RIVIERA
What happens when summer ends?
by Fiorenza Giometti Architectural Association School of Architecture 2021/2023RIVIERA
What happens when summer ends?
Dissertation submitted in partial fulfilment of the requiriments of Taught Master of Philosophy in Architecture and Urban Design - Projective Cities by Fiorenza Giometti
Architectural Association School of Architecture 2021/2023
Coversheet for submission 2022-2023
Programme: Projective Cities, Taught MPhil in Architecture and Urban Design
Name(s):
Fiorenza Giometti
Submission title:
RIVIERA: What happens when summer ends?
Course title:
Dissertation
Course tutor(s):
Platon Issaias, Hamed Khosravi
Declaration:
“I certify that this piece of work is entirely my/our own and that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of others is duly acknowledged.”
Signature of Student(s):
Date: 24th of April 2023
CONTENTS
Paraphernalia: the seasonal infrastructure of Riviera Design: Leisure is a Folly
Chapter 1
Performance: from indoctrination to recreation
1.1 Balneare: an introduction to the democratization of leisure
1.2 The role of architecture: the summer colonies for the working-class
1.3 Collettivo armonico: individual desire builds masses
Design: the Tower is a Frame
Interlude 1
Mega-genealogies: a local evolution of summer colonies
Design: the Dormitory is a Home
Chapter 2
Edge: from linearity to alienation
2.1 Seaside: the role of mobility
2.2 Morphology: the secondary town
2.3 Linearity: the sea as an alien border
Design: the Town is a System
Interlude 2
Ways of Living: field research
Design: the Colony is a Community
INTRODUCTION
Riviera Romagnola is a stretch of coast, overlooking the Upper Adriatic Sea. 91 kilometers long, starts from the mouth of the Reno River, extending until Pesaro and Urbino 2
Touristification is the process by which a place changes as it becomes an object of tourist consumption.
Antonio B. Ojeda, Maxime Kieffer, “Touristification. Empty concept or element of analysis in tourism geography?”, Geoforum
Volume 115, October 2020, p. 143
The thesis investigates seaside settlements of coastal Italy, particularly framing the design proposition in the context of Riviera Romagnola, 1 on the north side of the Adriatic Sea. Through the critical investigation of historical and present developments, the research unfolds how these secondary towns have historically become laboratories for social, architectural, and planning experimentations. Beyond the idyllic coastal landscape of Riviera, or the collective imaginary of it, the aim is to deconstruct a process of territorial definition and political representation. Ultimately, revisioning the narration of Italian coastal development through a series of explicit political projects positions the argument in a wider discourse about territorialization of the coast, touristification2 processes, and democratization of leisure.
The thesis proposes to deconstruct the concept of Riviera and its linear urban phenomenon. In this particular morphology, the abandoned megaforms of the summer colonies, mainly built during the Fascist regime, seem to be the only urban exception acting perpendicularly to the coast, connecting different parallel stripes of territory. Those buildings, once the architectonical pivotal moments of urban development, thanks to their neglected condition, their enclosed gardens, and their parks are the last empty opportunity for contrasting the density of the urban grain, and consequently the starting point for the design proposition.
Context:
Italian Riviera.
Macro-topics:
Performance: free time and body.
Edge: secondary town and Mindset.
Megastructure: territorial gestures
Design Questions:
Flexibility, Seasonality, Linearity
INTRODUCTION
OBJECTIVES AND QUESTIONS
Objectives:
Research:
- To analyse the process of invention of the Riviera concept, as a result of territorial and social circumstances.
- To investigate the formation of specific secondary towns along the Italian coasts by deconstructing their morphological, historical, and social ingredients.
- To trace parallelisms between different historical periods, influences, and politics involved.
Design:
- To rethink the Riviera through de-territorialization.
- To break the linearity as socially privileged and unequal spatial connotation.
- To work with summer colonies as a design tool.
The key questions guiding the research are:
- What is the role of architecture in the process of free time invention and instrumentalization?
- What are the historical agents responsible for coastal modifications that have led to mass tourism?
- What does edge mean in a linear morphology, and what kind of alienation paradigms does it produce?
- What kind of social structure is constructed following the subdivision of time (seasonality) and the spatial hierarchy in seaside settlements?
- What is the character of the coastal system, the forms and logic of space driven by the presence of the sea?
- What can be defined as seaside infrastructure?
The key questions guiding the design are:
- How can Riviera be rethought today behind the invention?
- How to reconsider the alienation of these towns as a necessary quality rather than a lack?
- How to invent a projective strategy for landscape and architecture working respecting a territory of anthropogenic exploitation?
- How can these urban settlements be transformed into mega-environments?
- How can summer colonies be organized to host seasonality and flexibility?
3
Thomas Rowlandson, “A woman swimming in the sea in Margate”, Kent, c.1800
4
Daniela Blei, “Inventing the Beach: The Unnatural History of a Natural Place”, The Smithsonian, 23 June 2016
5
The International Labor Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations, founded in 1919. It is responsible for promoting social justice and internationally recognized human rights
INTRODUCTION
STRUCTURE OF THE THESIS
The thesis structure is divided into three main chapters. Firstly, Chapter 1, named Performance, serves as an introduction to the democratization of leisure, and the role of architecture in the process of definition and instrumentalization of free time, focusing on Modern architecture and particularly on the summer colonies phenomenon in coastal Italy. Throughout Chapter 2, titled Edge, the analysis shifts towards the urban scale, unfolding the notion of secondary town, the Riviera mindset, and the consequent subjectification they produce. And lastly, Chapter 3, called Megastructure, discusses the historical, and present condition of the territory between the coastal and the maritime, finally introducing a projective challenge to this territorial dominance. Between the main chapters, three interludes are introduced, three booklets that work as autonomous insights, collecting the fieldwork investigations about seaside objects, architectural genealogies, and ways of living. Every chapter and interlude proposes a design intervention embedded in the context of Riviera.
The prelude proposes a study of margins, marks, and inhabitation of the beach. The fetishization of the Riviera paraphernalia, so to speak the seasonal infrastructure of the seaside imaginary, constitutes a process of enrichment towards the mindset itself. Holiday equipment composes a constellation of apparatuses, linearly connected along the coast, adopting the territorial scale. Therefore, the design response deals with seasonality in the attempt to break preconditions given by modes, customs, and rituals of the seaside.
Chapter 1 unfolds a methodology of comparison through the use of interdisciplinary sources and architectural examples, historical events with contemporary experiences. The intent is to present parallel narrations of the Riviera performance, arguing how present-day practices, rituals, and strategies are inherited constructs. In the Western culture, over the past three centuries, the coastal territories’ conception has shifted from risk to cure, and then from prevention to leisure, and in particular, Great Britain3 is the first to arise (quite often) scientifical awareness of the therapeutic advantages of visiting the sea. Despite the original elitist character, in about a century, the lower classes aimed for the seaside well-being too, with the formation of the first coastal settlements dedicated to workers, designedly following the newly constructed mobility lines.4 Moreover, in 1919, the ratification of the 48-hour working week, a proposition of the Organization Internationale du Travail, 5 subdivided the day into three “eights”: eight hours for sleeping, eight for working, and eight for resting. The right to
rest, and consequently to leisure, was declared as a state duty, opening up the appropriation of the seaside by the working class. Consequently, relatively new concepts such as summertime and holidays have imposed a perception of time that has ultimately contributed to the consolidation of the seaside mass tourism, if not even suggested its model. In the frame of the new seaside perception, the role of planning and architecture, following the political scenario they were operating in, has been alternatively the one to question or the one to guide a new idea of leisure. According to Susana Lobo, curator of the International Docomomo Journal about the architecture of the sun, 6 the 20th-century invention of free time has been instrumentalized by democratic as well as dictatorial powers in the history of Western countries for the construction of national identity. In this process, the 5th CIAM, held in Paris in 1937, titled Housing and Leisure,7 linked what was considered the most urgent problem at that time, dwelling, to the inseparable notion of leisure. Ultimately, placing the spatialization of leisure as a priority in the Modernist agenda was a political statement: it was the declaration that the main architectural platform of debate at the time, was in line with the policies for the right to remunerated leave. Thanks to paid holidays, the modern notion of leisure expanded from spare time to weekly and annual spheres, including not only rest and sports but culture and personal experience.
Jumping into the Italian contest, the summer colonies’ experience of the Inter-war represented the moment in which architecture and working-class division of time met. The space of leisure, in the frame of fascist Italy, supported the construction of the regime, while the institutionalization of the organisms in charge of the youth’s free time, constituted an operative step in the process of mass subjectification. In this operation, Modern architecture undertook the role of stage indoctrination as a form of recreation. Before the Fascist dictatorship, the social assistance model of the summer colony (the first form of sea-side hospitality dedicated to the working class), was generally expressed through a specific typology.8 With the purpose of sun therapy, children were accommodated in linear buildings with perpendicular arms, tracing the pre-existent diagram of hospitals and asylums. But during the totalitarian state, for better pursuing the scope of propaganda and control over subjects, the architecture needed a different frame. Therefore, is visible a link between a typological understanding of summer colonies, to a programmatic standardization, that worked more with time schedules, functions, and fluxes. Specifically, the vertical volume at the centre of the summer colonies, usually the vertical distribution, but also the water collector, or the clock tower, was used as a stage for the children’s morning march, spatially tracing a routine of indoctrination. Moreover, through a militaristic choreography starting from the garden and culminating at the top of the tower, the vertical object consequently performed and commanded a loss of body’s identity, but also a territorial dominance. The design concluding Chapter 1 specifically focuses on summer colonies’ towers aiming to subvert their perception. By simply considering them as concrete frames, the project attaches to the structure the role of energy production support, to self-sustain future public interventions dedicated to the reuse of abandoned
6
7
8
9
10
buildings. Rather than a territorial gesture, the tower, freely accessible to everyone, becomes a visual support to the landscape, framing it.
To systematize a design strategy for the other parts of the summer colonies, that present a high level of architectural variations, is fundamental to theorising an evolution from typology to programme. The interlude Megagenealogies, with the application of local genealogies, identifies proximity, construction companies, and personal relations between architects, as key elements for the understanding of these proto-megastructures. From the study emerged that the only spatially constant element of summer colonies is the dormitory, designed following the logic of the comrade. With the repetition of the same dimensions, it is ultimately reduced to the smallest unit of the bed, therefore the unit of the body. However, in the realm of the summer colonies, through a learned succession of rituals and gestures, the body switched from unit as an individual to unit as a collective. This passage is responsible for the phenomenality of conflict, between singularity and mass, normed body and projected space. In this logic construction, space, equipment, and programs, are not just formulated for the body, yet they become an extension of the body. A process that in the context of the seaside, will slowly sediment the way architecture and landscape are structured, turning the coastline into a line of subjectification, reaching the level of agency capable of territorial modifications. The following design exercise presents a general strategy of intervention in abandoned summer colonies, to propose forms of collective living, working, and services that could adapt and be appropriated by the fluid condition of seaside towns. Starting from the summer colony repeated elements of the dormitory, and from the approximation of its average dimensions, results in an invented “typical” dormitory plan, a linear diagram working with one, two, or three bays. From the typical plan, have been designed different options, flexible to different conditions, but also kinds of ownerships. These invented plans represent a set of general guidelines for the intervention in abandoned summer colonies.
Chapter 2 explores the urban scale, identifying a clash between collettivo armonico (the concept of the harmonic collective as a way of living where everything is shared), and the individual desire for leisure of the middle and working class, a key turning point for the urban development of Riviera. In 1940 Casabella Editoriale9 launched a first and unique attempt to catalogue the summer colonies-built examples. In the same years, Domus Magazine, 10 presented propositions for the seaside house, initially on the Libyan colonized coasts with Enrico Rava projects, and later in the Italian ones with Gio Ponti, Lina Bo Bardi, and Giuseppe Pagano. As a result of this particular imagining of seaside inhabitation as something singular, Riviera morphology has developed what has become the dominant urban texture. Specifically, a morphology that can be mapped along the Mediterranean coasts, in the space of in-betweenness, from one primary city to the next. It was not until 1964, that we were able to identify Riviera as the theoretical concept of Secondary-Town, defined as such by Ernesto Nathan Rogers on the pages of Casabella Continuità in a two volumes investigation about coastal
settlements and architectures of Italy.11 These pages proposed urban plans for the development of seaside settlements, both catalysing and interdependent. The secondary town is characterized by a linear morphology developed through stripes of dense orthogonal grids, constrained by the coast and transportation infrastructure. However, with the collection of case studies, the thesis argues that since these urban plans were projective rather than analytical, there is evidence of a planned, rather than spontaneous urban condition. The touristic development zones of these towns occupied, and still do, predominantly the areas adjacent to the sea, while the council housing propositions12 were always placed on the outskirts of the settlement. Even though the secondary town exhibits a linear morphology, it reproduces and even reinforces, the social hierarchy of the concentric city. This chapter concludes with a design proposition that operates at the urban scale, connecting the secondary towns through a diffuse system operating in opposition to linear urban development.
However, the notion of seasonality, and the space of non- proximity, reflect a reductive interpretation of the Riviera condition, inherited from a speculative understanding of the seaside as a mono-functional tourist machine. Through a series of site visits and interviews, Interlude 2 seeks to deconstruct the complex stratigraphy of the actual “ways of living” of secondary towns as well as to document the role of the sea in the terraferma spatial routine. The main focus is the exploration of transitional relations and liminal zones of fluidity. The feeling of alienation caused by living the edge, is the common denominator. “Solastalgia”, is a neologism coined by the philosopher Glenn Albrecht in 2003,13 which in tourism science, is defined as the collective melancholia that a community feels when its space is touristified. It is a feeling of homesickness while being at home. In the design response, general guidelines previously developed with the first interlude Mega-genealogies are adapted to selected case studies of summer colonies.
Lastly, Chapter 3 moves the analysis to the territorial scale. In the 19th Century, Italy was determined to become an industrial power in the European contest, leading to the development of infrastructural lines along the coasts. Consequently, territories affected by malaria needed to be sanitised, starting actions of land reclamation sold as propaganda. A process that can be defined as internal colonialism, involving migratory and exploitative processes. Paradoxically, in just a century, the same areas, once perceived as polluted and dangerous, became curative, and consequently leisurely, linking back to the etymology of riviera: from Latin ripa, a stretch of coastal land, considered “safe”.
Moreover, if summer colonies can be defined as proto-megastructure, so can their territorial gesture. Based on the planimetries of the current condition, one can observe a continuity between the coastal system, the agricultural fields at the edge of the secondary town, and the parks of the abandoned summer colonies. Therefore, the last design focused on the “other megastructure”. A system that integrates all the other previous design tests, to connect different areas of the
11
Casabella Continuità, Rivista Internazionale, 1964, n. 283 / 284
12
The P.E.E.P. (acronym for popular economic building plan), in Italy, is an urban planning instrument. Introduced into law April 18, 1962, imposing to every municipality a development in terms of council housing
Riccione Diptych, Massimo Vitali, 1997
Postcard
13
Glenn Albrecht, “Solastalgia: a new concept in human health and identity”, Philosophy Activism Nature, n. 3 , 2005, p. 41-55
secondary town, challenging and breaking its subordinate order. In addition to reconnecting through the dunes, the project proposes different ways of shared living for Riviera settlements, in order to embed rather than suffer seasonality. Rethinking the coastal system by thresholds of encounter, rather than touristic speculation or given rituals, is a strategic tool for preservation but together re-visualization.
The design goal is to reconceptualise summer colonies through housing, collective services, and communal workshops. Both the summer colony and the dune system are devices acting explicitly against the mainstream perception of secondary towns.
In conclusion, having a broader de-territorial potential, both research and project attempt to set both outwards and inwards, from the sea, towards the land. The atmosphere of alienation and decadence, that is the present condition of Riviera, is the result of a forced economic and urban model repetition. A system closed in invisible limits, that refuses to self-recognize or accept new subjectivities and communities. By deconstructing and then revealing, the thesis proposes a new idea of Riviera, based on actual qualities rather than inventions. Presented is a real and intimate portrait of a contradictory territory, in which the beach is public, the use is private, and the border is closed, but the coast is elastic.
PARAPHERNALIA:
the seasonal infrastructure of Riviera
The object of investigation of the following study is the seasonal infrastructure of Riviera: the constellation of objects in support of the seaside touristic function. Through the analysis of beach paraphernalia, the intent is to disclose the spatial understanding and the implicit customs of the touristic coast.
Analysing for questioning the inherited rituals of the beach, the category of the “tourist” itself is dismantled, with the identification of different grades of temporality and permanency. Furthermore, with the study of margins, marks, paths, grids, and inhabitation, the thesis aims to underline the territorial character of the Riviera paraphernalia. The holiday equipment composes a net linearly connected along the coast, overtaking the territorial scale.
In-habitable Signages
SECTION: OBJECT: ACTION: Cleaning Drinking Playing Sitting Gambling Watching Eating Storaging Sunumbrella Billboard Shadowing Marking
Tables Sunbed Kiosk Cabanas Sunumbrella
Beach Paraphernalia Showers Playground Lifeguard tower
Margins
Advertising Delimiting Pine grove Buoy Line Wooden Pier Cement tile Breakwaters Artificial dune Protecting Shadowing Guiding Saving
Tables and chairs
Playing / Arguing / Eating / Drinking
Beachmat
Sunbathing / Relaxing / Exposing
Kiosk Cooking / Storaging / Exposing
For each beach its own imaginary
for each beach its own beach umbrella site: Ravenna
Re di
Incredibly functional, and minimal in its precise adherence to the dimensions of the standard body, the Riviera paraphernalia perpetuates a hegemonic perception of beach and leisure time. The design proposition for “Riviera Paraphernalia” deals with the seasonality of the beach, with the attempt of breaking pre-conditions given by modes, customs, and rituals. As the first approach pier structures hosting Riviera activities. Second, a continuous but porous wall, containing the dunes with their natural growth, and third a system of punctual objects. Reflecting on the spatial role of the seaside infrastructure, the aim of the design exercise is to challenge the current understanding of the coastal space. In fact, with the design of these beach objects, which are anything but follies, the project intends to group the beach activities for a proposition of collective use.
Against touristic speculation, the project is a counter-proposal to the anthropic development of the beach, catalysing specific built elements only in some specific points, and leaving the rest of the coast free for the natural growth of the dunes. Moreover, these built elements imbed both, the ways of living the beach, and the secondary town. Thought by functional
need, they’re meant to combine different uses and cross subjectivities, with the ultimate purpose of collective gathering.
Object of intervention: Beach Paraphernalia
Aim:
To challenge the social and spatial understanding of the beach
Architectural aspirations: Popular as functional
Actions:
- First public investment for the construction of the “follies”
- The establishment of a yearly run competition for the assignment of the follies management to cooperatives, where the result is obtained through a democratic vote from the inhabitants of the seaside settlement
- The construction of reversible wooden paths connecting the follies
Timeline:
- The management of the “follies” is a contract between the public and cooperatives, to be renewed every summer, against the seaside speculation and private nepotism
- Different subjects gather together in the follies, creating a new collective reality of the beach
- The dunes can grow naturally
- The reversible system of wooden paths changes every season according to the mutation of the dune system
First strategy: Perpendicular Pier Second strategy:
Wall
Third and Final strategy: Punctual intervention. Combined objects for seaside actvities
Next page:
a Lifeguard Tower + Belvedere + Toilette
b Shower + Drinking water
c Petanque + Belvedere + Energy production
d Playground + Storage + Shadowing
e Kitchen and Barbecues + Tables + Shadowing
CHAPTER 1
PERFORMANCE: from Indoctrination to Recreation
Chapter 1 analyses the seaside performance tracing parallelism between historical, modern, and contemporary examples. Subchapter 1.1 analyses the concept of balneare. The discrepancy between the Riviera jargon and its literal translation to other languages is indicative of a specific understanding of macro concepts such as sea, shore, and tourism, in the gaze of place, time, and politics. Subchapter 1.2 follows a general introduction to the perception of the seashore as leisure and the democratization of free time, particularly focusing on the role of Modern architecture in this process. Moving to the Italian context is introduced the summer colony experience of the inter-war. Lastly, Subchapter 1.3 confronts collective in opposition to individual perceptions of the seaside, and their influences on the spatial development and mindset construction of Riviera.
Previous page: Summer colonies genealogy, eight case studies
BALNEARE:
an introduction to the democratization of leisure
1 From Collins Dictionary
2 Michael Lambton Este, “Remarks on baths, water, swimming, shampooing, heat, hot, cold and vapor baths”, 1812, welcome collection
3 Eric Chaline, “How Europe Learnt to Swim”, History today, 16 Jul 2018
4
Iribas José Miguel, “El turismo no es una industria del espacio, sino del tiempo”, La Opinión A Coruña, 14 May 2010
5
“Governo De Gasperi V”, the fifth Italian government headed by the politician Alcide De Gasperi, remained in office from 1948 to 1950 for a total of 613 days
/bal·ne·à·re/
The Italian term “balneare” could be directly translated into English to the adjectives bathing or seaside.1 But what is notable in the gaze of the thesis is the actual use of the word, the descriptive construction it gives when coupled together with a noun.
Even if the leisure conception of seaside baths2 in the frame of modern tourism is an English invention3 Stabilimento balneare would be unsatisfactorily translated to bathhouse or cabanas. In Italian the term indicates a bigger system of summer services, rather than the physical architecture defined by constructed borders. It also comprehends the space of the beach dedicated to rentable equipment for leisure, and where the touristic performance takes place. But it doesn’t have a clear definition in terms of margins, often blurred and subjected to seasonality. Moreover, “tourist” in Riviera is translated with bagnante, the same root as balneare. What’s clear then is who is welcomed to stabilimento balneare during summer, and consequently, who will re-appropriate this space during winter.
Firstly, Località balneare means seaside town, but instead of the seaside, which indicates the location in relation to the natural feature, balneare is attaching to the settlement a touristic agency, even if this function is operative for barely half of the year. Secondly, Stagione balneare means summer season, it doesn’t indicate the period of bathing, but the period of tourist activity. Both are coherent expressions according to the argument of the urban sociologist Josè Miguel Iribas, stating that time, rather than space, is the core of the tourist experience.4 Lastly, governo balneare. It indicates a short-term and transitional (seasonal) mandate, to give a sort of summer break to political tensions within a parliamentary majority. A term that became popular in Italy in 1951, contemporary with the mass tourism boom.5 While Bathhouse could be an acceptable translation, bath-town would have no meaning, as well as bath-season or bath-government. Therefore, identifying place, time, and politics on the basis of the “bathing” function, which specifically conveys a constructed imaginary, it’s symptomatic of a specific instrumental understanding of the coast, where the exploitative character represents the intrinsic identity. Chapter 1 aims to analyze the construction process of the Riviera performance, a mindset that can’t be solely explained as a consequence of the modern perception of leisure, universally declared as an CHAPTER
essential human right by the United Nations in 1948 with the claim of periodic paid holidays for every person.6
In Western culture, over the past three centuries, the coastal territories’ conception has shifted from risk to cure, and then from prevention to leisure. In fact, until the XVII Century, the ocean has been related to the Christian narration of the Great Flood, leading to a popular imaginary of the beach as wild and dangerous.7 If it wasn’t for natural hazards, the exposure to pirates was anyway enough for perpetrating a convincing anti-waterfront narration. But the first turning point has been represented by Dutch Realism, in particular the school of seascape painters led by Jan van Goyen.8 Gaining international success, the Dutch Baroque started a process of profane pilgrimage that we could compare to contemporary environmental tourism.9 However, is the Great Britain, in the mid-XVIII Century, to arise (quite often) scientifical awareness on the therapeutic advantages of visiting the sea. Doctors started to prescribe to upper-class sea baths as a cure for a wide spectrum of diseases, from melancholy to tuberculosis, gradually testing the benefits of the sun, salt water, and sea air. Becoming a trend soon, remedy turned into prevention, a luxury denoting a certain social status. The seaside become then a net of social interactions and activities that, although still related to health, was mainly focused on leisure.10 Despite the original elitist character, in about a century the seaside phenomenon interested the lower classes too, reaching the level of agency capable of territorial modifications.
The ratification of the 48-hour working week represented for the Industrialized countries the official turning point in the democratization of leisure, and consequently the beginning of the appropriation of the seaside by the working class. The Organization Internationale du Travail was proposing a subdivision of the day into three “eights”: eight hours for sleeping, eight for working, and eight for resting. The right to rest, and consequently to leisure, was declared as a state duty. Ahead in time, the English Blackpool, founded in 1840, is the first coastal settlement dedicated to workers,11 providing a precedent for the next international developments, a seaside-town model exported from England to Normandy, Northern Germany, Scandinavia, and the US.
On the one hand, the invention of free time has been a crucial achievement in the history of the working class, but on the other, it has been instrumentalized, especially by the European dictatorships of the XX century, for the propagandistic construction of national identities. In particular, the thesis aims to unfold the historical processes that through subjectification, territorialization, and colonization have led to the exploitative phenomenon of mass tourism.12 The methodology adopted in the Subchapter 1.2 is to compare, with the use of interdisciplinary sources and architectural examples, historical events, and modern, and contemporary experiences. The intent is to present parallel narrations of the Riviera performance, arguing how present-day practices, rituals, and strategies are inherited constructs.
