E3 Water for a friend

About Multiplier event

The topic of water in cities and measures to prevent the risks of flooding and the risks due to water scarcity were at the center of the “water for a friend” event. It was an opportunity to represent to students and citizens the risks faced by cities and the possible solutions based on the best international experiences. The event also had the objective of disseminating the results of the Sant’Antonio Local Workshop in San Benedetto del Tronto.

The event took place in Ascoli Piceno at the School of Architecture and Design and in the city of San Benedetto del Tronto with the active involvement of students, teachers, stakeholders and citizens. The morning, at the UNICAM Sant’Angelo Magno Campus, was dedicated to a series of presentation addressed at students and researchers regarding the Clicche Metodology (R1; R2; R3; R4); the results of Clicche’s local workshops, with a look at the local workshops of San Benedetto del Tronto, Lisbon and Strovolos. Clicche’s foreign partners participated in connection and via pre-recorded video. This activity was followed by a presentation by Prof. Mauro Varotto – University of Padua, on the topic of water and the cities of the future, transformed by the melting of glaciers and the sea level rise. The work done by students and teachers in the local workshop of San Benedetto and the risks due to river and coastal flooding in cities today and in the future were the subject of a television report and interviews carried out by RadioTelevisione Italiana – Rai 3 Marche, directly to students and teachers and broadcast on the regional news.

The following activities took place in the morning:

In the afternoon, at the UNICAM campus in San Benedetto del Tronto located on the Scipioni seafront, the activities of the local Sant’Antonio workshop were illustrated and the video interviews were conducted with the inhabitants on the quality of life in the neighborhood and on climate risks were screened. The topic of droughts and water scarcity was addressed through a remote connection with the researcher Gabriele Nanni of Legambiente, author of the Dossier “Accelerare il cambiamento: la sfida dell’acqua passa dalle città / Accelerating change: the water challenge passes through the cities”. Later two exhibitions curated by the students and teachers were presented: the first one concerning the projects on the Sant’Antonio neighborhood as a result of the co-design activities carried out in the local workshop; the second one, entitled “Italy to come” – Free interpretation of the Italy of the Anthropocene”. The topics of this second exhibition, inspired by the book “Journey to the Italy of the Anthropocene. “La Geografia Visionaria del nostro future / The Visionary Geography of our future” written by Telmo Pievani and Mauro Varotto, were represented with images and videos by the students of the Clicche Project and concerned the effects of rising sea levels on the cities of the Adriatic Sea of the future. A part of the video mapping was instead dedicated to the most interesting experiences of adaptation of some European and Italian cities, through images selected and created by the students. The projects for the neighborhood, the problems to be solved and the images of the cities of the future were the subject of the final debate with local administrators, public administration technicians, freelancers and citizens. At the end of the afternoon, a questionnaire was distributed to citizens and students regarding their interest in participating in the mutiplier event.

The following activities took place in the afternoon:

The event aroused considerable interest from citizens, the neighborhood committee, students and the municipal administration.

Participating groups

Results

The event “Water For a Friend” was part of the thirty-year anniversary of the School of Architecture and Design of the University of Camerino. This event includes a broad program of events regarding research and project culture in architecture, design and urban planning, with the aim of answering a fundamental question: the role of a School of Architecture and Design today with respect to the needs of contemporary society and to the territory. The Clicche project is fully included among the training and research proposals that this event aims to spread, also representing an opportunity for discussion with communities and local and national stakeholders. The event aroused considerable interest from citizens, the neighborhood committee, students and the municipal administration. The concrete results of this success can be found in the invitation to exhibit at the “Italy to come” exhibition at the Geography Museum of Padua -December 2023; the implementation of a framework agreement and a convention between UNICAM and the Municipality of San Benedetto del Tronto on the issues of climate adaptation and urban regeneration; the continuation of activities to involve the population of the Sant’Antonio district in a PNRR (Piano Nazionale ) “Innovation Ecosystem Project-Vitality”, on urban greenery issues. The affinity to this topic fostered interest among students and citizens, who participated in large numbers in both the morning and afternoon activities. It also aroused considerable interest in the local press which published many articles on the event and even a report on the RAI regional network. However, the citizens’ questionnaire revealed to us that there is still a long way to go in terms of information and concrete adaptation actions, in this sense projects like Clicche can help raise awareness among local administrations, citizens and technicians.The interest shown by the students in the topics addressed gives rise to hope for the possibility that the students themselves will become the disseminators of a new urban culture based on adaptation. To encourage this, it was decided to donate the works of the Local Workshop displayed in the exhibition to the Sant’Antonio neighborhood and to the Municipal Administration in order to implement opportunities for disseminating the project among the local community.

Dissemination of the event