'a funtana abbascio
Second place at the Riuso 05 Rigenerazione Urbana Sostenibile. Sezione Architetti.
UPDATE #05 - Urban Upgrading Processes
In the small village of Altavilla Irpina, since March 2015, sa.und.sa architects together with citizens, municipality and students from several Italian University, started to work on the area known as “Funtana Abbascio”: a peri-urban site representing, since the 12th century, an important social catalyzer, daily used by citizens, till the end of II world war, to do laundry.
UPDATE #05, an urban upgrading workshop, has been the opportunity to foster low-cost civic engagement and community participation in re-cycling a significant place for Altavilla citizenry through a short-term, experimental and playful project. Relationships born during the participative process phase turned into precious engagement manifestations during the later months: local enterprises sponsored preliminary works on the area; artisans lent their machine tools in the phase of self-building workshop; associations and commercials organised parties and convivial events for the students arrived from all over Italy for the self-building workshop; volunteer citizens participated to the building phase.
In seven days all the area has been recovered through the restyling of the fountain and the realisation of four site specific wooden interventions: a bench-bridge that crosses a little creek on the principal trail; a relational area, looking to the landscape, with “urban-sofas” for small groups of people; a south oriented solarium where delighting sunset in the afternoon; a little chapel consecrate to Saint Bernardino in the conclusive part of the path. Many associations – among which boy scouts and local events committee – at the moment co-manage the area.