6
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the 1948 is a historic document which outlined the rights and freedoms everyone is entitled to. It was the first international agreement on the basic principles of human rights, stipulated by the United Nations
7
Daniela Blei, “Inventing the Beach: The Unnatural History of a Natural Place”, The Smithsonian, 23 June 2016
8
Jan van Goyen, “View of Dordrecht from the Dordtse Kil”, 1644, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund
9 Reference to the pheonomenon theorized by Valene L. Smith in “Hosts and guests: The anthropology of tourism”, 1989
10
“A group of people enjoy the water from their wagon in an unidentified location circa 1910”, Ullstein Bild Dtl, Getty Images. The bathing machine have been invented by Benjamin Beale, in Margate, Kent in 1750
11
John Urry, “The tourist Gaze”, 1990
12
According to Valene L. Smith, the mass-tourism model has been invented by Thomas Cook, a Baptist minister and social reformer that, taking advantage of the new railway system, combined his visions of democratic travel with the chance to profit financially.
13
Susana Lobo is an architect and researcher in Portuguese architecture, urbanism, and design of the XX century, with expertise on tourism and leisure infrastructure
14 Docomomo Journal, “Architecture of the Sun”, n 60, 2019
15 International Congress for Modern Architecture, “Logis et loisirs”: 5e Congres CIAM, Paris, Editions de l’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, 1937, n. 6
16 José Luis Sert, “Can our cities survive? an ABC of urban problems, their analysis, their solutions”, 1942
18
Enrico Bellasi, “Branda biposto pieghevole con capotte”, exposed at the XIII Triennale di Milano, 1964
CHAPTER 1.2
THE ROLE OF ARCHITECTURE:
the summer colonies for the working-class
The 20th-century invention of free time has been instrumentalized by democratic as well as dictatorial powers in the history of Western countries. Relatively new concepts such as summertime and holidays have imposed a perception of time on the working class that ultimately has contributed to the consolidation of the seaside mass tourism, if not even suggested its model. Therefore, the role of space has been alternatively to question or to guide these new perceptions of time in the frame of the political scenario they were operating. The architecture of recreation has been then a political tool throughout the history of the past century. According to Susana Lobo,13 curator of the sixtieth Docomomo International issue on the “Architecture of the sun”, 14 there are two main episodes in the history of Modern architecture, that internationally recognized the necessity to discuss free time: the 5th CIAM, in 1937, and the XIII Triennale di Milano, in 1964. Furthermore, these two episodes, not only represented pivotal moments by acknowledging the importance of free time in the realm of architecture, but they both represent a contingent and collective understanding of “modern” leisure.
The 5th Internation Congress of Modern Architecture, held in Paris in 1937, on the theme of Logis et Loisirs (Housing and Leisure),15 linked what was considered the most urgent problem of the time, dwelling, to the inseparable notion of leisure. It was already been defined as one of the four fundamental urban functions in the previous congresses, but until the 5th CIAM, it was perceived just as an activity for occupying the daily after-work in the green spaces of the city. However, in 1937, Modern architecture officially recognized leisure as essential good that should have been guaranteed as much as public services and housing. Placing the spatialization of leisure as a priority in the Modernist agenda16 was a political statement: it was the declaration that the Congress, the main architectural platform of debate at the time, was in line with the policies for the right to remunerated leave. In summary, thanks to paid holidays, the modern notion of leisure expanded from spare time to weekly and annual spheres, including not only rest and sports but culture and personal experience. As consequence, the general notion of leisure drastically changed, enlarging into the democratization of the tourist experience. In this process, the representative voices of architecture were pointing out the need to translate this process into designed, and planned space.
15
Cover of International Congress for Modern Architecture, “Logis et loisirs”: 5e Congres CIAM, Paris, Editions de l’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui, 1937, n. 6
17
Massimo Vignelli, poster for the XIII Triennale di Milano, 1964, Triennale Photo Archive
19
“Corridor of Captions, Introduction section with an international character”, curated by Vittorio Gregotti and Umberto Eco, XIII Triennale di Milano, 1964, Triennale Photo Archive
“One of the dangers of industrial civilization is that free time is organized by the same power centers that control working time, in which case free time is consumed according to the same rhythm as working time. Having fun means being integrated”
20
Bruno Zevi, “XIII Triennale di Milano. Tempo sprecato sul tempo libero”, l’Espresso, 16 August 1964
Nearly thirty years later, with the XIII Triennale di Milano, for the first time17 an international exhibition reflected on the topic of free time, the role of mass consumption, and its relationship with working time. The exhibition, titled “Tempo Libero”, was meant to challenge the actual social value of leisure representing its qualitative18 and quantitative aspects through pop culture. While in 1937 the fifth CIAM introduced a new conception of free time, demanding its investigation, in 1964 the Triennale was portraying it as a reality already consolidated. If the exhibition was celebrating rather than questioning the notion of leisure, has been (and still is) under debate. Although the most famous Italian architects of the sixties have been involved in the organization, it has been one of the most contested episodes in the history of the Triennale. What is notable in the XIII International exhibition, is exactly the fact that it was not notable. Or else, the deliberate choice of bringing the popular and the ordinary into a high-profile institution. The Triennale of 1964, staging leisure in its mass scale and pop quality has been one of the most successful portraits of politics, society, and design of its time.19 Indeed, while being branded as an “ideological vacuum” by Bruno Zevi in 1964,20 it has been restaged for the exhibition “A Tradition of the New”, a display collection of past sources from the Triennale archive, curated by the director Marco Sammicheli, in July 2022.
21
F. Gibon, “Colonies de Vacances. Compte rendu du Congrés National de Paris 1910, Paris
22
23
In the next pages: Plan of Prora, Clemens Klotz, Prorer Wiek, Rügen, 1936
Jumping into the Italian Modernist contest, the summer colonies’ experience of the Inter-war represents the moment in which architecture and working-class partition of time met. The construction of national identity was a shared process of instrumentalization of charitable institutions between the main European powers of the time.21 And the space of leisure, in particular in the frame of fascist Italy, has been used as support for the construction of the regime. The institutionalization of the managerial organisms in charge of the youth’s free time has been an operative step in the process of mass subjectification. In this operation, Modern architecture had the role to stage indoctrination as a form of recreation, becoming an active tool in fascist propaganda.
Healthcare and education are the two key concepts based on the history of the evolution of summer colonies. The dedicated literature considers the Sea Bathing Infirmary in Margate, the first officialised institution as such.22 In fact, the building represented a first model of seaside hospitality dedicated to working-class children with the purpose of sun-therapy and social assistance through philanthropic contributions. Founded in 1796, the hospice was established when the settlement of Margate was already famous for its recreational agency. Caritative management and architectural typology were later exported in the coasts of France as hospices maritimes, Germany as Seehospize,23 and Italy as ospizi marittimi, for contrasting the sanitary emergency of tuberculosis, and representing the first approach of the working-class to seaside leisure. In Italy the first to be built was the “Ospizio Marino di Viareggio”, opened in 1842 in Tuscany, and followed during the next two decades by many examples on the Adriatic, Sicilian, and Sardinian coasts. However, when in 1918 Gallo Calabrini,24 an officer of the Ministry of Education in charge of the maritime hospice census,
approached the technical relation for the ministerial survey, was forced to use a wide range of different terms to describe the Italian reality of about one hundred built examples.25 In a few decades the model of the hospice had already expanded into a complex and various constellation of practices, managements, typologies, and scales. Nonetheless, during the first decades of the XX century, for the cases meant to host big numbers of children, one main typology has been repeated. The so-called pettine distribution was a re-interpretation of the plans adopted for asylums and hospitals during the XIX century.26 It is a simple plan, with a linear distribution expressed by wide corridors, leading to perpendicular arms dedicated to dormitories. The diagram can be expressed by a cob (pettine).27 Volumetrically, the central part hosting entrance and staircases is more monumental than the rest of the symmetrical system, but overall, there are no variations, as it’s meant to be a functional28 and economic construction.
The hospice typology was converted into youth colonies according to an initial strategy of reuse and adaptation of the existent during the first decades of the XX century. The difference between hospice and colony was in the main agency: while the hospice just provided healthcare, the colony was meant to couple it with education.29 However, when the fascist regime gained great popular consent, even if the summer colony model was an already existing phenomenon, prevention subordinated to education (or indoctrination). The healthiness propaganda was an instrument of control over individuals through a keen and hierarchical nationalism. The first one to coin the term ferienkolonien was the Swiss pastor Walter Hermann Bion in 1876. Quoting from his Les colonies de vacances. Mémorie historique et statistique of 1887, summer colonies aimed to literally “colonize the children”, by taking them away from the city during summer as a preventive practice against diseases. Even more in the realm of the Italian dictatorship, the use of the word “colony”, clearly didn’t just refer to the idea of children’s community, but mostly suggested an appropriation of children’s bodies and minds, for “the protection and propagation of the lineage”.30 “Physical and moral reconstruction of the race” became one of the strong priorities of Fascism. With these new aims, youth programmes needed a different configuration, dividing the architectural debate into conservative and Modernist approaches towards the topic of the fascist colony. Therefore, after the reuse, a second stage of the process of summer colonies spatialization will see the contrast between, on the one hand, the literal reproduction of the old typology, as in the case of Colonia Bolognese in Rimini, constructed tracing the plan of the twenty years older Colonia Murri (analysed as a case study at page 86). And on the other, the Modern interpretation of the summer colony theme, that detaches from the general evolution of the hospital typology.31
According to the historian of education Tracy Koon,32 there are two intrinsically different pedagogical approaches in autarchic and totalitarian regimes. In traditional autarchic political systems, subversive ideas are censured from media and education. The intent is to contrast the diffusion of potential insurgency. But in a totalitarian system, the exertion comprehends every kind of idea, also
33
Marco Muzzolani, “Holiday colonies for Italian youth during Fascism”, in Docomomo Journal, n. 60, February 2019
the ones that potentially would be in line with the view of the regime. The aim is to provide the only educational source, not only to stay in power but to proselytize a new “faith”. The first summer colonies were based on philanthropic initiatives of educational and social missions, mainly administrated by Catholic organizations. Initially, the fascist party juxtaposed the pre-existing model, for gradually appropriating the majority of the youth programmes and declaring illegal the alternatives. Aiming to the educational monopoly, it later became competitive even against public schooling, which didn’t focus enough on the “construction of the body”, and parents, separating the children from their families for all summer.33
36
Diller+Scofidio, “Back to the front: Tourism of War”, Princeton, 1996
About the context, compared with other national Modernist examples, summer colonies innovatively worked with the surrounding landscape. Especially during the post-war, these buildings were enlarging into bigger complexes, actually becoming pivots of the unstoppable tertiary development. Their attractive character and their seasonal activation, were catalysers of a new vision for the overall Italian coasts, being the first infrastructural elements opening the land to touristic exploitation processes after decades of land reclamations, and agricultural conversions. Not only summer colonies were the first institution to connect leisure and masses in a territory that wasn’t meant to be touristic before, but they also convey a perception of the body as a constructed and collective object, that will resonate with the Riviera establishment. The process of indoctrination could be ultimately translated into the complete loss of body identity, but also in its construction as a product of a specific system of functions. The march, the morning exercise, the medical controls. Actions operating as subjectification, to create the perfect fascist, the perfect man, the perfect soldier, the perfect woman, and the perfect wife. Not only the physical exercise, but the choreography of the march, in the frame given by the summer colony, represents a learned succession of gestures, in which the body switch from being a unit, to be a collective. At the same time, the body of tourism34 is normed by gestures, customs, and rituals as much as the body of indoctrination.35 Never fully private, never fully public. Borderline between ostentation and shame. Is the body that defines the way of time, calendars and seasons are used. But is the performance that causes itself a phenomenality of conflict,36 between singularity and mass, between normed body and projected space. And the performance, in the context of the seaside, will slowly sediment the way architecture and landscape are structured, turning the coastline, as stated by Fredéric Migayrou in the essay The extended Body, published in Tourism of War by Diller+Scofidio, into a geometric entity. In this logic construction, space, equipment, and programs, are not just formulated for the body, yet they become an extension of the body, literally “lines of subjectification”.
37
“Sintesi del regime”, speech given by Mussolini in Rome on 14 March 1934. The words of Mussolini formed the epigraph of the catalogue of the summer colonies exhibition
To control youth subjectification, the fascist party founded several organizations in charge of educating the “complete fascist”, namely those born and raised during the dictatorship.37 Firstly, the ONB Opera Nazionale Balilla, in 1926, for giving the general pedagogical guidelines, and then the OMNI, Opera Nazionale
Children in a summer colony, 1920 circa, ISREC Archive
38
Giulio Roisecco, “Schema del movimento giornaliero e dei percorsi di una colonia marina”, 1933 / Armando Melis, “Schema funzionale di una colonia marina”, 1939
46
39
De Martino, Stefano, and Alex Wall, “Cities of Childhood, Italian colonie of the 1930s”, London: Architectural Association, 1988
40
“Mostra delle colonie estive”, Archivio LUCE, Rome, 1937
41
Mario Labò, Attilio Podestà, “Colonie Marine I”, Costruzioni Casabella, November 1941
42
PNF, “Pubblicazione rivolta alle vigilatrici”, Source: BSCO, 1938
Maternità ed Infanzia, for the classification of the children’s state of health. In 1931 was then created the EOA Ente Opere Assiztenziali, in charge of a general reorganization of population assistance. And last, in 1937, the GIL Gioventù Italiana del Littorio. These organizations were all operating on behalf of the regime, but while the collaboration towards common pedagogical guidelines was strong, with clear directions regarding medical controls, division of time, and educational activities, a standardized architectural model was missing. The only instructions given for the summer colonies were programmatic schemes, depicting functions and fluxes.38 For this reason, in the frame of Modernist architecture, a typological translation of the summer colony programme is not possible. As a result, a great variety of architectural examples are present along the Italian coasts. And depicting a State in favour of workers and masses, the summer colonies were advertised as one of the biggest fascist achievements. Conversely, the fact that they were diverse gestures, wouldn’t have harmed the propagandistic spectacularism. Furthermore, summer colonies have been used by the Modern movement as an occasion of wild experimentation.39 In these examples the fascist monumentality is melted with rhetorical formalisms, playful shapes, and contexts. They’re surreal, non-referential buildings, meant to suppress individual freedoms.
In 1933 the Triennale dedicated an exhibition to the summer colonies, which was proposed bigger three years later in Rome with the “National Exhibition of Summer Colonies and Child Assistance”.40 The exhibition itself was a grandiose reproduction of “The City of Childhood”, a sort of cluster of summer colonies. However, even if displayed for the occasion, summer colonies were still not regulated by a projective standard. The regime was using a strategy of non-definition41 in terms of architecture, patronizing the same imposed rituals rather than a coordinated type of space. Special posters and postcards were designed with images of the most monumental summer colonies, advertising the victories of social assistance. The educative performance itself was the real protagonist of the exhibition. Indeed, groups of kids and educators were acting the typical colonial day for the audience of the exhibition, with uniforms, medical controls, and flag-raising.42 The conception of education as performance is something that could be found in every fascist program dedicated to youth. The majority of the historical photographs of the colonies would reveal a specific iconography, portraying a comrade of children performing the fascist salute in front of a fascist hierarch. The idea of performing the march itself, from the garden of the colony to the top of the tower,43 denotes the intention to stage the “miraculous” results of fascist education. Even more, if the exhibition reproducing the colony, and the colony itself, are perceived as scenography, the extended body of the beach is potentially a scene too. Even more, the architectural frame wouldn’t comprehend the full potential of the social arena if the audience targeted extends from the working-class parents to the upper classes and the hierarchs. But the seaside, which gradually becomes leisure, does. We can see then beach billboards, with fascist propaganda, marking the becoming-geometric space of the beach.44 Furthermore, the fascist signages represent the first
46
Mario Labò, Attilio Podestà, “Colonie Marine I”, Costruzioni Casabella, November 1941, and Mario Labò, Attilio Podestà, Colonie Montane e Elioterapiche II, Costruzioni Casabella, December 1941
47
“Cartolina Ex colonia le navi di cattolica - Dettagli della Colonia Figli Italiani all’ Estero”, Archivio Municipale di Cervia - Milano Marittima, 1945
48
Marcello Flores, “Perchè il fascismo è nato in Italia”, 2022
49
Elena Mucelli, “Colonie di vacanza italiane degli anni ‘30. Architetture per l’educazione del corpo e dello spirito”, Milano, 2009
establishment of a speculative perception of the coast: a commercial product, a place for and to advertise, perfectly in line with the Riviera imaginary of the seventies.45
Going back to the architecture of the summer colonies, the first attempt to catalogue and classify different examples is an investigation of two volumes on the pages of Costruzioni Casabella, conducted by Mario Labò and Attilio Podestà in 1941.46 With the publication, the architectural discourse was finally dealing with the summer colony problem, trying to divide the most iconic built examples into different typological categories. As a line of analysis, it proved to be a little simplistic, and for this reason in the same year, the fascist party drew up a set of specific dimensions in relation to the needed function,47 as well as limitations in the number of volumes to be constructed. There was a preference for having huge megastructures capable to host large numbers of children of different ages, rather than smaller pavilions more diffused in the territory. The reason was partially for a better logistic of transportation, linking the holiday settlement, and the children’s provenience through the main mobility lines, but mainly for the idea that the colony should have trained children to perceive everyday sociality as a “harmonic collective”.48 Individualities were annulled, in favour of a militaristic perception of the group as a comrade.49
50
51
52
COLLETTIVO ARMONICO: individual desire builds masses
Enrico Rava’s colonial architecture, on the pages of Domus during the thirties was advertising the construction of the Libyan touristic experience.51 In this process of the urban and architectural transformation of the colonial settlements overseas, there were two principal approaches. Firstly, the colonial village, thought for the working-class colonizers, often dispossessed and forced to move. Secondly, the villas for the affluent dignitaries. In contemporaneous with the attempt to standardize summer colonies by Labò in 1939, on the pages of Domus Editoriale, Rava-looking-alike villas, were starting to be advertised on the shores of the Italian Riviera. Proposing detached-house solutions working with minimum space, the Modernist approach was different from the Neoclassical examples of the most famous seaside locations in Europe. The Rational ideas were circulating, but also the target or the seaside subject was changing, adding layers of complexity to the Riviera social net. The idea of free time started then to be perceived as an individual experience, rather than a collective one. In particular in 1940,52 Gio Ponti proposed the seaside house as a form of escapism, particularly indicating as diagrammatical drawings, the roles of the inhabitant in relation to the use of space, household tasks, and also free time experience.53 In the same issue we can see a project of Lina Bo Bardi and Giuseppe Pagano, CHAPTER
The harmonic collective is a concept of total sharing of space, capable of transforming a group of individuals from independent subjects to a compact community. Every space of the summer colony, from the refectory to services, and bedrooms, was oversized and communal. The concept of privacy or autonomy was not conceived, both in the spatial and temporal spheres. The strict schedule of the day included activities throughout all children’s stay, even considering playtime as a control tool. The colony was then, in the most Foucauldian way,50 a dispositive of control working through free-time management. Moreover, from the perspective of the working class the colonies have contributed to the conception of the coast as leisure, but they also suggested a seasonal migratory phenomenon of large numbers. However, even though invested in the lower-middle classes, the subsequent mass-tourism development has been at the antipodes of the concept of the colony, becoming even antagonistic to this model in the Post-War. The intrinsic palatability of mass tourism hasn’t been to generally make seaside leisure accessible, but to make it (apparently) customizable. The concept of individual desire is the key to understanding the seaside touristification process.
54 Domus 1940, n 152 p. 70
55
L’Architecture d’Aujourdhui, “Italie constructions diverses”, n. 48, 1953
56
Gaetano Minnucci, “Progetto per il Mercato del pesce Sala delle aste studio prospettico”, 1946, Archivio di Stato di Ancona Fondo Eusebio Angelo Petetti
57
“L’architettura delle colonie marine italiane”, Editoriale Domus n. 659, March 1985
again on the topic of the seaside villa, and an article about hotel bedrooms in Riviera exposed at the Triennale.54 Moreover, on this number of the magazine is expressed concern for the problema alberghiero, the hotel problem, described as a delicate matter of representation. Leisure acts then as a tool for identity construction, and in doing so, it generates a constructed reality, referring to the realm of the imaginary.
In number 48 of “L’Architecture d’Aujourdhui” of 1953 dedicated to Italian architecture,55 written by Vittorio Viganò, an entire section is spent on holiday architecture. What is curious is that in this category is appearing the project for a Fish Market in Ancona, by the architect G. Minucci56 who has been a collaborator of masters such as Marcello Piacentini and Adalberto Libera. Not only commercial and productive functions are identified as touristic, but the project itself conceives the market as a theatrical scenography, designing stage and stands, to display the performance. Furthermore, in this chapter, we can also find the only Past-War reference to a summer colony of the fascist period, written by an Italian scholar. The fact that it was a foreign magazine and that the summer colony was defined as colonia di vacanza, (more French and appealing, less dictatorial, stressing the ludic character) is certainly a detail to take into consideration. In fact, after the fall of the totalitarian regime, fascist summer colonies have been excluded from mainstream discourses in the frame of the Italian debate, re-appearing again 30 years later as abandoned derelict, on the pages of Domus Editoriale in 1985.57
58
Emilio Ambasz, “Italy: the new domestic landscape achievements and problems of Italian design”, 1972
Moreover, following the popular understanding of the seaside, starting from the fifties, concepts such as free time and individual desires are explored by architects, and even fetishized. For example, Cabanon de Vacances of Le Corbusier, in 1951, a minimum unit of just 14 squared meters, was pointed out as a political statement. But because of the lifestyle proposition attached to it, a sort of holiday mindset, the Cabanon has lost the political charge of the Calvinian shelter. In the Italian discourse, are the Radicals to bring at the MOMA, with the cupboards of Ettore Sottsass,58 the seaside equipment59 as an element of Italian design, or with Cabine dell’elba Aldo Rossi recognized in the Riviera rhetoric a possibility of systematization, re-proposing the object as a student dorm 1976.60
61
Case study: Colonia
DESIGN
THE TOWER IS A FRAME
While summer colonies can’t be standardized into a unique typology, because they adhere to a functional understanding of space characteristic of the first decades of Modernism, they can be grouped by similarities about single volumes. Practically, while the distribution of each colony is different, the architectural elements of its composition are constant. Therefore, the overall design strategy consists of a plurality of punctual interventions on single parts of the colony, rather than a unique renovation for the entire building. It is identifiable a genealogy of dormitories, rectories, insulation pavilions, etc. In particular, the following design exercise focuses on the vertical volume at the centre of the summer colonies, usually the vertical distribution, but also the water collector, or clock tower, that has been used as a stage for the children’s morning march, spatially tracing a routine of indoctrination. The design tests are applied to Colonia Varese, in Lido di Savio.61
Moreover, through a militaristic choreography starting from the garden and culminating at the top of the tower, the vertical object consequently performed and commanded a loss of body’s identity, but also a territorial dominance. The first design, concluding Chapter 1, focuses on the towers of summer colonies aiming to subvert the perception. Simply considering them as concrete frames, the project attaches to the structure the role of energy production support, to self-sustain future public interventions dedicated to the reuse of abandoned summer colonies. Rather than a territorial gesture, the tower, freely accessible to everyone, become then a visual support to the landscape, framing it.
Object of intervention:
Vertical Connection of summer colonies
Aim: To open access to the public
Architectural aspirations: from Performance to Perception, from Landmark to Frame.
Actions:
. Public and municipal investment for the structural restoration,
. Installation of reversible apparatuses for the production of energy,
. Construction of public paths connecting the beach and structure.
Timeline:
. The initial investment for securing the structure is recovered by selling the produced energy,
. Further gains are then reinvested for building interventions,
. Colonia is accessible to everyone,
. The building interest is collective
The object of intervention: the vertical distribution
Next page: Colonia Varese timeline, changes of use, modifications
Project:
Arch. Mario Loreti
Construction: CMC Cooperative
First year as Summer Colony for Fascist Youth Education
Change of use: Concentration Camp
Change of use: Military Hospital and Mortuary
Change of use: Aircraft Depot
Change of use: Prison for German hostages
Bombing and destruction of the ramp structure
Reconstruction of the ramp structure
Listed Building by Soprintendenza per i Beni Architettonici e Ambientali
Dlgs.n°42/2004
National law for the regulation of listed buildings to sale to privates
Failed Attempt to sale
Colonia Varese
Collapse of the Structure
PUG (General Urban Plan)
Test 1 Facade study, Energy production Balustrade as solar panels
62
63
MEGA-GENEALOGIES: a local evolution of summer colonies
The Modernist colonies cannot be catalogued according to typological parameters, however, thanks to the exploration and site visits along the coasts of Emilia Romagna, Liguria, Tuscany and Lazio, the thesis proposes a reinterpretation of the distribution diagram in an evolutionary key. Visiting these case studies in person, following the railway infrastructure62 connesting the shores,63 makes clear how at the local level they are subject to common influences. To systematize a design strategy for the summer colonies, which present a high level of architectural variations, with the interlude Megagenealogies, the thesis theorizes the evolution from typology to diagram, with the application of a local lens.
The interlude focuses on the strip of coast from Ravenna to Rimini, analysing coupled case studies according to hypotheses of spatial development. Starting from Colonia Murri, which traces the traditional typology of the hospital, the research moves to the Modern variation of Colonia Bolognese (pages 86-87). With Colonia Croce Rossa (page 88) in Ravenna, the same linear distribution with perpendicular arms as dormitories encounter the shape-like volume of the boat, later adopted for Colonia Novarese (page 89) in Rimini, but with
a different configuration, subtracting the arms. Then with Colonia Mantovana (page 90) in Rimini is proposed a C shape, which is doubled and repeated in the subsequent Colonia Varese (page 91) in Ravenna. And lastly, Colonia Vittorio Emanuela III (page 92) in Ostia, although located in a different region, designed by Marcello Piacentini, one of the main architects of the Fascist regime, presents the hybridization of the linear typology with arms (the hospital), with the courtyard one. The same scheme is identifiable with Colonia Montecatini (page 93) in Ravenna. Consequently, proximity, construction companies, and personal relations between architects, are key elements for the understanding of architectural variations. From the study, it emerged that the only spatially constant element of summer colonies is the dormitory, designed following the logic of the comrade. Repeated with same dimensions, it is ultimately retraceable to the smallest unit of the bed, and therefore the unit of the body.
