(W)here: cultivating urban succession

2011 Re-enchantment of the postindustrial landscape. One of the winning projects for PAV PRIZE 2011, Competition to create an environmental artwork for Parco Arte Vivente, Experimental Contemporary Art Centre, Turin, Italy

Location: via Giordano Bruno 31, Torino. 45°04’ N, 7°66’ E

(W)here is an intervention for dynamic urban renewal at PAV, the former site of a fiat automobile factory. This interactive installation promotes a paradigm shift in transforming the post-industrial landscape, framed in the principles of permaculture design and citizen involvement. Land knows how to heal itself, this would be the premise of (W)here, which includes simple rainwater catchment techniques, a forest garden modeled on ecological succession and an interactive memorial.

The strategy of (W)here departs from utilitarian modernisms emphasis on form and order, to search for an open systems approach, which adds value and abundance to the park and while renegotiating attitudes towards the urban environment
‘Form fallows function’ – Gordon Matta-Clark

3rd prize chosen for ‘the ethical and political connections with both the sustainable movements of the community gardens and of jardins portages’

by Marguerite Kahrl with John Button, Matteo Gianotti, Alberto Redolfi, Francesca Simonetti, Yaniv Steiner and Jan-Christoph Zoels.