About the project

Caporciano, a small village in Abruzzo, barely two hours by car from Rome, is becoming extinct – a fate it shares with many other small towns in the region that have been hit by migration to the cities since the mid-twentieth century. The devastating earthquake of 2009 destroyed not only many houses, but also many residents’ confidence.

The reconstruction effort, which is heavily funded by the Italian state, is mainly aiming to restore past conditions. It lacks a convincing program to adapt and address current and future challenges such as climate change, population aging, and unemployment. Over the past decade, the Italian state and the EU have spent billions of euros on reconstruction. As a result, the townscape of most villages and small towns in the Navelli plateau is still marked by cranes and scaffolding, but an influx of people has so far been absent. Thus, the noise of scattered construction sites often remains the major sign of human activity in historic villages with many vacant, newly renovated houses.

In search of a new vision for Caporciano, one of the local stakeholders contacted the architecture program of the UdK Berlin. The foundation for a one-year in-depth project was laid down, which was to provide new concepts for the revitalization of the site.

As the project took shape, the exploration of the symbiosis between architectural and artistic ways of working has proven essential, as well as the search for holistic and sustainable problem-solving approaches. Working on site was considered a key criterion. Thus, the project team led by architecture professor Christoph Gengnagel and artist Dörte Meyer kicked off their work with a one-week stay in Caporciano in the fall of 2021. A comprehensive working basis was created not only through careful analysis of buildings and urban space, but above all through many interviews and conversations with residents (see link to video below). At the same time, a surprisingly sincere connection developed between the students and the residents.

︎︎︎Phase 01

After the field trip, the work in the in-depth project developed more and more into an experiment of different working methods in architectural design. The main focus included a situational approach, the use of digital and analog tools and presentation formats, as well as the perception of the site as a reallaboratory for sustainable planning and building. The emerging strategies for solutions showed a great diversity and ranged from proposals of restoration for public or semi-public uses of existing buildings, very precise interventions in local structures to create new urban spaces, to landscaping projects.

With the summer semester an intensive work period started that focused on two topics: Elaboration of minimally invasive concepts for a medium- and long-term transformation of the site for sustainable development in exemplary projects, as well as strategies for conveying the designs, beyond classical presentation methods such as plans and models, in order to be able to be discussed with the inhabitants. In addition, practical experiments were undertaken to investigate the question of the minimal possible interventions with a high impact, as well as the significance of one-to-one prototypes in architectural design practice. The highlight of this period of the overall project was the second trip to Caporciano for a week of exhibitions and workshops. The village became a reallaboratory, where the design ideas were visualized and made tangible with the use of the simplest methods at their specific locations, in order to create a future vision for the village in collaboration with the locals.

︎︎︎Phase 02

The continuation

The project continues in September 2023 in order to focus on the connecting spaces between the houses of Caporciano.
In the winter semester of 2023-2024 we will deal with questions of place in different dimensions via three short designs. Starting with an urban design for the extensions of the village in the transition to the landscape space, the development of the former post office into a co-working space, we want to deal intensively with the private, semi-public and public spaces of Caporciano in the last third of the semester. The gardens of Caporciano, water, sun and wind and their communal use will play an important role.
The project will involve different collaborations. While we share the building design with a Master Studio at the Royal Academy of the Arts Copenhagen, we will pursue the design of the outdoor spaces in close collaboration with Atelier Le Balto but also residents of Caporciano. The aim of the whole project is a renewed common journey to Abruzzo and the active beginning of the transformation of the intermediate spaces of Caporciano.

︎︎︎Phase 03





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