Colonie
Public Ownership
Good state of the property
Re-use Project
Lack of Public Funds
Delerict state of the property
Structural Project
Lack of Public Funds
Attempt to Sell Buyer
Private Investor
Project for: Hotels Luxury Flat Resorts
Attempt to Sell
Cooperative
Project for: Family flat Hostels No Buyer
Stalemate Period
Private Ownership
Good state of the property
Delerict state of the property
Public Land is back to the market
Collapse of the Structure
Declaration of “Inagibilità”
The Plot can be sold
A new Constrution can be built
The process of ownership and refurbishment through the frame of Italian regulations
Colonia Murri Bellariva, Rimini, Arch. Giulio Marcovigi, 1911
Colonia Croce Rossa, Marina di Ravenna, Ravenna, Arch. Giovanni Montanari, 1934
Colonia Bolognese Miramare, Rimini, Engr. Ildebrando Tabarroni, 1931
Colonia Novarese Miramare, Rimini, Engr. Giuseppe Peverelli, 1934
Colonia Murri, Bellaria, Rimini, Arch. Giulio Marcovigi, 1911
Colonia Murri Bellariva, Rimini, Arch. Giulio Marcovigi, 1911
Colonia Bolognese, Miramare, Rimini, Arch. Ildebrando Tabarroni, 1931
Colonia Bolognese Miramare, Rimini, Engr. Ildebrando Tabarroni, 1931
Colonia Croce Rossa, Marina di Ravenna, Ravenna, Arch. Giovanni Montanari, 1934
Colonia Croce Rossa, Marina di Ravenna, Ravenna, Arch. Giovanni Montanari, 1934
Colonia Novarese, Miramare, Rimini, Arch. Giuseppe Pevelli, 1934
Colonia Novarese Miramare, Rimini, Engr. Giuseppe Peverelli, 1934
Colonia Milano
Colonia Mantovana, Milano Marittima, Ravenna, Arch. Guido Norsa 1933
Colonia Varese Milano Marittima, Ravenna, Arch. Mario Loreti, 1937
Colonia“Vittorio Arch.
Colonia Mantovana, Milano Marittima, Ravenna, Arch. Guido Norsa, 1933
Colonia Mantovana, Milano Marittima, Ravenna, Arch. Guido Norsa 1933
Colonia“Vittorio Emanuele III” Lido di Ostia, Roma, Arch. Marcello Piacentini, 1920
Colonia “Vittorio Emanuele III”, Lido di Ostia, Roma, Arch. Marcello Piacentini, 1920
Colonia“Vittorio Emanuele III” Lido di Ostia, Roma, Arch. Marcello Piacentini, 1920
Colonia Varese Milano Marittima, Ravenna, Arch. Mario Loreti, 1937
Colonia Varese, Lido di Savio, Ravenna, Arch. Guido Loreti, 1937
Colonia Montecatini, Milano Marittima, Ravenna, Arch. Eugenio Faludi, 1939
Colonia Montecatini, Lido di Savio, Ravenna, Arch. Eugenio Faludi, 1939
Colonia Montecatini, Milano Marittima, Ravenna, Arch. Eugenio Faludi, 1939
Colonia“Vittorio Arch.
Colonia Bolognese Miramare, Rimini, Engr. Ildebrando Tabarroni, 1931
Colonia Montecatini, Milano Marittima, Ravenna, Arch. Eugenio Faludi, 1939
Colonia Montecatini, Milano Marittima, Ravenna, Arch. Eugenio Faludi, 1939 SW
Colonia Montecatini, Milano Marittima, Ravenna, Arch. Eugenio Faludi, 1939 SW
N 0 10 50 mobility
N 0 10 50 mobility
On the top:
Colonia Murri, 1911, Bellaria; Rimini, Arch. Giulio Marcovigi 2.000 children
On the bottom:
Colonia Varese, 1937, Milano Marittima, Ravenna, Arch, Mario Loreti, 800 children
On the top:
Colonia Mantovana, 1933, Milano Marittima, Ravenna, Arch. Guido Norsa, 500 children
On the bottom:
Colonia Bolognese, 1931, Miramare, Rimini, Engr. Ildebrando Tabarroni, 1.000 children
On the top:
Colonia Novarese, 1934, Miramare, Rimini, Engr. Giuseppe Peverelli, 900 children
On the bottom:
Colonia Croce Rossa, 1934, Marina di Ravenna, Arch. Giovanni Montanari, 650 children
On the top: Colonia Montecatini, 1939, Milano Marittima, Ravenna, Arch. Eugenio Faludi, 1.500 children
On the bottom: Colonia Vittorio Emanuele III, 1920, Lido di Ostia, Roma, Arch. Marcello Piacentini, 800 children
BAY 1
BAY 2
BAY 3
DESIGN
THE DORMITORY IS A HOME
In the following design, the exercise is presented a general strategy of intervention in abandoned summer colonies, to propose forms of collective living, working, and services that could adapt and be appropriated by the fluid condition of seaside towns. Starting from the summer colony repeated elements of the dormitory, and from the approximation of its average dimensions, results in an invented “typical” dormitory plan, a linear diagram working with one, two, or three bays.
From the typical plan, have been designed different options flexible to different conditions, and ownerships. These invented plans represent a set of general guidelines for the intervention of abandoned summer colonies.
Object of intervention:
Standardization for summer colonies reuse strategy
Aim:
To challenge inherited ways of living and production of Riviera
Architectural aspirations:
To investigate the distributional potential of a linear system
Programme:
Mixed used +Residential +Community centre +Public Orts
Actions:
- To define a set of diagrams for possible distributions
- To design a manual of different scenarios of occupation
- To design a set of flexible systems
- To design a system capable of adapting to different ownership
Timeline:
- To Fragment the summer colony property
- To establish a cooperative structure for decision making
- To select the better option of adaptation from the designed guidelines
the 7 plans, explored in the next pages
Distributional schemes per bay BAY
Design guidelines
Max. occupation
Structural grid (existent)
Project Furnitures Flexibility
Structural grid (existent) Project Furnitures Flexibility
Max. occupation
Structural grid (existent)
Project Furnitures Flexibility
Structural grid (existent) Project Furnitures Flexibility
Max. occupation Structural grid (existent) Project Furnitures Flexibility
Structural grid (existent) Project Furnitures Flexibility
3 Bay option - Guidelines test
Floor Plan / Flat Combinations /Type of units / Flexibility
CHAPTER 2
EDGE: from linearity to alienation
Chapter 2, the Edge, focuses on Riviera Urbanization, identifying in the lotting process of the 20th Century the origin of the urban grain typical of Italian seaside towns. Moreover, at the scale of the settlement, the thesis considers this specific urban tissue a marginalizing device, intentionally perpetrating social division. The analysis will focus on the linear urban system of Riviera, transversally sectioning or delayering, its urban grain, and ways of living. The aim is to document and projectively challenge the division by bands typical of this kind of secondary town. A symptomatic subdivision inherited with the ascendency of building pivots such as maritime hospices and hotels for the upper classes, while Children’s summer colonies for the lowers.
In Subchapter 2.1, the research explains the role of the infrastructure of mobility as a driving force for the development of coastal settlements and the growth of the mass tourism phenomenon. Then with Subchapter 2.2, the focus shifts to the notion of the secondary town as the urban translation of the Riviera imaginary. Lastly, in Subchapter 2.3 “the sea as an alien border”, are discussed the qualitative aspects of secondary towns through the analysis of subjects and performances, the rituality related to the mindset of Riviera, and its ways of living. In particular, the research aims to deconstruct the concept of edge as living on the border of alienation.
Secondary town plan, Rimini municipalities: A case study
1
Ellen Furlough, “Making Mass Vacations: tourism and consumer culture in France, 1930s to 1970s”, in “Comparative studies in society and history,” n. 40, 2, 1998
2
Rudy Koshar, “German travel cultures”, Berg, Oxford-New York, 2000
3
John Walton, Jason Wood, “World Heritage seaside”, in British Archeology, n. 90, 2006
4
Municipal chalet on the beach of Giuliana, Bengasi, 1930, source: Italian touring Club
SEASIDE:
the role of mobility
The touristic landscape of the seaside has become progressively more diffused during the 20th century, increasing the anthropic character of the coasts. But because seaside leisure is a recent invention, tourism research has been a novelty of the last three decades, especially when related to the seaside. The consultation of scientifical journals has been fundamental for the construction of the thesis argumentation, in particular, the Annals of Tourism Research (from 1973), the Tourism Management (from 1980), the Tourism Economics (from 1985), and the Journal of tourism history (from 2009). While scholarships identify the mass-tourism development followed after the adoption of the American model of production and consumption, the agent of seaside modifications,1 Riviera: what happens when summer ends? considers the process of nation-building2 as the historical turning point of seaside urbanism. The shift from the elitist Grand Hotel of the beginning of the past century to the small guesthouse or hotel chain for the middle class3 doesn’t own the primary modification agency of the seaside urban tissue of Riviera.
5
Brian McLaren, “Architecture and tourism in Italian colonial Libya : an ambivalent modernism”, SeattleLondon: University of Washington Press, 2006
6
Ortensi, Dagoberto, Edilizia Rurale. Urbanistica di centri comunali e di borgate rurali con 1010 illustrazioni. Roma: Casa editrice Mediterranea, 1941
In 1934, in the frame of oversea Colonialism, the fascist government was incorporating its Tripolitania and Cirenaica conquests, into a unified Libyan colony. Doing so, it started an implementation process responsible for the imposition of a development strategy of infrastructural interventions and new agricultural settlement constructions. Libya wasn’t the only foreign appropriation of the fascist regime. However, conversely to traditional exploitation practices, after the first agricultural period, the colony faced a shift of purpose: from primary to tertiary production.4 Indeed, Libya became a touristic settlement meant to advertise the power of the fascist regime and the modern civilization’s achievements over the rebellion. Libya was consequentially depicted as an exotic and erotic land by the mass media of the time, attracting curious observers and academic anthropologists.5
The same passage from agriculture to the touristic agency has been applied to littoral Italy. After the first period of Land Reclamations campaigns, involving hydrogeological modifications of the coastal areas,6 in a few decades the seashore turned into tourism. The idea of safeness represented by the territories previously affected by malaria and later transformed into liveable and even idyllic areas is a key point for the construction of the Riviera mindset. Not only mobility has been the first agent of territorial modifications and drastic change
7
Rimini, 1980, in Luigi Coccia, Marco d’Annuntiis, “Oltre la spiaggia, nuovi spazi per il turismo adriatico, 2012
8
Mario Bellini, Kar-a-sutra, in the Moma publication “Italy: the new domestic landscape achievements and problems of Italian design”
Edited by Emilio Ambasz, 1972
9
Renzo Zavanella, “L’automotrice rimorchiante OM Belvedere”, in L’Architecture d’Aujourdhui n 27, 1949, p. 78
10
Angiolo Mazzoni, “Angiolo Mazzoni : 1894-1979 : architetto nell’Italia tra le due guerre : Galleria comunale d’arte moderna”, Bologna: Grafis, 1984
12
Gae Aulenti, Rimorchiatore lamp, in the Moma publication “Italy: the new domestic landscape achievements and problems of Italian design”
Edited by Emilio Ambasz, 1972
in the perception of the beach, 7 but it has also inspired the Radical narration of Riviera in the realm of pop culture.8 In fact, topics like logistics and mobility are the main concepts for the seaside as leisure construction.9
Particularly during the Interwar, there is a connection between the infrastructural architectures of fascism, such as railway stations and postal offices, with summer colonies settlements along the Italian coasts. The architects in charge of mobility, of which the most famous is Angiolo Mazzoni,10 have often designed summer colonies as well, bringing to the project mobility and logistics as compositive agents. Not only there is a common understanding of space in its pure functionality, but also a re-proposition of architectural elements. Besides, the colonies were named Colonia Bolognese (from Bologna), Novarese (from Novara), Reggiana (from Reggio Emilia), and so on so forward. There was an explicit connection, expressed in the name of the colony itself, between the provenance of the children and their summer accommodation. While implicitly, pointing out the starting point of the journey, alluded to the process of the journey itself. If in Rimini there was a Colonia Bolognese for the working-class children, is because there was a mobility infrastructure easily capable to connect Bologna with Rimini. An infrastructure propagandistically potentiated by the regime in the attempt to portray Italy as a unique and cohesive empire, enlarging to the oversea colonies too. Therefore, some of the summer colonies of the national coasts were dedicated to the Sons and Daughters of the Italians abroad, specifically the Italians overseas. But what is absent from any written books, is the fact that the colonies were operating not only in the indoctrination of the Italian children but that the kids of the overseas colonies, especially Albania and Libya, were exported to Italy, introduced to an environment where they should have been “civilized”, forcing their family to abandon them.
Furthermore, the rhetorical proposition of naval energumen as a volumetric reference for summer colony constructions, anticipates a tendency, traceable following the seaside development, to adopt, even delegate to a language made of seafaring parodies, the task to define a design manner. Indeed, the literal repetition of nautical themes is the typical aesthetic of Riviera, from the thirties to nowadays. Naval-shaped colonies,11 domestic objects,12 and interiors13 are all still protracting the same narration of the sea from the eyes of terraferma 14 But in this apparently unerring representation, there is the demand for moving and floating, as well as for the transitory. As the boat of Deserto Rosso, 15 staged on film, the ship of the summer colony, sent in a postcard, or the vessel technical drawing, framed in the living room of a seaside villa, the maritime aesthetic assumes the meaning of the metaphor. It refers to a maritime reality, or again, imaginary, never actually happened: the romanticization of the sea, perceived from the seaside.
13
On the top of the page: Colonia domestic interior, June 2022
11
On the bottom of the page: Riviera Novarese, Miramare, 1939
14
Terraferma is the name by which the land is called in the naval language. It means “solid ground.”
15
Michelangelo Antonioni, “Red Desert”, 1968, filmed in RavennaMORPHOLOGY: the secondary town
16
17
18
With High-Street village is intended the English organization of buildings of the past centuries, arranged around circulation spines, as a sort of so linear cities
In 1934, while Italy was combining the oversea conquests into the colony of Libya, Rimini was stipulating a regulatory plan, a general plan operating at the urban scale, openly drawn according to principles and techniques adopted for the international colonies.16 The Rimini plan operates as evidence proofing that, at this historical point, rather than the wild touristic speculation, the goal of the government, the main public agency effort, was focused on a process of nation-building and propaganda. Following this construction, the mass tourism development can’t be identified as an agent, but rather as an inherited modus operandi in the formation of seaside towns.
The main object of investigation of Chapter 2 is the secondary town17 of the Italian coasts, first identified as such by Ernesto Nathan Rogers on the pages of Casabella in 1964, when Urbanism tried to give an order to the past decades’ expansion. Following this frame, there is a specific morphology that can be mapped through the Italian and Mediterranean coasts, an urban condition working with linear spatiality and mobility, but still keeping the classist hierarchy of the traditional concentric city, and even enforcing it. Acting as unrolled ribbons, running along the shores, seaside towns are never-ending cities of orthogonal grains, brutally parcelled out by infrastructural and private speculations. The functional subordination of the secondary town relegates any urban plan to touristic development. The catalysing power of these settlements is operating through leisure, and therefore everything outside the touristic realm should demand back to the primary city. Contrary to the satellite city, the development doesn’t follow a concentric expansion, but a linear one. This means that there’s an enforced hierarchy between one secondary town and the next, related to their distance from the primary pole. For this reason, even if the articulation of the urban space follows the diagram of the line, it can’t be merely defined as a linear city.
The concept of the linear city, although existed before the 20th century, as is the case of the High-Street Village, 18 has flourished with Modern architecture and urbanism, with the prefiguration of organizational strategies and machine age metaphors of transportation flows. However, as anticipated, the modernist proposition of the linear city can’t be directly applied to the realm of the secondary towns of coastal Italy, of two main discrepancies: hierarchy and grid. Following the contemporary work of the researcher in post-war urban develop-
The hierarchical condition of secondary-towns Schematic section and plan Casestudy: Miramare, Rimini
In yellow the areas assigned to touristic development. In red the area dedicated to PEEP council housing development (mandatory at the municipality scale).
George Everard Kidder Smith (1913–1997), was an American architect, author, educator, photographer, and curator, expert in modern architecture and the historic built environment. He published extensively for the Museum of Modern Art
ments, Albert Pope, and tracing back to the beginning of the linear city theorization in 1882, with the Spanish urban theorist Arturo Soria y Matta, it is evident how these urban systems, in their speculative scenarios, have been created in opposition to hierarchical concepts such as the Garden City. The linear city has been originally conceived as an endless extension of the main city industrial area. Refusing the traditional conformation of the concentric morphology, the attempt was the one to translate an active function into urban form, responding to production and transportation imperatives.19
Although the functional and infrastructural aspects are much more relatable with the seaside urban condition, the presence of the sea itself, dictates a privileged expansion that spatially operates as an opposite agent to linearity and non-hierarchy. Essentially, secondary towns follow a morphology divided by bands, that not only correspond to functions but to social status. This conformation is an intentional rather than spontaneous modification of the original lotting plan of the 19th Century for the development of the Riviera coast, which was operating the logic of the orthogonal grid. Following Albert Pope, grids function as non-hierarchical networks open to diverse responses, capable of structuring complex associations and open patterns. 20 But because the secondary town is constrained between sea and agricultural land, with the arisen perception of the beach as leisure, and the consequent touristic speculation, the grid has lost its limitless morphology. In this sense the urban figure of the ladder, adopting an opposite pattern of order, fundamentally exclusive in its conformation, better represents the condition of the semi-closed system of Riviera. Still working orthogonally, the ladder operates through classification, division, and prescribed response.21 Maintaining the linear agency, but the subordination of the cross-axes, this figure, although mainly present in the development of post-war American settlements, can be used as an analytical tool for Riviera urban understanding. This conformation, stretching out along the coast, connects one seaside town to the other, unrolling across the landscape with apparently no forceful traverse break or variation. However, analysing seaside settlements case studies, is noticeable a unique perpendicular gesture, breaking the linear progress of the urban grain. The areas of the abandoned summer colonies, now on the outskirts of the touristic town, represent the only morphological variation.
In 1955, when the fascist regime already felt, with the collection of projects Italy Builds: Its Modern Architecture and native inheritance by the international scholar Kidder Smith,22 summer colonies have been exhibited, changing names into convenient “therapy centres”. Moreover, if we go back to the history of Italian seaside development, is no present, from the first theorization of the secondary town, in 1964, to the late eighties with the regional survey of Emilia Romagna summer colonies in 1986, any mention of summer colonies in the realm of mainstream architectural debate.
Even in Casabella 283/284, there is no colony mention, although the issues openly talk about heritage, Rogers has been in charge of the Sea Exhibit in Tri-
Mobility infrastructure, Miramare municipality, 2022 urban condition
Abandoned summer colonies, Miramare municipality, 2022 urban condition
Fenced Parks, Miramare municipality, 2022 urban condition
23
In Casabella n. 129, 1938, Rogers published with the BBPR group a project for a summer colony in Lignano. Same location and magazine where in 1964, he proposed the urban plan of the seaside town: este, and he has designed more than one colony.23 This tendency, if on the one hand is evidence of a historiographical vacuum about the architecture of the fascist regime, partially responsible for the derelict status of summer colonies nowadays, on the other has also subtracted, even protect, these megastructures from the wild seaside densification. The heritage of the summer colonies, with their pertaining parks, extensively represents a projective potential for the general urban development of secondary towns.
Lido di Savio, Ravenna
Royal Air Force Archive 1943 urban development
Lido di Savio, Ravenna
Regional Archive - Flight IGMI GAI 1954 urban development
Lido di Savio, Ravenna
Regional Archive - Consorzio TEA 2017 urban development
SUBCHAPTER
LINEARITY:
the sea as an alien border
The root of the word isolation ultimately derives from the Latin word insula, meaning island. The term appeared in Italian, with isolato “isolated”, which became the French word isolé, and then moved into English.24 By definition, isolation suggests a compound or microorganism, a closed system dealing with loneliness. The character of isolation of the secondary town derives from its dependent nature, excluded but parasitically attached to the city’s primary pole. However, this condition is just partially true, because, in a seaside town, where seasonality acts as a catalyser, there are no real closed edges. And without limits, how can it be an island?
On the other hand, the term alienation comes from “alien”, the other, the different.25 Spatially, alienation could be imagined as a straight line, rather than a closed circle. Conversely to the clear spatiality of isolation, identifiable as a closed system, the idea of alienation remains an ambiguous concept with elusive variants. And in this sense, isolation and alienation are opposite poles. One is finite the other is infinite. However, what is a constant in the uncanny notions of alienation and isolation, is the idea of separation. Tracing a line and dividing by side. The feeling of alienation in Riviera rises exactly from the discrepancy between what should be and what is not there. The feeling of being alone in the crowd, the feeling of sadness during a party, the braveness of being naked on a beach, living in a sea-town, never going to the sea. Remote working on holiday, recreation framed as production, and production framed as recreation. The real inhabitant of the Riviera is the one that recognizes homely the feeling of alienation. The feeling of solastalgia.26
Through manipulative exploitation, territory and population have been the experimental field of “development” since the 19th century. The process of touristification is not only associated with territorialization but involves the creation of subjects too. The thesis is meant to give an episodic narration focusing on the colonial policies of the Interwar, the invention of recreation, and the collapse of the economic system of the past decades. The aim is to expand the comprehension of mass tourism as a phenomenon solely related to the Postwar period, tracing a way older modus operandi of policies. The last episode of the temporal narration reflects on the past decades’ collapse of the touristic system of Riviera. However, collapse does not refer solely to the economic crisis, but also to the physical degradation of places and people. The subjects that have been protagonists of the economic boom are now the elderlies of the
coastal towns, as well as the luxurious hotels and discos of the sixties, they have now reached the state of derelict dreams or abandoned skeletons. The self-definition of locals reflects the idea of remaining anchored instead of leaving. But how can you identify yourself in a broken system that still operates on an imaginative level? What is the real out of the choreographic performance?
In the 60s, Homo Additus Naturae, 27 was the architectonical proposition of a new attempt to marginate the wild touristic densification. A proposal that failed, meanly for its intrinsic contradictions. The idea of editing the territory and its natural elements for imposing the right, or the good. Until fifty years ago, these luxuriant settlements offered leisure holidays to mass, but after decades of anthropogenic inventions, as a result, they are struggling to find a new catalysing identity, or simply to define an already present reality. Years of mono-functionality played in favour of a linear morphology that severely lacks commons for the inhabitants, a seasonal condition mirror of a constantly edited urban space, always conceived for the temporary (but paying) subject, rather than the permanent one.
DESIGN THE TOWN IS A SYSTEM
The secondary city has an orthogonal morphology, developed following coast and infrastructure. This conformation, which operates through linear stratigraphy, involves territory, architecture and social structure. The design, therefore, proposes an urban system capable of connecting new services, mobility, and former abandoned buildings. Through the previous reflections on urban and seaside development, the diagram is placed perpendicular to the coast in the urban tissue, an element contrary to the current spatial subdivision, while it develops linearly along the coast, in opposition to the established grid of bathhouses and the speculative schemes of the beach.
Starting from general diagrams in Rimini’s territory, the design is tested at the scale of the municipality in Lido di Savio / Milano Marittima. The two municipalities host Colonia Montecatini, and Colonia Varese, previously studied (pages 93 and 91). These municipalities have been chosen as locations for testing the project because they present both typical and specific qualities.
Object of investigation:
The urban configuration of the secondary-town
Aim:
To challenge the social hierarchy structure of the town, as well as the exploitation of the beach
Urban aspirations:
Breaking urban linearity and subordinacy
Actions:
- Individuation of abandoned buildings in need of refurbishment and/ or restoration (abandoned discos, summer colonies, restaurants, fisher sheds, hotels etc)
- Identification of green areas of interest at risk (natural reserves, dune systems, agricultural heritage etc)
- Analysis of the current services, and implementation of public assistance
- Analysis of the current mobility system, and additions of new stations along the existing infrastructure
- To design a pedestrian and cyclable system connecting all the previous realities
Design strategy context: Rimini
Re-Drawing Exercise: Urban Plan of Milano Marittima and Lido di Savio
Re-Drawing Exercise: the Urban Grain. Break of the orthogonality at the summer colonies sites
Re-Drawing Exercise: Green Areas: Agricultural fields
Beach / Dunes
Protected Forests
Urban Parks
Re-Drawing Exercise: Ombrelloni e bagni al mare Sun Umbrellas and Cabanas
Design Concept Municipality
Existing Elements Path Project
INTERLUDE 2
WAYS OF LIVING: field research
1. Paolo Giometti
2. Giulio Cirilli
3. Club Murbi
4. Agnese Navoni
5. Gabriella Maria Carmen Romeo
6. Benini / Fraiese Family
7. Josè
The interlude “Ways of Living” spatializes the outcome of the fieldwork done during the Summer and Autumn of 2022. The research method has focused on inhabitants’ interviews, aiming to an intimate comprehension of seaside everyday struggles and rituals. Dealing directly with subjects has been fundamental for a larger territorial understanding of mare touristic agency and geographical condition. Italy presents the largest percentage of the elderly population in Europe. And in the case of Riviera, the local generation, the permanent one, responsible for the
Municipality
Marina di Ravenna
Marina di Ravenna
Marina di Ravenna
Marina Romea Lido
Fisher shed
Furthermore, the economic crisis of the past decades has pushed unemployed slices of the population to go back to the decadent coastal towns for a cheaper living. And at the same time, has also deeply influenced and enforced the international migration fluxes (heritage of the 19th-century colonial period). Lately, the global pandemic has moved young subjects to these settlements, escaping from cities and working online. Name
flourishing of the hospitality28 market, is the same that today needs a care system impossible to satisfy in the Secondary-towns.
Immerging into these different realities underlined a common denominator, the feeling of “Solastalgia”, coined by the philosopher Glenn Albrecht in 2003, a neologism that in the realm of tourism science, indicates the collective melancholia that a community feels when its space is touristified. It is a feeling of homesickness while being at home. The atmosphere of alienation and decadence, that is the present condition of Riviera, is the result of a forced economic and urban model repetition, closed in invisible limits, that refuses to self-recognize and accept new subjectivities and communities.
Therefore, the invention of the local subject is a construction as much as the Riviera concept itself. However, new inhabitants, identities, and communities are often invisible to municipality plans, due to precarity, illegal contracts, or simply unstable conditions. Shifting the notion of local, new subjects act in favour of an urban reactivation, a Riviera resurrection. Deconstructing for then revealing, the interlude “ways of living” proposes a series of stories of inhabitation. A real and intimate portrait of contradiction. Rather than the Homo additus Naturae 29 of the sixties, is analysed is the Homo Ludens, 30 here considered as an individual existing
in its social interactions, and not in its territorial capacity to directly modify or to demand modifications.
The interlude presents the outcomes of a selection of seven interviews, five related to the domestic aspects of living in Riviera, and two to the ones of gathering. The five inhabitants’ interviews are transcribed in the appendix at the end of the thesis.
PAOLO GIOMETTI
Marina di RavennaThe urban orthogonal grain of the secondary Towns of coastal Italy has both led and been influenced by the touristification process.
In the case of the Riviera Romagnola, during the first decades of the past century, when the territory was still empty, the government proposed a lotting program, exchanging buildable land for the promise of finalizing building constructions in short periods. The main (and only) rule was to build at least two floors of high volumes.
Thanks to this program, internal migrants moved and populated Riviera mainly self-building detached houses. Lately, during the Interwar, these constructions were unified with built additions to later be re-functionalized as hotels for working-class tourists or split between different heirs of the same family.
After the Second World War, these constructions started to be further split and sold as second houses for holidays to the working class. Nowadays, with the tourism and economic collapse, a flat in a detached house in Riviera is often a cheaper way to buy a property, back to the primary house role. Of course, with divisions, additions, and changes of property, the
buildings were internally modified. The gardens, thought for a larger family, are mainly shared by strangers, or fenced within small parcellations. At the same time, the detached houses are introverted monoliths, floating and surrounded by green belts.
GIULIO CIRILLI
Marina di Ravenna
31 “Bruno Minardi Marinara Harbour”, Divisare Magazine online, 20 July 2016, https://divisare.com/projects/322589-bruno-minardi-marinara-harbour
Arch. Bruno Minardi, Marinara Harbour
Clubhouses; Cafes and Restaurants; Shops and Boutiques; Port Facilities; Ship chandlery; Shipyards; Apartments; Office buildings; Supermarket.
Area: 420.000 mq
Berths: 1.500 31
32 Ibidem
Full interview transcription at page 253, Appendix 1: Interviews
Marinara Harbour presents a peculiar model of housing in the context of Riviera. Although the residential buildings of the complex can’t be defined as social housing, their design of collective facilities and shared amenities is proposing a new way of living for the Secondary Towns. Moreover, the model is challenging the real estate market of Italian seaside towns. Maintaining the land as state property, inhabitants pay the public a controlled rent following a renewable contract for a maximum of 35 years.
One of the problematic parts of this model resides in the fact that accessing the program is not affordable for an average income. Although the rent is controlled through the years, is required an initial contribution for living in the harbour. Furthermore, the settlement is thought of as a touristic development in its intrinsic conformation. Commercial and leisure
activities, following the outcome of the interview, make life unbearable during the summer season.
About the architecture of Marinara Harbour: “Bruno Minardi’s work is informed by a theoretical approach and a respect for the existing world founded not on imitation but on analogy. He arises a vocabulary of formal types drawn not only from architecture but also from industrial landscapes such as the large cylindrical forms of industrial tanks. Stressing that, architecture is always part of an existing urban context, and that it should grow from a local building.”32 However, rather than working with the built environment, Minardi’s project seems to repropose a caricaturist naval language, that can work for the refurbishment of the industrial derelicts of the site, but it does stand the housing development.
Next page: Giulio Cirilli flat View of the Interiors
Bruno Minardi, Marinara Harbour sketches, Marina di Ravenna, 2012
source: Divisare Magazine online, 20 July 2016, https://divisare.com/projects/322589-bruno-minardi-marinara-harbour- A social Housing model
GABRIELLA AND JULES
Lido AdrianoGabriella and Jules are a young couple, with the pandemic they switched to full-time remote work, so they moved from Milan to Lido Adriano, a seaside town on the Romagna coast.
The main reason for moving was saving money on the rent, but also being close to the sea. However, they are extremely critical about the lack of any services, community centres, co-working or places for gathering during winter.
At the same time, summer is unbearable, of the constant noise, of the overcrowded atmosphere. They end up going to the beach extremely early in the morning, or not at all, and any time they want to socialize, they just commute to the primary city, always by car because public transportation is expensive in summer and doesn’t exist during winter. Paradoxically, even in life is potentially easier in summer, they do prefer winter.
BENINI FRAIESE FAMILY
Castiglione di Cervia
Leoné is a young fashion artisan, living in a camper, while her family lives in a farmhouse that they restored in a secondary town of Romagna.
Leoné travels during winter, working on her new creations, while in summer she’s back for the town markets. Even if she has a bedroom in the family house, Leonè prefers to sleep in the camper, which has its special parking lot in the big back garden of the house.
Here the family practices forms of self-cultivation for their subsistence, however, as occupation, the members of the kinship are all artists. The house is an open and flexible studio, with textile, pottery, painting, and graphic workshops. Moreover, the family is particularly active at a community level, representing just one of a constellation of similar house-workshop realities.
JOSE’
Lido di SavioJose has moved to Italy twenty years ago. Initially landed in Milan, and without a job or accommodation life became unsustainable, even dangerous, sleeping in the streets. After a few weeks, he left the city taking the first train to arrive at the station. He ended up in Rimini, which seemed still too unsafe for those who don’t have a house.
Always taking the train, he explored around, discovering, along the railway, an abandoned building. Colonia Varese has now been his house for nearly twenty years.
Through time he has built two pavilions and cultivated the garden. In the secondary town of Milano Marittima, Josè is not the only one with this lifestyle, moreover, there’s a system of self-support, and sharing skills for occupying the abandoned buildings of the area. Although the act of appropriation of the old summer colony was initially dictated by necessity, it represents the most political statement that the building has seen since its abandonment.
While the public doesn’t provide real conservative support, waiting for the definitive collapse for putting the land back on the market, the “illegal” occupant, with his pavilions,
has provided a reinforced structure to the building, avoiding its final collapse. Even the police, don’t want to intervene, because Josè work has been collectively recognized as an improvement to the state of the colony, theoretically protected as heritage.
heritage - building occupation
new - self construction
new - self sustaining
heritage - building collapse
Murbi means soft, fat, in the dialect of Romagna region. It refers to the change of the body getting older
34
Every municipality plan has marked with a cross churches and monasteries. The only functional connotation described with the urban re-drawing
CLUB MURBI
The Club Murbi33 has been founded by four men after their retirement. They have been friends since childhood and have been partisan together during the war. A way of expressing their bond it’s through fierce card games, which turned out to be their main retirement entertainment.
Because all four of them are openly members of the Communist party, they are not and don’t want to be welcome in church, that as in every other secondary town, is the main aggregation point of the local community. 34 And anyway, “church is just for women and priests”. Club Murbi found then its headquarters in a parking lot, in the shadow of a Platanus that they have seen plant decades ago. Here, they store a removable table, a pile of stackable chairs, a banner with their logo, and a huge clock, for checking the time. Riviera is about time, which runs quickly when you have fun.
Even if they’re retired the parking lot is the perfect middle ground between all their four places of work. No one in the community is allowed to touch their possession. And no one does.
Agnese is one of a group of friends that share the ownership of a fisher shed, a kind of self-made construction along the shores of the canals, where the port or the fields mesh with the swamp.
These types of shacks, apparently humble, are extremely expensive nowadays, especially compared to their actual value of self-built constructions, because it’s not legal to build on those lands anymore.
Therefore, far from the period in which they were self-subsistence dwellings, in the present condition they serve the purpose of upper-class huts for gathering. Even if in the past they used to be a humble domestic place for fishers, now they are weekends and party catalysers, even rentable. A sort of Calvinian tree house, “far” from civilization.
Usually, these wooden sheds are divided into a main room with a kitchen, and a smaller one with a toilette on the side, more intimate. They are all still functioning, because protected heritage by the municipality, and maintenance is a requirement. They could potentially still fish, even if fishing has been forbidden in the area for the past ten years, due to past ecosystem destruction.
The following study uses the guidelines developed for the design of the “Megagenealogies” interlude and applies them to the case studies of the previously analysed summer colonies. Not only this is a work of adaptation, from a general strategy to a specific case, but reflecting on the outcomes of the interviews, it questions the previous design, adding common spaces for the entirety of the summer colony, not just the dormitories. The spaces once reserved for refectory and services should be revisioned in a specific way on a case-bycase basis, rather than a general strategy. The design “The colony is a community” tests the propositions of Interlude 1, on the base of fieldwork investigation.
Object of intervention:
Site-specific design through collective spaces
Aim:
To create a community for the Riviera inhabitants
Architectural aspirations:
Investigate the collective potential
of summer colonies
Actions:
- Possibility of housing in exchange for maintenance
- Interventions by parts, different floors and volumes, not the all building
- To define a set of inhabitation protocols
- To design collective areas, paths and collective services specific to the context
- Public accessibility to green areas thanks to path connections between the beach and agricultural fields, through the summer colony
Timeline:
- A network of skills is shared between a group of people active through the community centre
- A social network of mutual support is established, both at the complex and settlement scale
- The colony is collectively lived
Strategy of intervention:
Fragmentation as spatial opposition to Indoctrination (working on joint, surgical demolitions, and new connections)
Colonia Novarese, Original First floor plan
Colonia Novarese, Design test
Adaptation of the guidelines
First floor plan 0
CHAPTER 3
MEGASTRUCTURE: antropogenic systems
Chapter 3 analyses two historical acts of territorialization, working at the scale of mega, as agents of anthropogenic modifications connotating the present condition of the Riviera Landscape. Subchapter 3.1 introduces the processes of Land Reclamations of the 19th Century, as major geological and exploitative phenomena, ultimately leading to the leisure perception of the coast. Thanks to these infilling and draining procedures, polluted lands affected by malaria turned into safe beaches. Subchapter 3.2 analyses the theorization of the notion of megastructure, in relation to the summer colonies of Italian seaside towns. Particularly attacking the absence of the second generation of Futurist architectures in the realm of megastructure precursor, the argument introduces the concept of città nuova, as enlarging potential operating at the environmental and territorial scale. Lastly, Subchapter 3.3 presents, with a propositional lens, the de-territorialized system of the coast, as “the other” megastructure.
1
Giuseppe Barone, Lucio Gambi and Manlio Rossi-Doria, La storia delle bonifiche in Italia: Elementi per un dibattito. 1985
Profile of the Bed of the Adriatic, Reclus, Elisee. 1873, Ocean, Atmosphere, and Life, being the Second Series of a Descriptive History of the Life of the Globe, New York City, NY: Harper & Brothers, Publishers
2
Giuseppe Barone, Lucio Gambi and Manlio Rossi-Doria, La storia delle bonifiche in Italia: Elementi per un dibattito. 1985
3
Italy was unified in 1861, after a period of revolutions called Risorgimento
4
Coluzzi Paolo, Internal Colonialism: The cases of Italy, 2016
5
“Scavo botte sottopassante il torrente Illasi”, provincia di Verona, Archivio ANBI Veneto, 1920
LAND RECLAMATIONS:
the colonization of the coast
Subchapter 3.1 identifies in the Land Reclamation of the 19th Century, in terms of the manipulation of bodies and territories, an exploitative model comparable to touristification processes. The conversion of the soil, and consequently of the natural ecosystem for production implementations, is the origin of an ambiguous landscape, sitting between sea and terraferma. This liminal zone is neither fully anthropogenic, nor natural, but still enables a sensorial relationship to a physical reality that pulls both fore and background. 1 As a territory generated by humankind, Riviera lives both escaping and adhering to the artificial. Historically constructed and deconstructed, with infilling and draining, the spatial continuum of the shore has inherited the fictitious qualities of reclamation, while inevitably maintaining the connection with the horizon.
The Italian Land Reclamation2 was carried out based on national schemes and private initiatives, to convert insalubrious areas infected by Malaria (literally mal/bad + aria/air), into sanitized (and profitable) agricultural lands. The process started even before the unification of the country3 and assumed an official character becoming a government priority just in 1878 when the construction of the first railway system had been interrupted for the unhealthy territories that it was supposed to cross. Therefore, Land Reclamation processes were focusing on those hydrogeological corrupted areas (unhygienic lakes, ponds, swamps, and marshes) that could have gained relevant demographic, social, and (especially) economic advantages. These operations, extended for over a century, identifiable as internal colonisations,4 had been responsible for social, economic, productive, and demographic transformations, as well as for massive territorial modifications5 that are connoting the present Italian landscape.
The Integral Land Reclamation Act of 1923, made by Arrigo Sempieri,6 was the first national regulation which introduced the mandatory rural conversion of the sanitized lands, in fact tying tight the hydraulic improvements to the agricultural ones. Just five years later, the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini promptly adopted and reworked that same law, implementing, through keen propaganda, public and private efforts to raise the value of the most degraded lands, making them suitable for new human settlement, literally called “Colonie”. The Land Reclamations were portrayed by the regime as redundant ventures: “The War of CHAPTER
Railway system development, Italian Ministry of Transportation, 1866
During the 19th century the Italian government mapped the unhealthy territories of Malaria in parallele to Land Reclamation actions
Carta della Malaria dell’Italia, 1882
Geographic distribution of Land Reclamation areas and Mountains perimeter, Italian Ministry of Agriculture and Forests, 1929
6
Arrigo Serpieri (Bologna, 15 June 1877 - Florence, 29 January 1960) was an economist, politician, and agronomist. Serpieri was an expert in agricultural economics. He was undersecretary of the Ministry of Agriculture during the Fascist period
7
Monica, Luca, Bergamaschi Luca. From the Thirties to post-war reconstruction. The Land Reclamation Consortia and rural architecture in Italy. 2018
8 It should be considered the illiteracy level of the time, as well as the lack of transportations. The peasant population didn’t even talk the same language across the country, thus the ninetieth century displacement from one region to the other can be defined as a working-class migration process
9 The expropriations were commanded on the judgement O.N.C., the charity organisation on behalf of the State, in charge of the agricultural production management of the new sanitized lands
10
Monica, Luca, Bergamaschi Luca. From the Thirties to post-war reconstruction. The Land Reclamation Consortia and rural architecture in Italy. 2018
11 Racially and socially discriminative policies, aimed to “construct” an ideal humanity
12 Cassata, Francesco, Molti, sani e forti: L’eugenetica in Italia. 2006
the Waters”, “The Grain Battle”, and “The Land Fight”. Mythical expeditions, where the party was the strong conductor of a victorious army of colonizers
However, in reality, as stated by Luca Monica and Luca Bergamaschi in From the Thirties to Postwar Reconstruction. The Land Reclamation Consortia and rural architecture in Italy,7 the labourers of the Land Reclamations were internal immigrants, searching for a job to survive, moving from one region to another. 8 Those immigrants were often former farmers, who escaped from the yoke of exploiting landowners, for the government promise of an arable plot in exchange for Reclamation labour. But once the hydric sanitation was finished, the workers didn’t turn into the owners of the fields, since a minimum inappropriate use such as failing to deliver a certain production level or disobeying the commanded cultivation may result in expropriation.9 In this sense the majority of Reclamation workers were passing from being exploited by a landowner, to being exploited by the State.10 And Although the national government had taken advantage of the labour force even before the fascist regime establishment, the totalitarian period reinforced the process, abusing the civilians using medical, racial, and national ease. In 1925, during the Tuscany Land Reclamation, over 2000 employed workers were used as human cavies for Malaria experimentations, a “cure” declared toxic a few years later. Moreover, in line with the regime’s eugenics policies, 11 populations of different regional origins, were specially introduced into determined areas, as a great laboratory of human biology 12 Furthermore, during the Second World War, the German Army purposely flooded back some sanitized lands, bringing back the Malaria disease, a strategy considered the first historical use of a bacteriological weapon.
These examples are evidence of a process in which the corpses of the so-called colonisers were themselves colonised by the regime in every possible way. But if on one hand, the fascist propaganda was promoting the Land Reclamations (mainly involving the coastal territories), on the other, it was, even more, advocating the importance of a healthy (and fascist) body, free from any disease. Paradoxically, the term Riviera is used to indicate a stretch of coastline safe for landing. And in fact, the anthropogenic interventions of the 19th Century have changed the natural conformation of the sea in favour of more welcoming, at least from an anthropogenic perspective, shores, ultimately converted into urban beaches.
13
For a smoother reading I will use the terms Futurism/Futurist just in relation to the movement developed by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti between 1909 and 1944, without specifically repeat that I am solely referring to the Italian avant-garde
14
During the 20s, the Italian cultural context required a choice of style. Although some architects had been militant between the two main forces of Modernity (Neo-Futurism and Rationalism), the majority of the new generation was actually settled with Rationalism. In 1926 seven Rationalist architects from Polytechnic of Milan created the Gruppo 7, a collective of creatives that later became the main counter against the Futurist Movement. In 1928 the group adhered to the MIAR (Movimento italiano per l’architettura razionale), with the members: Luigi Figini, Gino Pollini, Guido Frette, Sebastiano Larco Silva, Carlo Enrico Rava, Giuseppe Terragni, Ubaldo Castagnoli, and Adalberto Libera (the “eighth” that joined later)
CHAPTER 3.2
SUMMER COLONIES: megastructural gestures
Subchapter 3.2 identifies the summer colonies of the Italian coasts as a precursor understanding of the notion of megastructure notion. Again, pointing out the historical vacuum related to the fascist association, the thesis criticizes undisclosed connections between the futurist movement and the theorization of megaforms. The final intent is to underline a potential re-interpretation of the summer colonies as powerful territorial gestures.
Reyner Banham’s Megastructure: Urban Futures of the recent past, tracing a frame of precedents, calls out Antonio Sant’Elia as one of the pioneer influencers of the urban concept of megastructure. The production of the Italian architect, who died young during the First World War, mainly sticks to projective drawings, leaving his masterpieces in the floating space of ideas. Although its main unbuilt character, or probably thanks to its open potential, the work of Sant’Elia has become a key reference for the Futurist imaginary,13 while being barely the only famous architect of the Italian branch of Futurism. While searching about Futurist historiography underlines how Sant’Elia’s tragic destiny in the heroic battlefield has been instrumentalized by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti for the onward movement propaganda, cross reading Banham’s Theory and Design in the first machine age, makes even more clear how the young architect has posthumously been appointed as the only voice of Futurist Architecture. A conveniently buried voice that wasn’t even so keen to join the Futurists when still alive. According to the main historiography, after the First World War and the gradually growing fascist consensus, Futurist architecture seemed divided to join the Soviet Constructivist experience or to mash up with Rationalism.14 Nevertheless, that is just partially true. Architects such as Guido Fiorini, Fernando Spiridigliozzi, Mario Chiattone, Augusto Cernigoi, Ramiro Meng, and Angiolo Mazzoni, consciously called themselves Futurists (rather than Rationalists) during the 30s, actively operating and building for the fascist Regime. However, these architects were rarely in charge of institutional expositions, exhibitions, or magazines. It seems that they weren’t the right characters to represent the architectonical culture of the time, as well as they’re appearing in architecture narrations nowadays. Especially the latter named, Angiolo Mazzoni, one of the most famous stations and summer colonies engineers of his time, who was admittedly declared to be fascist even after the fall of the dictatorship.
The cities of childhood are identifiable as megastructure precursors, and Mazzoni’s projects, in particular, have been used as a model to reproduce all along the Italian coasts. Therefore, the absence of these built references in the international discourse is a lost opportunity. Sant’Elia in the text for the Manifesto of Futurist Architecture defined the house as a gigantic machine. 15 Behind the machine fascination anticipating Le Corbusier’s famous motto, that gigantic introduces a matter of scale. Later, in 1934, the Manifesto of Aerial Architecture, with the visual suggestion of a City of continuous lines, 16 gave a redeveloped version of the Futurist City. In this new manifesto, Mazzoni, together with Minos-Spiri,17 and Marinetti, proposed an exacerbated notion of scale, and while the techno-mania was replaced by a new attention for the urban environment, the city didn’t propose a dynamic and chaotic setting anymore but rather ordered linear systems, intended to channel it. To upgrade urban living conditions, Mazzoni defined his contemporary cities as hells of movement, rumble, screams, explosions, of suffocating exhalations.18 There is then a shift from the architectonical object in the urban environment, to the infrastructural system, ruling and liberating the urban environment. And from this point of view, the second Manifesto could be defined way more in line with Banham megastructure arguments than the one of Sant’Elia. Moreover, for Mazzoni, only the City of continuous lines, liberating the historical city centres, could grant everyone the full enjoyment of air, light, sun, greenery, meadows and woods 19 With these statements, he traced the theoretical input of its summer colonies production, gigantic and multipurpose buildings, integrated with the infrastructural system. But also, it gave a potential precedent for the Italian mega-structural production of the 70s. Consequently, it seems necessary to compare the new architecture hypothesized by Marinetti, Mazzoni, and Somezi with built examples such as the colonies in Calambrone, 20 especially focusing on the architectonical features of aerial roads and aerial channels and their relationship with the continuous city.21
The aerial cities were organized on several levels as a continuum flux. They could easily expand, giving definition and unity to all the territory. The Calambrone colonies by Mazzoni, are a master example of the practical application of Futurist Architecture, even represented by the painter Tato, for the supra-mentioned Manifesto of Aerial Architecture
22 Conversely, to the conceptual input of the imaginative world of Sant’Elia, Calambrone buildings seem to adhere to Futurist ideas in a more programmatical way, focused precisely on settlement and building organization. The seaside complex in Calambrone presents architectures of relations, existing as autonomous bodies in support of one another. The Calambrone complex is composed of singular gigantic buildings, independent in their compositions, rhythms, and functional mixed systems. However, the integration of the services for the city inside the buildings was determining their collective fruition, emphasizing their urban character through dependency. Besides, these colonies were permeable to the rest of the settlement of the coastline, with a merging of public and private spheres “They represent the most thorough definition of the ideas put forward in Futurist theory and carried out in old towns through large-scale (…), in an attempt to recreate a geo-
15
Vivien Greene, Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe, New York: Guggenheim Museum, 2014
16
Reference to the study drawings of 1914 by Antonio Sant’Elia, the “New City”. The perspectives proposed a new concept of city, dealing with urban flows and gigantic scales
17
Pseudonym for the Mino Somenzi and Fernando Spiridigliozzi collaboration
18
Jane Rye, Futurism. London: Studio Vista, 1972
19
Angiolo Mazzoni, “Angiolo Mazzoni : 1894-1979 : architetto nell’Italia tra le due guerre : Galleria comunale d’arte moderna”, Bologna: Grafis, 1984
20 ibidem
21
La città unica a linee continue, (City of continuous lines), Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Angiolo Mazzoni, Mino Somenzi, 1934
22
Marinetti, Filippo Tommaso, Angiolo Mazzoni, and Mino Somenzi. 1934. “Futurist Manifesto of Aerial Architecture.” Sant’Elia 2 (3): 3
23
Stefano De Martino, Alex Wall, “Cities of Childhood, Italian colonie of the 1930s.” London: Architectural Association, 1989, p. 68
24
Colonia Bolognese has been analised at page 89
25
Bambini fanno esercizi ginnici in spiaggia,” Archivio Luce, Miramare, Rimini, 1940
metrical layout to be read from above - a manifesto of aerial architecture.”
23
Confronting other Futurist examples, such as Colonia Rosa Maltoni designed by Mazzoni, with Neo-Classical ones, such as Colonia Bolognese by Ildebrando Tabarroni,24 is clear how the spine (pettine) traditional layout, identifiable as an architectonical typology, turned into a programmatic layout spatially expressed with adventurous plans unique in their dispositions. As previously argued in Chapter 1, the genealogy of the colonies shifted from typology to program. At the same time, the indoctrination and infrastructural purpose of those spaces led to the development of military-like designs25 paradoxically turned into models of leisure during the next decades. The fact that the summer colonies were used as models and that they were able to change through the years, in those cases of private investments, is evidence of their adaptable nature. From cities of childhood to cities of leisure, turned into luxury hotels, they were often colonized by the homo ludens of the 60s, the new subject of the leisure-based society.
26
Gabriella Maugeri, Vincenza Maugeri, “Colonie a mare”, Bologna 1986.
Bologna: Gallerani, p. 257
27
“COLONIA AGIP”, Giuseppe Vaccaro, Cesenatico, Picture by Gabriele Basilico, Archivio Vaccaro, 1938
28
Angiolo Mazzoni, “Arte Mussoliniana”, 1934
29
Summer colonies exhibition took place in the Circus Maximus in Rome in the time June to September 1937
All the bullet points defining the notion of megastructure are checked in Futurist summer colonies, promoted by right to proto megastructures. Indeed, according to Banham: megastructures should be capable of great or unlimited extension, they should have a structural framework into which smaller structures could be built, plugged in, or clipped on (as an enormous construction occupied by different uses and independent systems). Moreover, the structural base should have a useful life, much longer than the infill units which it might support. And finally, a megastructure should be large, but also, it should look like a megastructure. Examples such as Colonia marina del Fascismo Ravennate (now Residence Villa Marina), designed by Giovanni Montanari in 1934, and refurbished in 1999,26 are monumental gestures that undoubtedly proved to accomplish megastructure criteria.
Historically, with Ernesto Nathan Rogers as Rationalist representative, a beneficiary of the support of Giuseppe Pagano (the future and previous directors of Casabella magazine), the Italian architecture debate assumed the character of an intellectual battlefield. In this ideological war, for a certain amount of time, summer colonies 27 have been seen as lyric follies, an occasion for architects to escape the ferocious bonds of the ruling traditional style 28 and the pressures to which they were subjected while working at a fascist government agenda. Rogers’ 1933 Mostra del Mare in Trieste, as well as the 1937 National Exhibition of Summer Colonie and Child Assistance in Rome, 29 involved masters like Adalberto Libera and Giuseppe Pagano, and displaying colonies’ architectonical achievements, have surely been well-known references for the generation of architects led by Ludovico Quaroni, Manfredo Tafuri, Giuseppe Samonà, and Carlo Aymonino, the main Italian theorists of the concept of megastructure.
The association of Futurism to the fascist regime has undoubtedly influenced its analysis and historiography, on one hand, over-conceptualizing the unbuilt propositions of Sant’Elia, on the other lacking to recognize the architectural development through the 30’. Futurism allowed Italian architects to escape the
ferocious bonds of the ruling traditional style and the rigidity of fascist architecture, to develop plasticity that was by any means Rationalist. But articulating potentials and perils of Futurist architecture in relation to the concept of megastructure, free from modernist narratives strictures about avant-gardes, and rhetoric about technological progress, could challenge architecture’s still-enduring obsession with single objects, and could instead wander dynamics of urban territories as environmental apparatuses: the concept of Nuova Città. 30
30
Greene, Vivien . 2014. Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe. New York: Guggenheim Museum
31
Vivien Greene, Italian Futurism, 1909–1944: Reconstructing the Universe, New York: Guggenheim Museum, 2014
32 (Greene 2014)
DE-TERRITORIALIZATION:
a projective proposal
34 Reference to the notion of Megastructure firstly theo- rized in a complete frame by Reyner Banham in “Megastructure: Urban Futures and Recent Past”
Studying summer colonies as proto megastructures could open speculative imaginaries on their potential future and could give new references to Futurism historiography. In fact, including these buildings in the collection of references, would free Futurist architecture from the strictures of modernist narratives about technological progress, 31 and mostly, would allow us to rethink a nuova città. 32 adding an important contribution to the Megastructure discourse. While the majority of Banham’s key studies live in city contexts, talking about summer colonies could offer a frame and a genealogy for the particular condition of mass-building projects in a low-density environment. Through the manifold dynamics of urban territories as environmental apparatuses, an understanding of megastructure as an agent of landscape would be finally pointed out. From the point of the context, compared with other national Modernist examples, summer colonies innovatively worked with the surrounding landscape. But also, from the perspective of the Italian megastructure discourse, they would represent a precedent in the relationship between seaside leisure and megaforms. A topic only tacked three decades later, with projects such as the Holiday Machine in Tropea, by Cristiano Toraldo di Francia.33 However, especially during the post-war, summer colonies were enlarging into bigger complexes, actually becoming pivots of the unstoppable tertiary development. Their attractive character and their seasonal activation, were catalysers of a new vision for the overall Italian coasts, being the first infrastructural elements opening the land to touristic exploitation processes after decades of land reclamations, and agricultural conversions. Considering the urban scale, they gave a touristic connotation to a territory that was never meant to be touristic, acting as territorial gestures.
In a context of territorial linearities, the abandoned megaforms34 of the summer colonies, mainly built during the fascist regime, seem to be the only urban exception acting perpendicularly and connecting different parallel stripes of territory. Thanks to their neglected nature, and enclosed parks, abandoned summer colonies, once an architectonical pivot of urban development, are the last empty opportunity to turn into collective spaces. The starting point for a design proposition operating as a system. Accosting together Land Reclamation and seaside mega-structures, Chapter 3 aims to propose a different approach to the perception of the shore. Coupled together, the ecological system of agricultural fields, pine groves, dunes, and sea, born from the land exploitations of the
past, and the infrastructural architectures of the Italian coasts, can be agents of thresholds re-conceptualisation. The forgotten dimension of the coast, the “other megastructure”. With the intent to challenge territorial dominance, and the forms and logics of space that are driven by the presence of the sea, the research sets as a critique of the reductive approach to the seashore liminal zone of fluidity and transitional relations, as its forgotten forms of living. The transitory condition of the coastal and the maritime, dynamic and sedimentary, alienated and catalyser, is a logic that escapes any megastructural commanding position. Ultimately, what makes the scale mega, is the de-territorialized system of the coast, from sea to terraferma.
Project view
Colonia Varese adaptation
Next page:
Project Masterplan
Colonia Varese adaptation
In a society incapable of self-regulation, the instinct to exploit the surrounding environment seems to be the intrinsic definition of being human. But what happens when territory merges with Subjects?
The secondary Towns of the Italian Riviera present a unique condition of linear territoriality, touristic infrastructure, and catalyzed isolation. Spaces that were invented and are still lived through a cyclical time, constrained in a never-ending negotiation made of a seasonality. A temporal condition that is the effect as the cause, affecting people and places, generating alienation paradigms.
The project operates in a system acknowledging its uniqueness, it does not solve a problem, and it does not re-invent Riviera. The aim is to design a strategy applicable to different coastal towns, that could be able to adapt within specific contexts, allowing flexibility and openness. Operating at the scales of architecture, city, and territory, the project is meant to serve the Riviera population following its real intersectionality, dismantling invented concepts such as guest, host, permanent, and local.
For the town, the idea is to use the abandoned summer colonies as buildings for commons, for the public good. Typological variations rather than functional ones would allow the building’s appropriation of the Riviera inhabitants through the years. Architectural marks for the town.
For the territory, the aim is to connect the coastal system with the rural through slow mobility and re-appropriation of neglected green areas already existing in the landscape. The idea is to propose summer colonies, abandoned buildings, as a territorial potential, operating like environmental mega-systems. Architecture and landscape should then cooperate to an environmental unity escaping complete territorialization. Allowing the natural growth of social and natural systems.
The main conclusion of the design is that no project could be a valid proposition without acknowledging and respecting the alien reality of Riviera. No bad or good. Just a territorial, and internal condition of introspection. A condition of Territorial Intimacy.
CONCLUSION
The thesis proposes to deconstruct the imaginary of the Italian Riviera unfolding the complex reality of coastal settlements in the Adriatic Sea. In particular, the intent is to create a parallel and comprehensive narration, tracing an interdisciplinary and layered reading of the phenomenon. Identifying the urban condition of Riviera with the notion of Secondary-Town, the argument wants to bring colonial, infrastructural, and welfare policies, as key ingredients for a territorial modification, that historically did not start just with the Tourism mania, but way before, with the Land Reclamations of the 19th Century. The Riviera is therefore the result of decades of land and people exploitation, just ultimately led to the tourist development. Furthermore, once established the historical ground of interest, the research aims to qualitatively analyse the current condition of these linear settlements, in their de-territorial potential.
Following the thesis structure, the object of investigation is initially Riviera, a temporal and spatial condition that is an effect as a cause, influencing people as places. The performance of the seaside is analysed throughout the history of leisure democratization, and the role of architecture in the process of definition and instrumentalization of free time. Focusing on Modern architecture and the summer colonies phenomenon in coastal Italy, the Riviera’s performance may result in inherited construction.
However, culminating in mass tourism collapse, abandonment, and seasonal confinement, the urban condition of these mono-functional settlements detaches from the Riviera imaginary, occupying an ambivalent position of control and both resistance towards the mindset performance. The main object of investigation of the thesis, through the development of the argument, shifts then from the Riviera performance itself to the paradox of the edge, a condition waving between polarity and isolation. Presenting a unique condition of linear territoriality, touristic infrastructure and catalysed isolation, seaside settlements are constrained in a never-ending negotiation, made of a seasonality. Spaces lived using a cyclical time, generating alienation paradigms. Consequently, the intent of the research, in the second section of the thesis, is to display a narration of fragile and ambiguous towns, portraying their realities made of exploitation, but punctuated by quick rushes as eternal waiting. Riviera is where the coastal land, which is legally public, is also circumscribed, fenced, and cautious as its winter inhabitants and their barricaded domesticity, as the summer body, judged naked,
shy and arrogant together. In particular, the field research focuses on the Riviera inhabitants and their both chronic and disorienting feeling of solastalgia, 1 the unbridgeable void between mindset and individual, specific in the context of the Secondary Town.
The fascinating obstinacy to hold on to a decadent system mirrored in bodies and places of anthropogenic transformations inspires the last considerations about those hyper-exploited environments that can’t be defined as either artificial or natural. Secure, but uncertain in their liquidity, evidence of a poignant vulnerability, the coastal environments, following the awkwardness of a new naked body, seem unsure of their place, in a world that waits frozen in front of a straight blue horizon. Shifting again in the final chapter, Riviera is not analysed as performance anymore, not as edge, but is rather imagined as a mega-system, according to a larger territorial and environmental reading.
And lastly, the design propositions are meant to support the theoretical frame of analysis, advancing new visions and perspectives. Reimagining the attitude of living the seashore offers a valuable dialogue from a mediated territory result of exploitative processes, and to the introspective relationship with its subjects. In conclusion, passing through the concepts of performance, edge, and megastructure, Riviera: What happens when summer ends? uncovers a set of materials and finds that are the foundation for a deeper critical investigation of the present condition of territories, settlements, and architectures of seaside settlements.
1 “Solastalgia”, coined by the philosopher Glenn Albrecht in 2003, a neologism that in the realm of tourism science, indicates the collective melancholia that a community feels when its space is touristified. It is a feeling of homesickness while being at home
Design proposition
“The other megastructure”
Test on Colonia Varese
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INTERVIEWS
Appendix 1 is a collection of chats about Riviera. The filmed interviews were carried out between June and November 2022, during the field work for the dissertation research. The following pages contain the transcription and translation of a selection of five conversations, of the many that occured. They refer to the case studies chosen for the development of the “Ways of Living” interlude. The parameters of selection were dictated by an interest in daily and domestic practices that could reflect Riviera from the eyes of those who are not tourists. However, this doesn’t necessarily mean they are locals.
F indicates Fiorenza, the interviewer, while P indicates Paolo, and R indicates Raffaella, the sister-in-law
PAOLO
AND RAFFAELLA MARINA DI RAVENNA1
Fabbrica Vecchia and Marchesato are the only two historic buildings in Marina di Ravenna that represent the origins of the industrial port of the Byzantine city. Today they are in dire condition with collapsed roofs and attics as well as a fire that broke out in June 2022
2
Locals shorten the seaside town of Marina di Ravenna in “Marina”
F: Nome e età
P: Paolo, 58 anni
R: Raffaella, 60
F: Parliamo di Marina di Ravenna. Partiamo dal principio. Ok? Come ha funzionato questa espansione urbana? Se ti ricordi, per esempio, qual è stato il primo edificio costruito?
P: Il primo in assoluto? La Fabbrica Vecchia, e accanto al Marchesato
F: E più o meno dopo quanto è arrivata la tua famiglia?
P: Qui a Marina. Allora dunque… millesettecento quaranta, milleottocento quaranta… millenovecento quaranta, più o meno duecentodieci, duecentoventi anni dopo Capiamoci però, intendo il nostro nucleo ristretto, i nostri primi ascendenti. Perché se parliamo dei nostri avi, ad esempio del ramo Stella di Porto Corsini, quelli sono arrivati poco dopo i primi edifici della fabbrica Vecchia e Marchesato, all’inizio del milleottocento erano già qui. C’era ancora Napoleone che girava per la Pianura Padana quando sono arrivati loro
F: Sono emigrati di base per avere un lavoro nella produzione
P: Più che altro per sperare di avere un lavoro. Perché dov’erano loro non c’ era proprio assolutamente nulla. Qui c’ era un porto che era stato costruito da poco,
F: Name and age
P: Paolo, I’m 58
R: Raffaella, 60
F: Let’s talk about Marina di Ravenna, starting from the beginning. Okay? How did urban expansion work? If you remember, for example, what was the first building?
P: The first ever? The Fabbrica Vecchia,1 and next to it the Marquisate
F: And more or less, how much after your family arrived?
P: Here in Marina.2 So then… one thousand seven hundred and forty, one thousand eight hundred and forty… one thousand nine hundred …more or less two hundred and ten, two hundred and twenty years later. Let’s understand each other though, I mean our inner core family, our first ascendants. Because if we talk about our ancestors, for example, the Stella branch of Porto Corsini, they arrived shortly after the first construction of the first buildings of the Fabbrica Vecchia and Marchesato, at the beginning of the eighteenth century they were already here. There was still Napoleon roaming the Po Valley when they arrived F: Basically, they emigrated to get a job in production
P: Mostly hoping to have a job. Because where they were there was absolutely
qualche prospettiva. C’ era un centro urbano, Ravenna col suo porto che prometteva sicuramente molto di più di Comacchio. E allora, piuttosto che morire di fame, hanno giocato un po’ d’azzardo e sono venuti qua, la terra per farsi la casa gliela dava lo stato gratuitamente
F: Lo stato dava la terra gratuitamente a patto che la edificassi?
P: Certo, dovevi farti la casa e stabilirti qui
F: E loro però non avevano esperienza prima… nell’edificare qualcosa?
P: No, assolutamente. Però stiamo parlando di un periodo in cui tirare su quattro mattoni e metterci sopra due travi di legno, due tegole... lo faceva chiunque
F: E invece ti ricordi qual è stato il primo edificio che aveva già una sorta di funzione nell’ alberghiero? O comunque nell’ospitalità?
P: Nell’alberghiero… L’alberghiero, dunque il primo è stato - o forse anche prima. No, la trattoria… La Foca Monaca era solo trattoria e forse affittava le camere perché dopo è diventato un hotel. Ma secondo me il primo albergo vero con tutti i crismi è il Mare Pineta che era sul lungomare, dove c’era lo Xenos
F: era la discoteca, giusto?
P: Si, era anche la discoteca. Il lotto dove c’era lo Xenos era esattamente dove c’era l’Hotel, il Mare Pineta. Anzi no! L’hotel Lido, non il Mare Pineta. Si chiamava Hotel Lido e aveva davanti a lui, infatti, il bagno lido, di fianco al bagno Nello. Poi quando chiuse l’Hotel, Berto ereditò il nome che non era più utilizzato. Esatto, lo chiamarono il bagno Lido. Ma non era il primo Bagno Lido, era quello davanti all’hotel, dove c’era lo Xenos
nothing at all. There was a port that had recently been built and some prospects. There was an urban centre, Ravenna3 with its port which certainly promised much more than Comacchio. And so, rather than starve, they gambled a little and came here, the land to build a house was given to them by the state for free
F: Did the State give the land for free as long as you built it?
P: Sure, you had to build a house and settle here
F: But they had no experience before… in building something?
P: No, absolutely. But we are talking about a period in which to throw up four bricks and put two wooden beams on them, two tiles... anyone did it
F: And do you remember which was the first building that already had a sort of touristic function? Or anyway in hospitality?
P: In the hotel sector… The hotel industry, the first was the hotel.. or perhaps even before. No, the restaurant… La Foca Monaca was only a restaurant and perhaps they rented out rooms because it later became a proper hotel. But in my opinion, the first real hotel with all the trappings is the Mare Pineta which was on the seafront, where the Xenos was
F: It was a disco, right?
P: Yes, there was also the disco. The Xenos lot was exactly where the Hotel used to be. Indeed not! The Lido Hotel, not the Mare Pineta. It was called Hotel Lido and in fact, it had the Lido bathhouse in front of it, close to the Nello bathhouse. Then when he closed the Hotel, Berto inherited the name that was no longer used. That’s right, they called it the Lido bathhouse. But it wasn’t the first, Bagno Lido, it was the one in front of the hotel,
Eugenio Montale (12 October 1896
- 12 September 1981) was an Italian poet, prose writer, editor and translator, and recipient of the 1975 Nobel Prize in Literature
R: Comunque considera che negli anni venti Montale, quando venne qua in vacanza per fare l’aria per i polmoni. Dopo ha scritto la raccolta di versi ossi di seppia proprio per…
F: È venuto qua? A Ravenna?
R: A marina di Ravenna, Porto Corsini…
F: E dove alloggiava?
R: dove alloggiava… se vuoi adesso te lo ricerco
F: no ma posso cercarlo io, ma invece di centri idroterapici ce n’erano?
P: Le strutture ricettive erano molto limitate. C’ era l’hotel che dicevo prima, praticamente era l’unico, poi c’ erano degli affittacamere, quello sì. E tantissime seconde case. Seconde case che erano tutte caratterizzate da un’architettura particolare. Quella con la torretta del belvedere… penso che a Marina ce ne siano rimaste due. Una della maestra Giacomina, perché non gl’hanno fatta buttare giù. La casa viola, in fondo a Via Quattro Novembre. E l’altra in fondo, di fronte al forno Coatti. Ma ce n’erano più di una F: Sembra che rispetto ai tempi ci fossero due possibilità che poi alla fine si sono racchiuse nella famiglia Giometti: ovvero la possibilità di costruire, per sé stessi, e diventa poi una professione. Quindi hanno iniziato effettivamente ad essere muratori, capo cantieri, e poi anche l’ospitalità.
P: Nel nostro caso è inversa. Il processo inverso. Noi parliamo di gente che faceva già il muratore e che ha approfittato del fatto che qui è stata lottizzata dal comune questa zona per comprare un lotto a un prezzo molto competitivo. Addirittura, non so se te l’ho detto, ma addirittura il funzionario del comune si è occupato della vendita di questi di lotti qui, che sono tutto questo isolato qui, tutto quel-
where the Xenos was
R: However, consider that in the 1920s Montale,4 when he came here on vacation to make air for his lungs. Later he wrote the collection of “Ossi di sepia” just for…
F: Did he come here? In Ravenna?
R: In Marina di Ravenna, Porto Corsini…
F: And where was he staying?
R: where he was staying… if you want, I’ll google it for you now
F: no no, I can look it up. There were hydrotherapy centres?
P: The accommodation facilities were very limited. There was the hotel I mentioned before, it was practically the only one, and then there were some Guest houses, yes. And many holiday homes. Holiday homes were all characterized by a particular architecture. The one with the belvedere turret… I think Marina has two left. The teacher Giacomina’s one, because they didn’t want to throw it down. And the purple house, at the end of Via Quattro Novembre. And the other at the back, in front of the Coatti bakery. There was more than one
F: It seems to me at the time there were two possibilities, which in the end are enclosed in the Giometti family history. That are: first the possibility of building, from self-construction at the beginning to a profession, starting to be bricklayers and construction site managers, and second the hospitality market
P: In our case, it is the reverse. The reverse process. We are talking about people who were already bricklayers and who took advantage of the fact that this area was parcelled out by the municipali-
lo dietro, tutto questo qui davanti… Perché prima era tutto dei giardini pubblici, dalla proprietà della parrocchia fino alla villa Ottolenghi, qui c’ erano i giardini pubblici comunali. Ma era pineta, come la pineta demaniale che invece cominciava dove comincia adesso in via Ciro Menotti. Allora col fatto che il comune aveva lottizzato per ampliare il paese, il nonno e la nonna, avevano le possibilità anche di comprarsi tutto questo isolato qui. Pensandoci bene hanno deciso di lasciare stare, che era un impegno troppo grande. Perché c’erano dei termini per costruire, dei tempi. Tra l’altro questo lotto qui aveva sul lato di viale Silvio Pellico e su viale Fratelli Bandiera avevi l’obbligo di fare gli edifici di almeno due piani. Invece da via Fratelli Bandiera fino alla proprietà della parrocchia bastava un piano solo. Anche se avevano modo di comprare tutto il lotto, poi dovevano edificare in due o tre anni tutti edifici a due piani…i miei nonni si avevano delle possibilità ma… e tra l’altro mio babbo Ernesto e suo fratello Alfio erano ancora in casa con loro quando hanno comprato. Quindi c’erano tre stipendi in famiglia. È per quello che avevano delle possibilità, perché era rimasto tutto accumulato, anche perché mio padre e lo zio Alfio, spendevano solo per la benzina per la vespa, insomma erano spesati di tutto, quindi tutto lo stipendio finiva nelle casse comuni. Detto questo, loro erano comunque già del mestiere, perché il bisnonno Tonino venne qua apposta per farsi socio della CMC subito dopo la prima guerra mondiale, lui era ancora giovane. Quindi lui ha sempre fatto il muratore. È stata però l’occasione che gli ha fatto poi costruire tutto. Perché ha trovato il modo per spendere poco
F: E però questo processo, è qualcosa che secondo te è soltanto capitato alla tua famiglia o è una storia diffusa?
P: Beh qui in paese c’erano molti muratori, anche a Punta Marina, un po’ meno
ty to buy a lot at a very competitive price. Indeed, I don’t know if I told you, but the municipality officer took care of the sale of these lots here, which are all this block here, all that behind it, and all this here in front ... Because before it was all public gardens, from the property of the church to the Ottolenghi villa, here were the municipal public gardens. But it was a pine forest, like the state-owned pine forest which instead began where it now begins via Ciro Menotti. At the time, with the fact that the municipality had divided up to expand the town, my grandfather and grandmother, also had the possibility of buying this whole block here. Thinking about it they decided to leave it alone because it was too big of a commitment. Because there were imposed deadlines for building, times. Among other things, this lot here on the side of viale Silvio Pellico and viale Fratelli Bandiera had the obligation to build buildings at least two floors high. Instead, a single floor was enough from via Fratelli Bandiera to the church property.5 Even if they had the opportunity to buy the whole lot, they should have built all two-story buildings in two or three years... my grandparents had the possibilities… but... and by the way my father Ernesto, and uncle Alfio were still at home with them when they bought. So, there were three salaries in the family. That’s why they had possibilities, because everything was left over, also because my father and uncle Alfio only spent on petrol for the Vespa, in short, they were financially supported for everything, so all the salary ended up in the common budget. Having said that, they were already in the construction market anyway, because the great-grandfather Tonino came here to join the CMC 6 immediately after the First World War, he was still young. So, he has always been a bricklayer. The opportunity then made him build everything they owned. Because he has found a way to spend little
5
The church of seaside settlements is usually at the middle band of the orthogonal grain. The sixth urban stripe, in between the coast and agricultural fields
6
The CMC is The Bricklayers & Cementists Cooperative of Ravenna. It is the one in charge of the construction of Colonia Varese, Colonia Croce Rossa, and Colonia Montecatini, analysed in the interlude “Megagenealogies”
però. Sempre per rimanere in tema della mia famiglia, per quel che riguarda il nonno Antonio, anche la casa dello zio Alfio, lui quel lotto lì l’ha avuto perché ha costruito la casa dietro, e la casa accanto. Quindi per pagarlo gli hanno dato il lotto dove c’è la casa dello zio Alfio
F: Bisognava fare almeno due piani. Però immagino che ci fosse anche un limite in altezza o no?
P: No. C’ era solo un limite temporale di edificazione, però. C’era un piano urbanistico. Sì, un piano urbanistico che dava delle indicazioni plano-volumetriche, ma non c’erano dei vincoli normativi specifici, anche perché poi il progetto lo dovevano approvare. Sì, quindi se non gli piaceva il palazzo non lo facevi
R: Invece per quanto riguarda la spiaggia, era stato lottizzata dal punto di vista demaniale?
P: No, la spiaggia no. Quelle sono state tutte iniziative che ha cominciato uno poi quell’altro e eccetera eccetera
R: Inizialmente erano quindi abusivi, come dire
P: Abusivi no. Avevi la tua concessione dal momento in cui metteva i piedi sulla spiaggia, sul terreno demaniale. Dovevi essere in regola perché c’era la capitaneria di porto
R: E che anche questo quindi ha iniziato all’inizio del secolo scorso verso gli anni dieci/anni venti?
P: I baracchini più avanti… i baracchini… per qualcosa che ricorda la spiaggia com’era quando eravamo bambini… quelle cose sono iniziate a fine anni cinquanta. Fino ad allora c’erano o i baracchini che magari vendevano da bere o avevano di fianco la fila delle cabine di legno. Avevano iniziato negli anni venti
F: And yet this process, is it something that in your opinion only happened to your family or is it something that was actually widespread?
P: Well here in the village there were many bricklayers, even in Punta Marina, but a little less. Still on the subject of our family, as regards Grandfather Antonio, and also Uncle Alfio’s house, he had that lot there because he built the house behind it, and the house next door. So, to pay him they gave him the lot where Uncle Alfio’s house is.
F: You had to build at least two plans. But I guess there was also a height limit or not?
P: No. There was a construction time limit, though. There was an urban plan. Yes, an urban plan that gave planimetric and volumetric indications, but there were no specific regulatory constraints, also because the project had to be approved. Yeah, so if they didn’t like the building, you didn’t build it.
R: As far as the beach is concerned, had it been parcelled out from a state property point of view?
P: No, not the beach. Those were all initiatives that one private started, then the other, and so on.
R: Initially they were therefore abusive, so to speak
P: Abusive no. You had your concession from the moment you set foot on the beach, on the state land. You had to be in order because there was the harbour master’s office.
R: And that this also started at the beginning of the last century towards the tens/the twenties?
P: The shacks came further on… the shacks… for something that recalls the
R: Perché i baracchini di legno originali sono ancora vicino al Lucciola
P: Quelle sono cabine private, si si. Ogni baracchino ha la sua concessione demaniale. Ma io ti parlo proprio di come erano fatti i primi bagni. Che avevano un baracchino come quelli e poi di fianco magari avevano una fila di quindici o venti cabine di legno. E tu ti portavi il tuo lettino e la tua tenda (paravento). Neanche gli ombrelloni perché quelli non c’erano ancora. Erano gli anni trenta, anni venti
R: a Lido di Classe sono andati avanti per un bel po’ proprio vicino alle foci del fiume. Del fiume Savio. Quando andavo al mare da piccola nella spiaggia libera c’erano ancora
F: Attaccandomi a questa cosa. Per esempio, io so che la nonna bianca e il nonno Ernesto nel momento del fidanzamento stavano molto al mare. Insomma, andavano a fare le passeggiate. Quindi la mia domanda non è assolutamente sulla tua esperienza, ma su quello che puoi aver sentito. Quando è stato il momento in cui la spiaggia, il mare è stato visto come tempo libero? Cioè andare in spiaggia per poter stare al mare, un uso balneare?
P: Dalla prima metà degli anni cinquanta in poi è sempre stato all’incirca come la immaginiamo noi. In seguito all’inizio dell’uso della balneazione, è cominciato lì.
R: Magari giocavano le bocce…
P: Si faceva il bagno, si andava in barca, si andava sul moscone. C’erano già questi baracchini che dicevo prima. Già quindi praticamente da subito dopo la guerra. Anche prima c’erano ma l’uso era più limitato alla media borghesia. Infatti, mio nonno Tonino che è sempre vissuto in località di mare, non sapeva nuotare,
beach as you and I remember it… those things started at the end of the fifties. Until then there were stalls to sell drinks with maybe a row of wooden cabins next to them. They had started in the twenties
R: The original wooden shacks are still near the Lucciola
P: Those are private cabins, yes yes. Each one of those has its own state permission. But I’m just talking to you about how the first baths were made. They had a shack like those and then next to them maybe they had a row of fifteen or twenty wooden cabins. And you brought your cot and your tent (sunscreen). No sun umbrellas yet. It was in the Thirties and twenties
R: in Lido di Classe they went on for quite a while right near the mouth of the Savio River. When as a kid I was going to the sea, on the free beach,7 they were still there
F: I know that your mother and father at the time of the engagement were spending a lot of time on the beach. In short, they went for romantic walks. So, my question is definitely not about your experience but what you may have heard. When was the time when the beach and the sea were seen as leisure? That is, going to the sea for leisure, a touristic use?
P: From the first half of the 1950s onwards it has always been more or less as we imagine it. After the use of bathing began
R: Maybe they played petanque…
P: We swam, sailed, also with a boat or bluebottle. There were already these shacks that I mentioned earlier. So almost right after the war. Even before they were there but the use was more limited to the middle class. In fact, my grandfather Tonino who has always lived in the seaside settlements didn’t know
7
“Spiaggia libera”, literally free beach, is the stretch of coast liberated from bathhouses, lidos and cabanas. It is often declared as natural reserve, but as main characteristic, it is not a urban or equipped beach
nemmeno mia nonna Livia sapeva nuotare
F: Infatti in realtà questa cosa è interessante perché per la classe lavoratrice, nel momento in cui si inizia ad avere del tempo libero, come si investe questo tempo libero? E quindi ci sono tutti questi nuovi luoghi che vengono riscoperti come il mare. Si comincia a costruire un immaginario. L’immaginario di andare al mare e l’immaginario di avere l’ombrellone qui
R: Sicuramente tra le due guerre hanno costruito la seconda casa quelli che avevano i soldi, di Ravenna
P: Certo, è nata così Marina. È nata con le seconde case. Infatti, c’era un albergo solo
F: Questa è una domanda che torna sul piano generale o comunque a una sorta di progettazione a livello urbano. Per esempio, io ho guardato quello di Miramare perché mi interessava di più rispetto alle ex-colonie. Quello che ho trovato io era del millenovecentosettantacinque e mi ha stupito. In realtà è qualcosa di logico. Però mi interessava il fatto che, per quanto parliamo di una urbanistica che è lineare: con la via dell’infrastruttura che può essere una ferrovia o la strada che per noi è un pochino diverso, però già a Rimini è proprio sul lungomare. E poi ci sono anche una specie di suddivisione in classi, ovvero c’è una griglia ortogonale urbanistica, però effettivamente c’è la prima fascia che è assolutamente soltanto per hotel, comunque prettamente turistica. La seconda fascia ci cominciano ad essere delle ville o comunque delle case monofamiliari, poi c’è un’altra fascia ancora che invece sono delle case pluri-familiari. E poi ho visto nel piano regolatore che loro avevano messo l’edilizia popolare nell’ultima fascia, quella che esattamente adiacente alla parte agricola. E quindi direi che su questa cosa volevo
how to swim, and not even my grandmother Livia knew how to swim
F: Indeed, this thing is actually interesting because for the working class, when you start having free time, how do you invest this free time? And so, there are all these new places like the seaside. A new imaginary starts to be built. The imaginary of the touristic beach, and the imaginary of the sun umbrella
R: Surely between the two wars those who had the money, from Ravenna, have built the holiday home here
P: Yes, Marina was born in this way. It was developed by the holiday homes. In fact, there was just one hotel
F: Ok going back to the general level or in any case to a sort of planning at the urban level. I looked at the Miramare urban plan because it interested me more, concerning the former colonies. What I found was from 1975 and it amazed me. It’s actually something logical. But I was interested in the fact that even though we are talking about linear urban planning: with the infrastructural route which can be a railway or the road which is a bit different here in Marina, but already in Rimini it is right on the seafront. And then there is also a sort of subdivision into classes, that is, there is an orthogonal urban grid, but in reality, there is the first band which is absolutely only for hotels, in any case purely for tourism. The second band begins to be villas or single-family houses, then there is still another band which instead are multi-family detached houses. And then I saw in the master plan that they had placed the council housing zone in the last strip, the one at the outskirts, exactly adjacent to the agricultural fields. With respect to this subdivision, what were the parameters for the lot allocation?
P: Here we are talking about a really
chiederti rispetto alla lottizzazione qual era più o meno il discrimine per dire questo isolato è per ad esempio la famiglia Giometti o quest’altro isolato lo diamo a qualcun altro. C’ erano dei parametri che non fossero semplicemente chi se lo poteva permettere?
P: Qui stiamo parlando di una realtà veramente piccola. Non c’era questa settorializzazione. Stiamo parlando di un paese che comunque aveva già una sua forma consolidata da oltre un secolo. Perché è sacrificato tra porto, canale e pineta. Perché questa pineta qui, c’è dai tempi del ministro Rava. Quindi stiamo parlando della fine dell’ottocento. E infatti per lottizzare hanno dovuto eliminare i giardini pubblici. Perché non c’era più posto. Non c’ è stata proprio una vera e propria pianificazione o comunque con un’estensione tale dell’agglomerato comprese le sue piccole espansioni dove questi meccanismi siano innescati in qualche maniera. Diciamo che nel suo piccolo, sono venuti un po’ di conseguenza. Perché se hai del terreno disponibile e devi fare un albergo, perché il trend economico ti suggerisce di fare così, lo vai a fare vicino al mare, no? Non lo vai a fare alla fabbrica vecchia. a fine anni venti, il notaio o l’avvocato di Ravenna che si è stufato magari di prendere il treno e andare con la moglie a Cesenatico, dove già le cose stanno funzionando, viene qui a Marina e prende il lotto che è subito dietro gli alberghi, quei pochi che ci sono, oppure sul lungomare. Che invece qui è pieno di ville. Marina avrà avuto mille abitanti residenti che si sono sempre arrangiati con l’entroterra, con le fasce interne di terra, perché cosa vai a fare là, a ridosso del mare, sul mare tira troppo vento.
F: Anche perché in realtà Marina aveva già un carattere bene o male produttivo fin dall’inizio, mentre invece un posto tipo Miramare nasce per il turismo.
small reality. There wasn’t this strict subdivision. We are talking about a settlement which, however, already had its own consolidated form for over a century. Because it is sacrificed between the port, canal and pine forest. Because this pine forest8 has been there since the days of Minister Rava. So, we’re talking about the end of the 19th century. And in fact, to parcel out they had to eliminate the public gardens. Because there was no more space. There hasn’t really been real planning or in any case no plan with such an intention, including the small expansions. These division mechanisms didn’t happen. Or let’s say, that they happened in a small way, but they came more as a consequence. Because if you have land available and you need to build a hotel because the economic trend suggests you do so, you’re going to build it near the sea, right? You don’t go to the Fabbrica Vecchia. If over the years, at the end of the 1920s, the notary or lawyer from Ravenna who perhaps got bored of taking the train and going with his wife to Cesenatico, where things are already working, comes here to Marina and takes the lot it is immediately behind the hotels, the few that were existing, or on the seafront, that here is full of villas. Marina must have had a thousand resident inhabitants at the time, who have always made do with the hinterland, with the internal strips of land of the seaside settlements, also because on the sea it’s too windy.
F: Also because in reality Marina already had a more or less productive character right from the start, while instead a place like Miramare was created for tourism
P: All the part there that was somewhat linked to fishing, for the fish market. After that, the others were all people leaning on Ravenna. This was a dislocated neighbourhood of Ravenna. So, despite being born because it was a matter of custody of the mouth of the port, per-
8
Ravenna coastal forests are composed of red pines, pinus pinea, it is an anthropogenic intervention and needs constant maintenance
P: Tutta la parte di là che era legata un po’ alla pesca, per il mercato del pesce. Dopodiché gli altri erano tutte persone che si appoggiavano su Ravenna. Quindi questo era un quartiere di Ravenna, nonostante sia nato perché era un discorso di custodia dell’imboccatura del porto, ma forse anche proprio per questo che l’abitante tipico di Marina per i per i primi duecento anni di esistenza del paese si è sempre rapportato col porto. Ma non solo con l’ingresso del porto, intendo con tutto il porto
F: E quindi fino a Ravenna
P: Il mio trisavolo e sui suoi figli, compresa anche la bisnonna. Sai quante volte sono andati a fare ex tempore a dar manforte alla compagnia portuale? A scaricare o caricare i bastimenti? Anche la bisnonna, nonostante fosse una donna. Ha fatto tante volte il lavoro della saloon: quando scaricavi le navi, soprattutto le navi di legno, diventavano troppo leggere, non potevano riprendere il mare così vuote. Allora le dovevi zavorrare portandoci dalla sabbia dentro, attraverso scivoli lunghi quaranta metri con la carriola. Quello è un lavoro che lo ha fatto tante volte. Lui lo faceva tutti i giorni, lei, sua figlia, l’ha fatto quando le attività agricole erano in stop, perché lei era una bracciante. Nei periodi di stanca lavoravano al porto anche i braccianti
R: Quindi diciamo che Marina nasce come posto di lavoro per i portuali
P: E un po’ di pesca. Ma non c’erano pescatori di Marina. I pescatori erano tutti quelli che si spostavano da Chioggia, venivano giù e si stabilivano qua. Magari facevano sei sette mesi di campagna di pesca qua. Si fermavano qua, si costruivano la loro casetta. Venivano dal Veneto e del Ferrarese
F: E in questo processo noi possiamo dire che effettivamente c’è una divisione,
haps also precisely because the typical inhabitant of Marina for the first two hundred years of the town’s existence has always been related to the port. But not only with the port entrance, I mean with the whole port
F: So up to Ravenna.
P: My great-grandfather and his children, including the grandmother. Do you know how many times they went extempore to support the port company? To unload or load the vessels? Even the great-grandmother, despite being a woman. Many times, she did the job of the saloon: when you unloaded the ships, especially the wooden ships, they became too light, and they couldn’t go back to sea so empty. You had to ballast them by bringing in the sand, through forty meters long slides with the wheelbarrow. That’s a job she’s done so many times. He was doing it every day, while my grandmother, his daughter, just when the agricultural activities stopped because she was a farmer. The land labourers also worked at the port sometimes
R: So, let’s say that Marina was mainly born as a workplace for dock workers
P: And a little fishing. But there were no Marina fishermen. The fishermen were all those who moved from Chioggia, came down and settled here. Maybe they did six months of the fishing campaign here, building their own house. They were mainly coming from Veneto and Ferrare
F: And in this process, we can say that there is actually a social class division, also with respect to for example Marina di Ravenna, Punta Marina, Milano Marittima
P: Sure. However, Milano Marittima is very recent history, at the end of the sixties
diciamo di classe anche rispetto a per esempio Marina di Ravenna, Punta Marina, Milano Marittima
P: Certo. A parte che Milano Marittima è storia recentissima, fine anni sessanta
F: Credi che ci sia un nesso fra come effettivamente è nato il polo? Ovvero per esempio Marina era Industriale e di conseguenza è stato un obiettivo, probabilmente per le seconde case di una media borghesia, diciamo. E un’ ipotetica Milano Marittima che invece ovviamente è un altro livello di classe, e una Punta Marina?
P: Milano marittima è nata espressamente per la sua destinazione turistica. È nata così. E non si chiama Milano Marittima a caso. Si chiama così perché il team di progettazione urbanistica l’ha realizzata con queste rotonde concentriche che ricordano le circonvallazioni di Milano. Che è morfologicamente creata su cerci concentrici. E loro, volutamente l’hanno progettata così, ed è nata per scopi turistici.
Punta Marina invece è un caso particolare a parte. Punta Marina è popolata da collinari forlivesi. A differenza di Marina che è stata popolata dai morti di fame del ferrarese, qualcuno fino al Polesine, che piuttosto che morire di fame sono venuto a giocare d’azzardo qua. Loro, piuttosto che morire di fame su in collina, sono scesi giù per lo stesso motivo. A Punta Marina tutto quello che c’era era la stazione meteorologica dell’aeronautica. Quel fabbricato vicino al distributore, dove c’è la rotonda sul mare. Tutto quello che c’era era lì e la strada che moriva lì. Dopo è stato il comune che ha iniziato a lottizzare. E paradossalmente le prime strutture ricettive hanno cominciato a diffondersi prima a Punta che non a Marina. A Punta Marina già nei primi anni cinquanta/metà anni cinquanta, quindi dieci anni prima che qui, avevano già cominciato a fare delle pensioni. Perché
F: Do you think there is a connection between how the urban pole actually came into being? Or for example, Marina was Industrial and consequently, it was more of a target, probably for the second homes of the middle class, let’s say. While a hypothetical Milano Marittima, which is obviously another level of class, is more tourism-oriented, and a Punta Marina?
P: Milano Marittima was born expressly for its tourist destination. That’s how it was born. And it’s not called Milano Marittima by chance. It is so called because the urban planning team created it with these concentric roundabouts that recall the ring roads of Milan. And they deliberately designed it like this, and it was born for tourist purposes. Punta Marina, on the other hand, is a special case apart. Punta Marina is populated by Forlì hills people. Unlike Marina which was populated by the starving people of Ferrara, some as far as Polesine, who rather than die of hunger came here as a bet. They, rather than starve up the hills, came down for the same reason. At Punta Marina, all there was the Air Force weather station. That building which is near the petrol station, where there is a roundabout on the sea. Nothing was there, and the street died there. Afterwards, it was the municipality that began to parcel out. And paradoxically the first accommodation facilities began to spread earlier in Punta than in Marina. In Punta Marina already in the early fifties/ mid-fifties, therefore ten years before here, they had already begun to make pensions and Guesthouses. Yes, because they had come here to find a way out of their misery. They had found land cheaply. And if you come to the sea, invest in tourism. Here instead the population had stabilized with its activities working in the port. In fact, it is no coincidence that everyone in our family had another job. No one has started to be exclusively the hotelier
loro erano venuti qua per trovare una via d’uscita dalla loro miseria. Avevano trovato la terra a poco. E se vieni al mare, cosa vieni a fare? Investi nel turismo. Qua invece la popolazione che si era stabilizzata con le sue attività lavorando nel porto. Infatti, non è un caso che in famiglia da noi tutti avevano un altro lavoro. Nessuno si è messo a fare solo esclusivamente l’albergatore
F: Eccetto le donne
P: Ma perché erano casalinghe
F: Tutte le donne della famiglia e immagino anche nelle altre famiglie, facevano tutte due lavori che non erano effettivamente riconosciuti. Non hanno mai avuto pensione per quello che facevano
P: Però non è vero. Loro erano in regola. Perché intanto la licenza dell’albergo era intestata alla bisnonna Livia, e lei versava i contributi alla cassa commercianti. E sia la zia Adele che la nonna Bianca erano associate, non tanto alla licenza, ma alla società di fatto. E versavano anche loro, solo che quel breve periodo non è sufficiente per fare anzianità. Quelli sono contributi che sono andati persi perché lavoravano due mesi all’anno. Due mesi moltiplicati per venticinque anni. È come se avessero lavorato otto anni
F: E invece rispetto al momento in cui hanno deciso che non era più cosa fare l’albergo e hanno iniziato a vendere gli appartamenti… hanno diviso l’albergo, eccetera eccetera. Quello è stato dovuto a un calo nel turismo?
P: Un tracollo totale avvenuto a fine anni ottanta, primi anni novanta. Ma lo li si vedeva. D’altra parte, tutte queste tipologie di strutture ricettive qui sono nate così. Erano nate quando ancora la gente che veniva giù da Milano che non trovava dove stare se gli dicevi: “Ho finito le camere, va bene il garage?” facevano i salti
F: Except for women
P: But because they were housewives.
F: All the women in the family and I imagine also in other families, both their two jobs weren’t actually recognized. They never got a pension for what they did
P: But that’s not true. They were regulated. Because in the meantime the hotel license was in the name of great-grandmother Livia, and she paid the contributions to the traders’ cash register. And both Aunt Adele and Grandma Bianca were associated, not so much with the license, but with the de facto company. And they were pouring too, only that the short summertime isn’t enough. Those are contributions that were lost because they were working two months a year. Two months multiplied by twenty-five years. It’s like they’ve been working for eight years
F: And instead compared to the moment in which they decided that it was no longer time for the hotel and they started selling the apartments… they divided the hotel, etc. etc. Was that due to a decline in tourism?
P: A total collapse. The late eighties, and early nineties. But you could see it. On the other hand, all these types of accommodation here were born in this way. They were born when people still came down from Milan and couldn’t find a place to stay. If you said to them: “I’ve run out of rooms, is the garage okay?” they were jumping for joy. I remember it even though I was a little child. I remember when people used to pay for staying in the garage. This type of hotel, which in reality are a guesthouse, precisely because in effect it was like going to a large house, was not a hotel, much less a hotel. Then with the evolution of people’s eco-
di gioia. Io me lo ricordo anche se ero un bambino piccolo. Me lo ricordo quando la gente che stava nel garage. Era un altro tipo di turismo. Questa tipologia di albergo, che poi in realtà sono pensioni proprio perché in effetti era come andare in una grande casa, non era un albergo e tanto meno un hotel. Dopo con l’evolversi delle possibilità economiche delle persone, l’ulteriore ringiovanimento della domanda… perché c’è stato un certo punto in cui non c’erano più le famiglie con tre o quattro bambini che dovevi sistemare per quindici, anche venti giorni. Perché costava troppo e perché era una tipologia di ferie che non davano più. Allora te che avevi impostato tutte queste strutture qui sulla loro economicità, ovviamente dotandole del minimo indispensabile. Se volevi correre dietro alle richieste del mercato, avresti dovuto sbaraccare tutto, e ricominciare tutto da capo. Come qualcuno ha avuto il coraggio di fare, a qualcuno è andata bene. Ma a molti altri è andata male. Altri non hanno voluto correre il rischio, come noi, e l’hanno trasformato in appartamenti. Perché quello invece era un mercato che tirava, proprio perché andava incontro alle esigenze di questo nuovo tipo di domanda che esiste tuttora
R: E quindi è ritornato a essere la seconda casa di qualcuno che magari sta anche più lontano. Perché poi una volta era la seconda casa per i ravennati o poco distante. Ma adesso è la seconda casa per Bologna, Modena, anche per gente che abita più lontano ma si avvicina di più al mare perché adesso ci sono le automobili. Una volta le automobili non ce l’avevano tutti, dovevano venire col treno o con l’autobus. Adesso invece da Modena se vuoi, anche se hai la tua seconda casa qui, puoi venirci anche solamente per il weekend, in un’ora sei qui
P: Mi ricordo la famiglia Donchi di Milano, avevano una Cinquecento. Venivano in quattro: marito e moglie, figlia, e figlio. Quattro dentro questa cinquecento, ave-
nomic possibilities, the further rejuvenation of the demand… because there was a certain point in which there were no more families with three or four children that you had to arrange for fifteen, even twenty days. Because it cost too much and because it was a type of vacation that the companies no longer gave. So, you, who had set up all these structures here, based on their humble and cheap character, obviously equipping them with the bare minimum. If you wanted to run aftermarket demands, you would have had to unpack everything and start all over again. As some have had the courage to do, some have done well. But many others did badly. Others didn’t want to take the risk like us and turned it into apartments. Because that, instead, was a market that was buoyant, precisely because it met the needs of this new type of demand that still exists today
R: And so, it has returned to being the holiday house of someone who maybe lives even further away. Because then it was once the second home for the people of Ravenna or not far away. But now it is the second home for Bologna, Modena, and also for people who live further away but are closer to the sea because now there are cars. Once upon a time, not everyone had cars, they had to come by train or bus. Now from Modena if you want, even if you have your second home, you can come here even just for the weekend, you’re here in an hour.
P: I remember the Donchi family from Milan, they had a Cinquecento.9 Four of them came: husband and wife, daughter, and son. Four inside this Cinquecento, with the luggage rack on it, filled with stuff to the point that the luggage rack was bigger than the car itself. And they came from Milan. All on the Via Emilia obviously because the motorway hasn’t been built the motorway yet. I don’t know what time they left. They were down for twenty days. Now imagine four
9
The Fiat 500 (Cinquecento) is a city car that was manufactured and marketed by Fiat Automobiles from 1957 until 1975. It was sold as a two-door semi-convertible or saloon car and as a three-door panel van or estate car
va il portapacchi sopra, riempito di roba al punto che era più grande il portapacchi della macchina stessa. E venivano da Milano. Tutto sulla Via Emilia ovviamente perché non facevano l’autostrada. Non so a che ora partissero. Stavano giù venti giorni. Immaginati ora andare in quattro in un albergo per venti giorni. Dovresti lavorare tutto l’anno per pagarti quei venti giorni. Perché dove trovi? Non dico in un quattro stelle, ma anche solo un tre e un due stelle? Non ti basta.
R: A Rimini la settimana di ferragosto in un hotel a tre stelle costa quattromila euro per tre persone.
F: Ho altre domande più, personali su di te. Come mai non hai mai pensato di vivere a Ravenna o magari in un’altra città? Oltre al fatto, ovviamente della famiglia che era qui?
P: È una domanda che contiene già una bella fetta della risposta. E poi ti posso garantire che se uno nasce al mare, quando sta già a dieci chilometri di distanza, diventa matto. Te lo dico in dialetto così gli do maggiore incisività. Io sono stato tre anni in Via Gradara (Ravenna), fortuna che avevo la scusa di avere tutti i miei figli e mia madre, e anche mio padre perché era ancora vivo, per poter venir giù perché altrimenti io là sarei diventato matto. È una cosa personale, è una cosa comune?
F: Ma invece secondo me è una cosa che è diffusa
P: Pino Daniele ci ha fatto una canzone, ma evidentemente è una cosa che… non lo so… non lo so da che cosa dipende però sicuramente qualche cosa c’è
R: non è la stessa cosa che abitare a dieci chilometri di distanza
P: Già dieci chilometri mettono in difficoltà. Ma in qualsiasi stagione, eh. Non per il turismo, per la balneazione… Forse
of you going to a hotel for twenty days. You’d have to work all year round to pay for those twenty days. Because where do you find an affordable place? I’m not saying in a four-star, but also just a three and a two-star? It’s not enough for you, compared to the expense
A: In Rimini, the week of mid-August, a three-star hotel costs four thousand euros for three people
F: I have one more personal question for you. Why have you never thought of living in Ravenna or maybe in another city? Besides the fact, obviously about the family that was here?
P: It’s a question that already contains a good chunk of the answer. And then, I can guarantee you that if one is born by the sea when he is ten kilometres away, he goes crazy. I tell you in dialect, so I give it greater incisiveness. I was in Via Gradara (Ravenna) for three years, luckily I had the excuse of having all my children and my mother, and also my father because he was still alive, to be able to come down because otherwise, I would have gone crazy there. Is it a personal thing, or is it a common thing?
F: In my opinion, it is something that is common
P: Pino Daniele wrote a song about it, but obviously it’s something that... I don’t know... I don’t know what it depends on, but surely there is something
R: It’s not the same thing as living ten kilometres away
P: Already ten kilometres put you in difficulty. But in any season eh. Not for tourism, or for bathing reasons… Maybe for the perfumes, I don’t know
R: It’s even nicer in winter than in summer after all
per i profumi, non lo so
R: Forse è più bello starci d’inverno che d’estate tutto sommato
P: Se sei nato e hai vissuto al mare, quando ti allontani dal mare diventi matto.
Unito a tutto il resto perché poi non dico che il resto delle considerazioni non valgono niente, ci sono anche quelle. Però questo è sicuramente uno dei fattori più importanti
F: Perché io ho la sensazione che per esempio se penso poi vabbè, ovviamente è molto personale. Però secondo me è una cosa che si può notare in tutte le persone che effettivamente, come dici tu, nascono al mare, non sono persone che vanno al mare. Non utilizzano il mare nella stessa maniera in cui lo fa il turista. La nonna non è mai andata al mare negli ultimi dieci anni della sua vita, probabilmente. Però prova a schiodare la nonna, o il nonno Ernesto dal vivere qui.
P: No impossible
F: E quindi credo che questo. quello che mi interessa anche per la mia tesi. Il fatto che, anche se si tratta di una città che è secondaria, e hai bisogno di un appoggio ad una città più grande per funzionare
P: è si su questo non c’è dubbio
F: però allo stesso tempo c’è un’identità molto forte, che è come se non venga mai considerata nel fatto che devi vendere un mindset, un’idea della riviera che è turistica. Che però non è quello che la Riviera è effettivamente
P: Assolutamente
P: If you were born and lived by the sea, when you move away from the sea you go crazy. Combined with all the rest because then I’m not saying that the rest of the considerations are worth nothing, let’s say those too. But this is certainly one of the most important factors
F: I have the feeling that, for example, if I think well, it’s obviously very personal. But in my opinion, it is something that can be noticed in all the people who are actually, as you say, born at the sea, they are not people who go to the sea. Do not use the sea in the same way a tourist does. Grandma never went to the beach in the last ten years of her life, probably. But try to unhook Grandma, or Grandpa Ernesto from living here.
P: No impossible
F: And so, I believe this. The fact that, even though it is a city that is secondary, you need support from a bigger city to function
P: Yes, this is for sure
F: Even if you need a bigger city, at the same time there is a very strong identity, which is never considered when you have to sell a mindset, an idea of the coast that is touristic. But that’s not what Riviera is.
P: Absolutely
GIULIO
MARINA DI RAVENNA
F indicates Fiorenza, the interviewer, while G indicates Giulio, the interviewed.
F: Nome e anni?
G: Giulio, ventisette.
F: Tu sei di Marina di Ravenna?
G: No, di Ravenna. Mi sono trasferito a Marina di Ravenna due anni fa.
F: Come mai ha fatto questa scelta?
G: Perché lavoro in una zona portuale tra Ravenna e Marina (di Ravenna), quindi ci metto meno tempo ad andare al lavoro e perché come mia indole ho bisogno del mare. Quindi ho scelto una casa vicino al mare perché così riuscivo a viverlo tutti i giorni dell’anno.
F: Quindi lo vivi anche in estate? E inverno allo stesso modo?
G: Si, in estate c’è la confusione. Certamente. Però lo si riesce a vivere fuori orario perché puoi andarci quando vuoi e d’inverno comunque si è lì, quindi è un’aria diversa, un’atmosfera diversa.
F: Quindi è come se ci fossero degli orari per le persone che sono sempre qui, i “locals”.
G: Si, degli orari.
F: Per chi invece è turista per esempio?
G: Posso andare al mare la mattina prima di andare a lavoro. Ovviamente non puoi venire dalla città prima di andare
F: Name and years?
G: Giulio, twenty-seven.
F: Are you from Marina di Ravenna?
G: No, from Ravenna. I moved to Marina di Ravenna two years ago.
F: Why did you make this choice?
G: Because I work in a port area between Ravenna and Marina (di Ravenna), so it takes me less time to go to work, and because by my nature I need the sea. So, I chose a house near the sea for being able to experience it every day of the year.
F: So, do you also experience it in the summer? And during winter in the same way?
G: Yes, in summer there is more confusion. Certainly. But you manage to experience it off-peak hours because you can go there whenever you want and in winter you’re there anyway, so it’s a different air, a different atmosphere.
F: So, it seems like there are different timetables for different people.
G: Yes, it is a matter of time.
F: And for who is the tourist, for example?
G: I can go to the beach in the morning before going to work. Obviously, you
al lavoro, sai venire al mare e poi andare al lavoro, perché prenderebbe un sacco di tempo. Quindi la mattina è libera, va bene, mi piace.
F: Ma ci sono quindi anche altre persone che tu incontri, che fanno così?
G: Sì nel periodo estivo sì, nel periodo invernale invece la città si svuota completamente, i servizi ce ne sono molti di meno, però è un compromesso che mi sta bene. Io lavoro o un lavoro stagionale inverso, quindi lavoro molto inverno. Lavoro poco in estate, quindi in inverno ho poche necessità interattive. Mi dedico al lavoro e ho il tempo libero che mi basta.
F: Questo edificio è differente. Qui è un modo di vivere un po’ differente rispetto ala villetta, o all’hotel del turista. Puoi raccontarmi qualcosa in più?
G: Qui è una casa normale. Alla fine siamo in un condominio, anche se sono tutte villette, un condominio, e alla fine te lo vivi come tale. Normalmente hai un ritmo diverso perché devi organizzarti. Non hai tutto a portata di mano. Quindi pensare un pochino prima le cose. I supermercati non sono sempre così. I servizi non ci sono sempre quindi bisogna guardare con un pochino più di preavviso tutte le cose. Per il resto si gestisce, lo stile di vita è normale, ed avevo la necessità di muovermi fuori di casa. C’era l’occasione in un posto che per noi, dalla città molto vicino a questa zona qui, è comunque sia un’idea di vacanza e quindi casa per casa. Ho preferito muovermi in un posto che fosse vacanza. Così riuscivo a stare più rilassato durante il periodo lavorativo.
F: Qui nel condominio avete degli spazi comuni, giusto?
G: Si, questo prato.
F: Dove si fa…?
can’t come from the city before going to work, you know, coming to the beach and then going to work is not worth it, because that would take a lot of time. So, the early morning is free, and that’s fine, I like it.
F: But are there also other people you meet who do this?
G: Yes, in the summer period yes, in the winter period the city empties completely, there are much fewer services, but it is a compromise that suits me. I work on a reverse seasonal job, so I work a lot in winter. I work little in summer, so in winter I have few interactive needs. I dedicate to work and I have enough free time.
F: This building is different. Here is a slightly different way of life than in the classic villa or tourist hotel. Can you tell me something more?
G: Here is a normal house. In the end we are in a condominium, even if they are all villas, still a condominium, and in the end, you experience it as such. Normally you have a different rhythm because you have to organize yourself. You don’t have everything at your fingertips. So, you think about things over a little bit first. Supermarkets aren’t always like this. The services are not always there so you have to look at all things with a little more notice. The rest is manageable, the lifestyle is normal, and I needed to move out of my family-house. There was the opportunity in a place that for us, from the city, is very close, it is in any case both an idea of vacation and home. I preferred to move to a place that was a vacation. So, I was able to stay more relaxed during the working period.
F: Here in the condominium, you have common areas, right?
G: Yes, this meadow.
10
Marinara Harbour is a luxury residential and commercial complex, adjacent to the port of Marina di Ravenna, the touristic entrance to Ravenna by sea. It presents a peculiar model of housing in the context of Riviera. Although the residential buildings of the complex can’t be defined as social housing, their design of collective facilities and shared amenities is proposing a new way of living for the Secondary Towns. Moreover, the model is challenging the real estate market of Italian seaside towns. Maintaining the land as state property, inhabitants pay the public a controlled rent following a renewable contract for a maximum of 35 years.
G: Fa? Niente. Non ci sono de bambini che urlano. E a parte questo, spazi comuni nel complesso non ce ne sono. Qui siamo a Marinara. È lo spazio di marinara quello comune, che però è aperto al pubblico cento percento. Quindi è il verde di Marinara. È condiviso da tutti. Qui il novanta per cento delle persone sono turisti, il dieci percento sono gli abitanti di un condominio aperto. Tutti quanti.
F: Secondo te ci sono degli abitanti di Marina (di Ravenna) che effettivamente vengono qui? O è davvero solo i turisti? È un reale luogo di aggregazione?
G: Adesso parliamo sempre di estate. In estate si, Marinara è frequentata da tutta Marina (di Ravenna). Perchè comunque sia, è il lato mare. E quindi tutti gli abitanti dell’entroterra di Marina si spostano lungo la costa. Dunque, se vuoi vedere il mare, i bar, tutte le attività sono qui e quindi chi è dentro Marina si sposta qui la sera è il centro. D’inverno invece non c’è assolutamente nessuno.
F: Ne vedi qualcuno che passeggia durante il giorno?
G: In inverno le attività è fare due passi lungo il molo, ma il centro è spento. Non so che utilità abbia. Quindi non vedi molta gente in giro.
F: Altra domanda rispetto agli spazi comuni che ci sono in questo condominio, pensi che potresti usufruire di altri se ci fossero? E ne senti la mancanza?
G: Di spazio? In realtà noi abbiamo uno spazio comune che è del condominio. Sono tutti del condominio, ma l’unico davvero decente è la piscina del condominio, averla nella zona vicina, anche se è strano in una casa al mare. Sembra una cosa stupida, perché non ha senso, ma a Marina il mare è piuttosto scarso di qualità. Quindi la piscina è un sacco rivalutata. Per il resto l’unico spazio comune di cui si sente la mancanza è il parcheggio.
F: Where is it done…?
G: Done? Nothing. There are no screaming children. And apart from this, there are no common spaces in the complex. Here we are in Marinara.10 It is the marinara space that is common, but it is one hundred percent open to the public. So, it’s the green of Marinara. It is shared by everyone. Here ninety percent of the people are tourists, ten percent are the inhabitants of an open apartment building. Everyone uses the common space.
F: In your opinion, are there any inhabitants of Marina (di Ravenna) who actually come here? Or is it really just the tourists? Is it a real meeting place?
G: Now we always talk about summer. In summer yes, Marinara is frequented by the whole Marina (di Ravenna). Because anyway, it’s the seaside. And therefore, all the inhabitants of the hinterland of Marina come along the coast. Therefore, if you want to see the sea, the bars, all the activities are here and therefore those who are in Marina move here in the evening, it is the centre. In winter, on the other hand, there is absolutely nobody.
F: Do you see anyone walking around during the day?
G: In the winter the activity is strolling along the pier, but the centre is shut down. I don’t know what use it has. So, you don’t see many people around.
F: Another question with respect to the common spaces in this condominium, do you think you could use others if there were? And do you miss it?
G: Common space? In reality we have a common area that belongs to the condominium. They are all from the condominium, but the only really decent one is the swimming pool of the condominium, having it in the nearby area, even
Ma alla fine hai la spiaggia a tre minuti. Quindi non che ti serva uno spazio per evadere dalla città. Sei già in periferia, ma nel momento in cui esci di casa sei nello spazio comune e pubblico di tutta la città, che è libero.
F: Però mi domando, ci sono degli spazi che creano una sorta di comunità? Comunque siete in un condominio, anche semplicemente un co-working andrebbe bene. Nel tuo caso tu lavori al porto, però se fossi magari un impiegato e potresti fare smart-working.
G: Nella zona dei circoli velici che hanno condiviso, fanno lezioni e corsi. Sono attività aperte sia esterne condominio che infra-condominio, quindi quello è uno spazio condiviso. Per il resto qui, essendo un punto prettamente turistico, tutto lo spazio è dedicato a negozi e attività commerciali, perché alla fine tutto il turismo appunto, passa di qua e quindi le attività commerciali hanno il predominio.
F: E invece questa casa com’è stata comprata, come funziona anche questo modello nel mercato immobiliare?
G: Questo è un modello particolare per la Riviera, forse un po’ sfortunato come soluzione, perché essendo in riva al mare, sono veramente due metri, siamo su una concessione demaniale. Il che vuol dire che questa è una casa che nei prossimi trentacinque anni non sarà più di proprietà. Infatti per me è proprio stata presa, pensando che non è la casa della vita, per me è la casa di cui ho bisogno per evadere dalla città, Avere i miei spazi, la mia autonomia Mi sono spostato qui. In futuro si cercherà una casa definitiva. Quindi non è vissuta come una casa definitiva
F: Di quanto hai risparmiato rispetto a comprare, per esempio, un appartamento dello stesso valore? Mettiamo tu abbia investito dei soldi su questa casa. Di
if it is strange in a beach house. It seems silly, because it doesn’t make sense, but in Riviera the sea is rather low quality. So, the pool is being re-evaluated a lot. For the rest, the only common space that is missing is the parking lot. But in the end, you have the beach three minutes away. So not that you need a space to escape the city. You are already in the suburbs, but the moment you leave the house you are in the common and public space of the whole city, which is free.
F: But I wonder, are there any spaces that create a sort of community? However, you are in an apartment building, even simply co-working would be fine. In your case you work at the port, but maybe if you were an employee you could do remote working.
G: In the area of the yacht clubs, they have shared lessons and courses. They are open activities both outside the condominium and infra-condominium, so that is a shared space. For the rest here, being a purely tourist point, all the space is dedicated to shops and commercial activities, because in the end all tourism passes through here and therefore commercial activities dominate.
F: But how was this house bought, how does this model also work in the real estate market?
G: This is a particular model for the Riviera, perhaps a little unfortunate as a solution, because being by the sea, it’s really two meters, we are on a state concession. Which means that this is a house that will no longer be owned after the next thirty-five years. In fact, for me it was taken, thinking that it is not the home of my life, for me it is the provisional home I need to escape from the city. Having my own space, my autonomy. I moved here. A permanent home will be bought in the future. So, it is not experienced as a definitive home.
quanto effettivamente si abbassa il livello rispetto che comprare un appartamento non in concessione demaniale?
G: No, non risparmia niente. Niente. Lo paghi normale.
F: Questo perchè è considerato un edificio di lusso?
G: Esatto, che viene gestito sul mercato. É come un appartamento normale, ma noi abbiamo avuto la fortuna di avere un incontro con un privato. Quindi la vendita diretta per risparmiare qualcosa. La trattativa è stata proprio fatta così. Questa casa vive ancora trentatre anni. Ti posso dare quattrocento euro al mese di affitto. Questo è il valore massimo che sono disposto a pagare la casa, quindi è proprio stata comprata, valutata sulla base di un affitto, più che sul metro quadro.
F: Quanti di questi appartamenti sono affittati o venduti?
G: Più o meno, é un venti percento di queste case. Un trenta percento di queste case sono di proprietà, tutte le altre sono gestite in affitto. Però nella stagione estiva è piena, nella stagione invernale saremo in quaranta persone sulle cento case di capacità.
F: Però dico, potenzialmente, se fosse un affitto calmierato, ci sarebbe più utilizzo in inverno no?
G: beh, in realtà è un affitto calmierato. Il mio conto l’ho fatto su un affitto calmierato, perché una casa così a Marina, nei quattro mesi di stagione, la paghi almeno millecinquecento euro. Però se la vuoi bloccare per i quattro mesi di stagione il risultato è che molta gente l’afitta tutto l’anno, a degli affitti normali.
F: How much have you saved compared to buying, for example, an apartment of the same value? Let’s say you invested some money in this house. By how much is the level actually lower than buying an apartment not under state concession?
G: No, you don’t save anything here. You pay it normal.
F: This is because it is considered a luxury building?
G: Exactly, which is managed on the market. It’s like a normal apartment, but we were lucky enough to have an encounter with a private individual. So direct selling to save some money. The negotiation was just like that. This house still lives thirty-three years. I can give you four hundred euros a month’s rent. This is the maximum value I’m willing to pay for the house, so it really was bought, valued on the basis of a rent, rather than per square metre.
F: How many of these apartments are rented or sold?
G: More or less, it’s about twenty percent of these houses. Thirty percent of these homes are owned, all the rest are lease-operated. But in the summer season it is full, in the winter season there will be forty people out of the one hundred capacity houses.
F: But I say, potentially, if it were a controlled rent, there would be more use in winter, right?
G: Well, actually it’s a controlled rent. I made my account on a controlled rent, because a house like this in Marina, in the four months of the season, pays at least fifteen hundred euros. But if you want to block it for the four months of the season, the result is that many people rent it all year round, at normal rents.
F indicates Fiorenza, the interviewer, while G indicates Gabriella, and J Jules, the interviewed couple.
11 Referred to the time of the interview
GABRIELLA AND JULES LIDO ADRIANO
12 Lido Adriano development plan has been designed in 1962 by Ludovico Quaroni. This secondary town, inhabited by about 7.000 residents, reach the level of 40.000 during summer. Locals shorten the name of Lido Adriano in “Lido”
F: Nome e età?
G: Gabriella e lui è Jules, ventisette e ventinove anni.
F: Sarà breve. Per altre persone è stata ore, ma secondo me ce la facciamo a farla breve.
G: Vai!
J: Ma va bene anche di ore.
G: A parte che abbiamo un’opinione molto…
J: Precisa.
F: Esatto, no, intanto domande basiche. Perché vi siete trasferiti proprio a Lido? Questo mi interessa. Perché lido piuttosto che per esempio Marina di Ravenna, Punta Marina, Marina romea ecc. E perché non Ravenna?
G: Eh vabbè, il motivo per cui ci siamo trasferiti zona provincia Ravenna è la pandemia. I primi tre mesi della pandemia siamo stati dai miei perché eravamo in lockdown e non potevamo fare altrimenti. E quando poi le cose nell’estate del duemilaeventi si sono iniziate un po’ a riaprire eh, non ci stavamo piu’ nella casa dei miei, dovevamo cercare un’alternativa e quindi abbiamo pensato: Dove andiamo? Andiamo nel posto piu’ facile per noi, c’è Lido Adriano, perché lì mia nonna viveva. Quindi i primi sei mesi della nostra esperienza di Lido avevamo
F: Name and age?
G: Gabriella and Jules, 27 and 27 years old.
F: It will be short.11 For other people it took hours, but I think we can make it short.
G: Go!
J: But hours are fine too.
G: Except we have a very…
J: Exactly.
F: Exactly, no, first of all, basic questions. Why did you move to Lido of all places? This interests me. Why Lido instead of, for example, Marina di Ravenna, Punta Marina, Marina Romea etc? And why not Ravenna?
G: oh well, the reason why we moved to the Ravenna area is the pandemic. We stayed with my parents for the first three months of the pandemic because of the lockdown and we couldn’t do otherwise. And then when things started to reopen a bit in the summer of 2000 we didn’t stay in my parents’ house anymore. We had to look for an alternative and so we thought: where are we going? Let’s go to the easiest place for us: there is Lido Adriano because my grandmother lives there. So, for the first six months of our experience in Lido,12 we rented a small house in Viale Omero which is the main
una casetta in affitto in viale Omero che è veramente quello principale, poi dopo abbiamo cambiato via a gennaio. Ma in realtà cambia poco, nel senso che penso sia lo stesso feedback, però, per dare un quadro completo ecco. Gennaio 2021 / dicembre 2020, più o meno in quel periodo lì, mia nonna si è rotta il bacio e quindi è dovuta andare dai miei perché ovviamente doveva essere, diciamo, accudita e si è liberato il suo appartamento dove stava lei. Un appartamento bellissimo, gigante, con vista sul mare, quindi era inutile che pagassimo l’affitto, e decidiamo di andare a stare nell’appartamento da nonna.
J: Ma poi la nonna è stata dai genitori di Gabri tantissimo tempo anche dopo essersi ripresa. Quindi ci ha lasciato l’appartamento e da lì non ci siamo più spostati. Questa è la storia per cui ci siamo trasferiti, per la pandemia. È proprio lì a Lido Adriano, perché era la cosa più semplice col fatto che la nonna di Gabri aveva una casa li’.
F: Ok, è altra domanda. Come erano i vostri spostamenti in inverno, e come invece in estate? Nel senso, come vi dovevate spostare quando avevate bisogno di fare la spesa, per esempio? O in generale, immagino qualsiasi tipo di servizio che poteva esservi utile trovare a Lido Adriano, dovevate spostarvi a Ravenna? E immagino che ci fosse una grande differenza tra estate e inverno.
J: La cosa particolare è che d’inverno a un certo punto andavamo più al mare rispetto all’estate, perché poi c’è stato il delirio stagionale, ed era più conveniente d’estate andare a Ravenna, per esempio andare dai suoi che andare a male.
G: Però la domanda era sugli spostamenti.
J: Eh, sì.
road. Later we moved again in January. But actually, it doesn’t make much difference. I mean we’re going to give you the same feedback, but I’m saying this to give you the whole picture. January 2020/December 2020, more or less at the time, my grandmother broke her pelvis bone and therefore she had to move in with my parents because she had to, let’s say, looked after her apartment which was vacant. A huge, beautiful apartment with a view of the sea, so the was no point in paying to rent a flat, and we decided to go and stay at grandma’s apartment.
J: But then grandma was with Gabri’s parents for a long time even after she recovered. So, she left us to stay at her apartment and we never moved from there. This is why we moved: for the pandemic. It’s right there in Lido Adriano, because it was the easiest thing, given the fact that Gabri’s grandmother had a house there.
F: Ok, here’s another question. How were your movements during the winter, and the summer? I mean—how would you move when you needed to go grocery, for example? Or in general, I’m talking about any type of service that could be useful for you to have in Lido Adriano, did you have to go to Ravenna? And I guess there was a big difference between summer and winter.
J: The weird thing is that at some point during the winter, we went to the beach more than during the summer, because then there was the seasonal crowd, and it became more convenient to go to Ravenna during the summer, for example, to go to visit her parents, rather than going to the beach.
G: But the question was about travelling.
J: Oh yeah.
G: Shall I answer? No, no, because we
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16
G: Rispondo io? No, no, perché bisogna fare una distinzione: noi non abbiamo mai avuto la macchina fino a un certo punto e quella è stata la differenza più grande perché senza la macchina eravamo legati ai mezzi pubblici che non abbiamo usato mai, e a quello che c’era attorno a noi, cioè praticamente a un minimarket e all’angolo è a un Eurospin, che sono dei… diciamo delle catene. A parte il cibo, non so come dire sì, quando poi invece abbiamo avuto la macchina, andavamo molto più spesso a Ravenna. Spessissimo all’ESP perché a Lido Adriano c’è tutto in estate, ma non c’ è tutto d’inverno. Tante cose d’inverno non ci sono. Anche solo per fare le foto dal fotografo, la foto per il passaporto, le mie lenti a contatto, eh?
J: In realtà anche per fare la spesa poteva essere problematico, perché noi avevamo sempre buoni pasti da lavoro, e nessuno a Lido Adriano prende buoni pasto.
G: Si, quando non avevamo la macchina era complicato usare i buoni pasti. Andavamo in bici al Conad di Punta perché loro erano gli unici in zona che lo prendevano. Una bella sbatta eh!
F: Secondo me fra le città secondarie poi Lido Adriano non è neanche messa male rispetto a servizi eccetera, perché per esempio da Lido di Savio è molto peggio.
J: Sì per esempio.
F: Una cosa che mi interessa molto, che ha introdotto Jules, è il fatto che, per esempio, quando ho intervistato soprattutto le persone che vivono da tanti anni in questi luoghi, alla principale domanda che gli facevo, ovvero: perché continuare a vivere ancora qui anche se è oggettivamente una situazione scomoda? E al di là di relazioni familiari, mi rispondevano tutti: perché c’è il mare. Però poi la domanda che facevo era: ma quindi ogni quanto vai al mare? E un sacco di
have to say it: we have never had a car up to a certain point and that was the biggest difference because without a car we had to use public transport which we never used. And the only things that were around us… it is a minimarket and a Eurospin, which are… let’s say store chains. Aside from the food—I mean, yes, since we had bought a car we started going to Ravenna much more often. Very often at the ESP 13 since Lido Adriano has everything in the summer, but not everything in the winter. There aren’t many things in winter. Even just to take pictures from the photographer’s studio, the passport pic, my eye-lenses, huh?
J: Actually, even for shopping it can be tricky, because we always had meal vouchers, and nobody in Lido Adriano accepts meal vouchers for payment.
G: Yes, when we didn’t have a car it was difficult to use the meal vouchers. We went by bike to the Conad in Punta14 because they were the only ones in the area who accepted them. Era una bella sbatta eh! 15
F: In my opinion, among the small towns, Lido Adriano isn’t even too bad when it comes to services and so on… for example Lido di Savio it’s much worse.
J: Yes, for example.
F: One thing that interests me a lot, which Jules touched upon for example, when I interviewed all the people who have lived here for so many years, the main question I asked them was: why would you keep living here16 even if it is objectively an inconvenient situation? And beyond family, they all answered me: because there is the sea. But then the next question I would ask them was: so how often do you go to the beach? And a lot of people didn’t go, as Jules rightly said, they go during the winter. So, what
persone in realtà non ci andavano, come ha detto giustamente Jules, ci vanno in inverno. Quindi quello che interessa a me è il fatto che è quasi più l’idea che ci sia il mare vicino, non tanto il mare di per sé, ad essere decisiva, non è l’idea di vivere il mare in maniera balneare, turistica. Ogni quanto andate al mare, e cosa ci facevate?
G: Andavamo pochissimo.
J: Io almeno ogni mattina facevo una passeggiata, ma sempre fuori stagione, no? Perché poi d’estate ci sono i bagni, quindi poi c’è una marea di gente e poi si perde un po’ la sua magia, no?
G: Noi avevamo la casa di mia nonna, che era al primo piano, ma avevamo dei vicini all’ultimo piano che abbiamo abbiamo conosciuto benissimo. Loro vivono lì tutto l’anno. La Donatella vive a Lido Adriano da vent’anni e non va mai al mare.
J: Mai.
G: Non ci vanno. Io la mattina qualche volta, non come Jules, che ci è sempre andato d’inverno, io raramente, e d’estate mai. Quindi in realtà io non me lo sono mai goduta.
J: È piu’ all’inizio che dici: che figata! Ma poi dopo un po’ dici: ma che sbatta! Veramente, specialmente d’estate, veramente invivibile.
G: È invivibile, è invivibile.
F: Quali sono le cose che vi hanno diciamo dato più fastidio? Effettivamente in estate com’è vivere lì?
G: Noi avevamo una situazione particolare perché l’appartamento di mia nonna è proprio al centro del ciclone, cioè è l’appartamento che sta sopra a un bar, di fronte all’unica piazza. Quindi proprio tutto quello che succede a Lido Adriano,
interests me is… the most important thing for the locals seems the idea of having the sea nearby, rather than the sea itself. They do not physically experience the sea, not in a touristic way. How often do you go to the beach, and what did you do there?
G: We rarely went.
J: At least every morning I took a walk, but always out of season, right? Because in the summer there is the Lidos,17 then there are crowds of people and then the magic is lost a bit, right?
G: My grandmother’s house was on the first floor, but we had neighbours on the top floor whom we got to know very well. They live there all year round. Donatella has lived in Lido Adriano for twenty years and never goes to the beach.
J: Never.
G: They don’t go there. I sometimes went in the morning, not like Jules, who went there every morning during wintertime, I rarely went, and never during the summer. So, I’ve never got to enjoy it.
J: It’s more at the beginning that you say: this is cool! But then after a while, you say: what a bummer! Truly, especially in the summer, truly unlivable.
G: It’s unlivable, it’s unlivable.
F: What are the things we said that bothered you the most? What is it like to live there in the summer?
G: We had a particular situation because my grandmother’s apartment is right in the middle of the chaos, the apartment is above a bar, facing the only square in town. So, everything that happens in Lido Adriano happens there.
succede lì.
J: Virgilio
G: Sì, guarda, noi odiamo i proprietari, proprio veramente della gentaccia bruttissima, veramente un’esperienza traumatica anche con loro, erano veramente dei pazzoidi. Però vabbè. Ehm, che poi, nel senso, noi non abbiamo mai fatto niente, solo che non ci ascoltavano. No, lasciamo perdere. La cosa che ci ha dato più fastidio in quell’appartamento, che però secondo me si può traslare in maniera un po’ piu’ light ovunque, per posti come Lido Adriano, d’estate è il rumore.
J: Eh il rumore, sì sì sì.
G: Costantemente rumore, musichetta, gente che sgassa, bambini che urlano, bande, concertini, macchine che passano a bomba, costantemente rumore. Ma è inspiegabile, perché ci sono regole per l’inquinamento acustico. Ci sono delle leggi, ma a Lido Adriano non c’è legge, non in quei tre mesi estivi. In quei tre mesi i bagni, i proprietari, fanno quello che gli pare.
J: Sì, sì, sì. Da giugno fino ad agosto.
G: Fanno quello che vogliono perché quei tre mesi loro devono guadagnare.
J: E tu devi stare zitto, non puoi dire niente.
G: Noi abbiamo provato a lamentarci perché quando a un certo punto, va beh con il bar di sotto lasciamo perdere, inutile! Mentre con il concertino c’era la ProLoco che gestisce il concertino, no? Che tra l’altro quest’estate é stato un delirio perché ce n’era uno ogni sera, e siamo andati a lamentarci, dicendo che non è vivibile. Nel senso: le finestre di casa mia tremano da quanto è alto il volume. E loro ci hanno detto che lo misuravano, ed era a livello di legge, cosa
J: Virgilio
G: Yes, honestly? We hate the owners, really ugly scum, really a traumatic experience even with them, they were nutjobs. But oh well. Uhm, I mean—we never did anything, they just didn’t listen to us… no, let’s just forget about it. The thing that bothered us the most in that apartment, and I think it’s somewhat valid everywhere, for places like Lido Adriano, is the noise during summertime.
J: Ah, the noise, yes yes yes.
G: Constant noise, music, motorbikes, screaming children, bands, concerts, cars going fast and loud, dangerous people, constant noise. We don’t get it, because there are rules for noise pollution. There are laws, but in Lido Adriano, there is no law, not in those three summer months. In those three months the Lidos, the owners, do what they like.
J: Yes, yes, yes. From June until August.
G: They do what they want because they have to make money in those three months.
J: And you have to shut up, you can’t say anything.
G: We tried to complain because at some point—okay with the bar downstairs… let’s forget it, it was useless! While for the small concerts, there was the ProLoco18 that manages the concerts, right? Which, by the way, this summer was crazy because there was a concert every night, and we tried to complain, saying it was not livable. I mean: the windows in my house shake from how high the volume is. And they told us they measured it, and regulated it according to the law, which wasn’t true. And when I insisted, and said: yes, but even if you measure it, I’m telling you that it’s not livable, that the windows in my house shake, and the
che ovviamente non era vera. E quando io ho insistito, e ho detto: sì, ma anche se lo misurate vi sto dicendo che non è vivibile, che mi vibrano i vetri di casa, e la risposta è stata che mi dovevo arrangiare, che era una mia opinione. Quindi niente è proprio voluto, non c’è un’intenzione di abbassare il livello generale di tensione perché poi la musica agita dopo un po’, costantemente. Quello è stato sicuramente la cosa che di più, a me ha esaurito. Non se ne poteva più.
J: Si è molto stancante. Per sette mesi se proprio nel silenzio assoluto, e poi d’estate, ti ci devi attaccare.
G: Ma è brutto.
J: Eh, è brutto!
G: Ti senti violato, perché non è una scelta tua, quella di essere costantemente nel rumore. Ovviamente mia nonna è particolare perché ha l’appartamento proprio in quel punto lì, però anche se fossimo rimasti dov’eravamo prima, si sente il rumore. Tu senti. Per darti un’idea. Noi andiamo a messa. Andavamo a messa tutte le domeniche. Non so se sai dov’è la parrocchia di Lido Adriano però è lontana, viale Manzoni.
J: Più o meno quando inizia il paesino, quando entri.
G: Esatto. Da lì, si sentiva la musica del concerto! Uscivi dalla messa, e sentivi il concerto. Era scioccante. Scioccante. Quindi era proprio forte. Non so se lo fanno perché a Lido Adriano sono tutti vecchi, e quindi non sento un tubo, ma una roba così, mai vista. Oppure un altro esempio che posso darti è l’Amarissimo, perché ha cambiato proprietario, è l’ultimo (bagno) verso Lido di Dante. Poi ha un tot importante di spiaggia libera, e poi cominciano degli scogli che tu puoi andare eccetera. E anche lì lontano, cioè praticamente arrivi al lido di Dante, e sentivi
answer was that I had to make do, which was my opinion. So—that’s it, it’s intentional, there isn’t any intention to lower the general level of stress because, and besides, the music makes you tense after a while, if you listen to it constantly. That was the thing that tired me out the most. Couldn’t take it anymore.
J: Yes, it’s very tiring. For seven months you’re surrounded by absolute silence, and then during the summer, you have to make do.
G: But it’s bad.
J: Eh, it’s bad!
G: You feel violated because it’s not your choice to be constantly in the noise. My grandmother’s house is a peculiar situation because she has an apartment right there, but even if we had stayed at the first apartment, you can still hear the noise. You can hear it. To give you an idea: we go to the Mass. We went to Mass every Sunday. I don’t know if you know where the church is in Lido Adriano, but it’s far away, viale Manzoni. Well yes…
J: More or less at the town’s outskirts, right when you enter the town.
G: Exactly. You could hear the concert music from there! You left the Mass and listened to the concert. It was shocking. Shocking. So, it was too loud. I don’t know if they do it because in Lido Adriano everyone is old, and therefore they don’t hear anything, but something like this… never seen it before. Another example I can give you is Amarissimo, it has changed owners, and it is the last (Lido) towards Lido di Dante. After it, there is a big free beach, and then there are rocks you can climb and so on. And even that far away, when you’re practically in Lido di Dante, you cloud still hear the music coming from the Amarissimo.
Locals shorten the seaside town of Marina di Ravenna in “Marina”. Marina di Ravenna, of all the secondary towns, is the closest to the primary pole of Ravenna. This condition gives a privilege. Even if there are other named with the adjective marina, it is the only one shortened in this way. Moreover, the subject of “Marina”, has a totally different income from the subject of Lido di Savio, Lido Adriano etc
la musica di quel bagno. E loro sono solo un bagno. Quindi moltiplica tutti i bagni. Non so, non so. Non riesco a spiegarmi.
F: Sì, mia nonna stava a Marina. Io ricordo che ero scioccata dall’idea di mia nonna, che stava lì da sola la notte, è come dici tu, ti senti violato. Perché c’è della gente che ti urla sotto casa, come se fosse in casa tua, e a volte sono aggressivi, è pesante.
G: Pesante, eh?
F: Sì. Altra domanda, immagino per ovvie ragioni, ma per quale motivo non prendevate i mezzi pubblici?
G: Perché in realtà sono carissimi.
F: Passano di rado? Circa un autobus all’ora?
G: Anche qui, per darti un paragone. Il viaggio Redmond - Seattle in autobus, che sono piu’ di mezz’ora, costa tre dollari. Il viaggio Lido Adriano – Ravenna, che sono dieci minuti in autobus, costa due euro e ottanta adesso. È veramente caro, te lo puoi permettere tutti i giorni.
J: No, no.
G: No, ma poi non so come facciano gli altri, avranno tutti la macchina.
J: Ma non pagano. Non pagano! La maggior parte non paga.
F: Oppure hanno gli abbonamenti. Ma perché magari è gente che deve andare a lavorare e ha degli orari.
G: Sì, magari se sono dipendenti e gli viene pagato.
J: O sono anziani sì, ma tanta gente non paga.
G: Giusto, però gli anziani hanno degli
And they are just one of many Lidos. Then add all the other Lidos. I don’t know. I really can’t understand.
F: Yes, my grandmother lived in Marina.19 I remember being shocked by the idea of my grandmother staying there alone at night, it’s like you say, you feel violated. Because people are yelling on your doorstep, as if they were in your house, and sometimes they’re aggressive, it’s tough.
G: Tough, huh?
F.: Yes. Another question, I guess for obvious reasons, but why didn’t you take public transport?
G: Because they are very expensive.
F: How many rides in an hour? About one bus per hour?
G: Again, to give you a comparison. The Redmond - Seattle bus trip, which is over half an hour, costs three dollars. The journey from Lido Adriano – Ravenna, which is ten minutes by bus, costs two euros and eighty now. It’s really expensive, you can’t afford it every day.
J: No, no.
G: No. I don’t know how the other people do it, I guess they all have cars.
J: But they don’t pay. They do not pay! Most don’t pay.
F: Or they have travel cards. Maybe they are people who have to go to work and have schedules.
G: Yes, maybe if they are employees and they get paid.
J: Or they are elderly, yes, but a lot of people don’t pay.
sconti. Esatto, esatto.
J: Che poi quindi ha più senso.
G: Però anche noi, se avessimo fatto l’abbonamento, io ci avevo guardato. Con l’abbonamento risparmiavi comunque dieci euro, e spendevi una una cifra assurda, tipo due-trecento euro. Una roba assurda per dieci minuti di autobus.
F: A livello di socializzazione invece. Immagino che andare in chiesa è qualcosa che bene o male ti costruisce una comunità. Cosa facevate, quali altre attività? Magari cosa voi non facevate direttamente, però avete visto altri fare, se c’ erano. E questa cosa la chiedo più che altro perché, rispetto agli altri lidi, Lido Adriano ha avuto un alto tasso di immigrazione.
J: Dove lavora adesso tuo papà, c’è una chiesa.
G: Sì, sì, c›è una chiesa particolare. Puo› essere rumena?
J: Penso sia una comunità albanese, ortodossa.
F: Essendo Lido Adriano una città balneare, in estate ci sono i luoghi di aggregazione, ma di nuovo, sono solo per i turisti. Se effettivamente ci si raduna insieme fra i “non-turisti”, cosa si fa?
G: Ah, sì sì ok. Ho la risposta: si va al bar.
J: Vai al bar. E dopo un po’ conosci i proprietari.
G: Noi avevamo due bar preferiti, e andavamo lì più o meno tutti i giorni a prenderci un caffè. Sembra
J: Ci sono i bar dove va la gente che abita lì tutto l’anno.
G: Esatto. Esatto.
G: Right, but the elderly people have discounts. Exactly, exactly.
J: Which makes more sense?
G: But then again, if we had gotten travel cards, I had looked it up. With the subscription, you could save like ten euros. And we would have spent an absurd amount of money, like two or three hundred euros. Crazy for a ten-minute bus ride.
F: In terms of socialization. I guess going to church is something that somehow creates community. What did you do, and what other activities? Maybe even something you didn’t do directly, but you have seen others do. And I care about this question since in Lido Adriano, compared to the other Riviera towns, there is a higher number of immigrant communities.20
J: Where your dad works now, there is a church.
G: Yes, yes, there is a certain church. Could it be Romanian?
J: I think it’s an Albanian, Orthodox community.
F: Since Lido Adriano is a seaside town, in the summer there are places where people gather, but again, they are only for tourists. If the “non-tourists” decide to gather together, where would they go?
G: Ah, ok, ok. I have the answer: we go to the bar.
J: Go to the café. And after a while, you get to know the owners.
G: We had two favourite bars, and we went there more or less every day to have a coffee, I guess.
J: There are coffee shops where people
20
In 2021 Lido Adriano population was costituted for the 85,6% by migrants, highly above of the national 8,7%. From AdmnStat Italia, the official survay tool working at a national level on socio-economic information of the territory.
F: Quindi c’è una differenza fra il bar degli abitanti locali e il bar dei turisti.
J: Sì esatto.
G: C’è assolutamente. Ci sono i bar dei locals, dove vanno solo i locals, e che sono due. In più d’estate prendono anche i turisti. Perché non è che Carletto non prenda i turisti. Poi ci sono i bar completamente turistici dove lì un local non andrebbe mai, per esempio quello di sotto.
J: Per esempio quello di sotto a casa nostra.
G: Che poi il nostro di sotto è particolare perché sta aperto tutto l’anno però, tendenzialmente i bar turistici di inverno chiudono. Tipo quello di fronte a casa, il Gloria. Quelli che stanno aperti tutto l’anno tendenzialmente, con alcune eccezioni, tipo quello di sotto, sono per i locals e sì, lì si fa abbastanza comunità. Nel senso che dopo due anni conoscevamo tutti.
J: Sì, ma già se vai lì un paio di volte ad ottobre, dopo un po’, ti chiedono: ma voi abitate qui? Come mai?
G: Però oltre a quello che cavolo faccia la gente, non lo so, nel senso che so che ci sono le scuole, ci sono le elementari, gli asili, adesso costruiranno anche le medie. O sono già partiti i lavori? Non lo so. Quindi sicuramente si creerà un mini-ecosistema. So che fanno il calcio.
J: Ah! Sì sì vero, il gruppo di calcio.
G: Oltre a quello basta. La chiesa è abbastanza una bella parrocchia, sempre bella nutrita rispetto alle altre.
J: L’età media è abbastanza avanzata però eh.
F: Tra l’altro la parrocchia racchiude età media avanzata, oppure ragazzini super
who live there all year would go.
G: Exactly. Exact.
F: So, there is a difference between the locals’ bar and the tourists’ bar.
J: Yes exactly.
G: There absolutely is. There are local bars, where only locals go, and there are two of them. In addition, they also serve tourists in the summer. It’s not like Carletto doesn’t serve tourists. Then there are the main touristic bars where a local would never go, for example, the one below our apartment.
J: For example, the one below our house.
G: But this one it’s a bit different because it’s open all year round, whereas, the tourist bars tend to close in winter. Like the one in front of the house, the Gloria. Those that are open all year round, with some exceptions, such as the one below our house, tend to be for the locals and yes, you can find a community there. I mean that after two years we knew everyone.
J: Yes, but all it takes is going there a couple of times in October, after a while, they will ask you: do you live here? How’s that?
G: But besides what—the hell people does here, I don’t know. I mean, I know that there are schools, there are elementary schools, kindergartens, and now they will also build middle schools. Is the working site already open? I don’t know. So surely a mini-ecosystem will be created. I know they play football.
J: Oh! Yes yes true, the soccer group.
G: But that’s it. The church is quite a nice community, quite big compared to the others.
G: Sì, ma non li vediamo mai. Cioè fanno il catechismo, però lo fanno il sabato e quindi non vanno la domenica. Non li abbiamo mai beccati.
J: Sì, poco, devo dire.
G: Bambini no, pochissimi. Poi ripeto, questo è quello che vediamo noi, poi Lido Adriano è abbastanza grande. Nel senso noi eravamo nel centro. Ma poi c’è tutta la parte che va verso Punta (Marina) che per noi è inesplorata, lì proprio non c’ è niente. Quindi sì questo è quello che ti direi sulla comunità. Non mi viene in mente nient’altro.
F: Grazie. È strano pensarci, perché questo tipo di insediamento urbano, si sono sviluppati sulla base della comunità. Perfino gli hotel erano percepiti in maniera molto piu’ comunitaria.
G: Giusto, giusto. Una volta andavi per anni sempre nello stesso hotel.
F: Esatto. E invece non non credo questo senso di comunità esista più, quantomeno le comunità che sto incontrando, come dite voi, sono oggettivamente avanti con gli anni. Sono persone che, per esempio, si trovano in chiesa insieme. O ci sono i circoli degli anziani.
J: The average age is quite high though.
F: And we could say that the parish consists of old people or super young kids.
G: Yes, but we never see them. That is, they do catechism, but they do it on Saturdays and therefore they don’t go on Sundays. We’ve never caught them.
J: Yes, very rarely, I must say.
G: No children, very few. But then again, this is what we see, Lido Adriano is quite large. I mean we lived in the centre. But then there’s the whole part that goes towards Punta (Marina) which is unexplored for us, there is nothing there. So yeah that’s what I would tell you about the community. Nothing else comes to mind.
F: Thank you. It’s weird when you think about it because these types of urban settlements have developed on a community basis. Even the hotels were perceived in a much more community way.
G: Right, right. You used to go to the same hotel summer after summer.
G: No ma, secondo la mia opinione, non ci sarà mai un riciclo. Non ci sarà mai un cambio generazionale a Lido Adriano, perché invivibile. Quindi tutti quelli che sono lì da quando sono tra virgolette giovani e stanno diventando anziani, ovviamente per mille motivi rimangono. Ma una coppia come noi nel lungo termine non so, non rimarrebbe mai. Perché non è fattibile. Non puoi viverci. È talmente diventato estremo, che poi l’inverno a noi va bene, perché siamo persone tranquille, ma capisco che se uno abbia bisogno di un po’ piu’ di movimento, di inverno è veramente tutto, veramente non c’è
F: Exactly. But I don’t think this sense of community exists anymore. I mean the communities that I’m meeting, as you say, are objectively ageing. They consist of people who, for example, go to church together. Or there are clubs for the elderly.
G: No but, in my opinion, there will never be a turnover. There will never be a generational change in Lido Adriano, because it is unlivable. So, everyone who’s been there since they were, let’s say “young” and are now getting old, obviously for a thousand reasons will stay. But a couple like us in the long term, I don’t know, we would never stay. Because it’s not livable. You can’t live there. It has become so extreme that winter is fine giovani.
niente. Quindi è troppo estremo perché se ci sia qualcuno che dica adesso decido di vivere a Lido Adriano. Ma tutti quelli che ci vivono è perché o hanno già la casa di proprietà, o sono anziani.
J: Ma sono piuttosto seconde case, no?
G: Si, appunto.
J: Sì. Almeno la metà. No, direi, il sessanta percento. Il settanta per cento, sono seconde case. Quindi gente che vedi solo d’estate.
G: Quindi ormai è diventato un parco giochi? Esatto?
J: Sì, è molto estremo. Molto, molto, molto estremo. L’inverno non c’ è nessuno. D’estate…
G: Tutti, tutti, tutti. Poi l’estate del 2020 fu ancora peggio. Perché col fatto che c’era il covid non si poteva viaggiare, non si potevano prendere voli.
J: Sì, quindi la Riviera è proprio esplosa, fastidioso.
G: Conoscete altre persone che erano più o meno simili a voi? Nel senso ragazzi giovani che…
J: No, no, no.
F: Gli unici.
J: Sì purtroppo.
G: È impossibile. No, no, no.
J: No.
G: No, no. Poi anche qui, il concetto di giovane, noi siamo under 30, pare che tu sia giovane anche se hai quarant’anni, secondo me a quarant’anni cominci gia’ ad avere una prospettiva diversa. Però ecco effettivamente, ora che mi ci fai pensare,
for us because we are calm people, but I understand that if one needs a little more leisure…winter is really—there is nothing. So, it’s too extreme for anyone to say: “Okay, I’m moving to Lido Adriano”. Everyone lives there either because they already own a house or are elderly.
J: But they usually are vacation homes, aren’t they?
G: Yes, exactly.
J: Yes. At least half. No, I would say, sixty per cent. Seventy per cent are second homes. So, there are people you only see in the summer.
G: So, it’s now become something like an amusement park? Right?
J: Yes, it’s very extreme. Very, very, very extreme. There is no one during winter. In the summertime…
G: Everyone, everyone, everyone. And the summer of 2020 was even worse. Because given the fact that there was covid, you couldn’t travel, and you couldn’t take flights.
J: Yeah, so the Riviera just blew up, annoying.
G: Do you know other people who were more or less in a similar situation? I mean young people who…
J: No, no, no.
F: The only ones.
J: Yes, unfortunately.
G: It’s impossible. No, no, no.
G.: No, no. Then again, the concept of young people. We are under 30, but it seems like you are considered young even if you are in your forties. In my opinion,
spesso mi dicevano, per esempio, sempre nei confronti dei proprietari di sotto: ah ma loro sono giovani! Ma in realtà hanno quarant’anni, giovani parzialmente. Nel senso cosa intendiamo, se intendiamo ventenni, c’eravamo solo noi. Se intendiamo quarantenni, quelli che c’erano, avevano trenta, quarant’anni, ed erano solo i proprietari degli stabilimenti, nel senso delle attività. E ancora ancora, nel senso che poi dipende, non tutti, anche se tantissimi, appunto.
F: E poi non tutti vivevano a Lido Adriano immagino.
G: Vero. E poi tantissimi stabilimenti o comunque attività, sono familiari. Quindi magari, c’è il ventenne, però è perché c’è la mamma, che ha sessant’anni, e che lo stabilimento è suo, perché anche qui c’è tutta una roba brutta degli stabilimenti che in Riviera sono di tua proprietà per cent’anni, perché in realtà dovrebbero fare i concorsi ogni tot, e non so perché, a Lido Adriano, proprio tutta Lido Adriano, perché poi da da Punta Marina cambia la regola, ce l’ha spiegato non mi ricordo chi st’estate.
J: Daniele.
G: Giusto, Daniele ecco. Che gli stabilimenti sono in affidamento per novantanove anni, quindi è chiaro che, è tuo. E ci fai quello che ti pare, perché se invece è appunto, per esempio a Marina, lo fanno spesso, ogni cinque anni cambiano, e non è che cambiano perché hanno fallito. Cambiano perché devono cambiare, perché è un’attività molto lucrativa. Sì, molto stai benissimo con un bagno d’estate, e giustamente vogliono dare l’opportunità a tutti di farsi questa esperienza di insomma, a meno che tu non lo compri, ma comprartelo costa milioni a Punta, o a Marina.
F: In realtà nella maggior parte dei casi non è neanche possibile, in realtà.
when you are in your forties you already have a slightly different perspective on life. But, now that you mention it, they often told me, for example, about the owners downstairs: ah, but they’re young! But actually, they are forty years old: partially young. When it comes to what we mean, if we’re talking about twenty-somethings, it was just us. If consider forty-year-olds as well: there were thirty, forty years old, and they were the owners of the businesses, I mean the Lidos. But then again, not everyone, but many.
F: And not everyone lives in Lido Adriano, I guess.
G: True. And then many establishments or activities, are family-run. So maybe, there’s the twenty-year-old, but it’s because there’s the mother as well, who’s sixty, and the Lido is hers, because here too there’s all that tricky stuff about the Lidos, in Riviera, you own a Lido for a hundred years, but, there should be a turnover every few years, and I don’t know why, but in Lido Adriano, all of Lido Adriano—because then from Punta Marina the law is different, I don’t remember who explained it to us, this property.
G: Daniele.
G: Right, Daniele. He told us that the Lidos are in owned for ninety-nine years, so it’s clear that it’s yours. And you do what you want with it. Whereas for example in Marina, they do it often, they change (ownership) every five years, and it’s not that they change because they failed. They change because they have to change. After all, it’s a very lucrative business. Yes, you can live very well by running a Lido in the summer, and they rightly want to allow everyone to live this experience. You can buy it (the Lido), but buying it costs millions in Punta, or in Marina.
G: Esatto, non si può sempre fare. E quindi niente per cui giovani, io non li ho visti. Non ci sono neanche più tante famiglie, in realtà.
J: Ma sì, più migranti, muratori
F: Invece avete mai avuto a che fare con i lavoratori stagionali? Cioè quelle persone che non sono i proprietari, e quindi si ritrovano per esempio a Lido Adriano solo per la stagione, perché stanno lavorando.
G: Io sì. A un certo punto ho incontrato tramite dei giri strani una ragazza che aveva fatto la stagione. Se non sbaglio a Lido di Dante l’hanno presidente, lei lavorava in una piadineria, mentre quest’anno, quindi quando io le ho parlato quest’estate, non la non la faceva più e le ho chiesto: perché non la fai più? E lei ha detto perché è un assolutamente un mezzo schiavismo, cioè se io devo lavorare quindici ore al giorno per prendermi neanche mille euro al mese e ringraziare, preferisco stare a casa, risparmiarmi i soldi durante l’anno, e bo si’ i ci sono e anche qui mega discussione sul fatto che non troviamo nessuno e non troviamo nessuno. Non troviamo nessuno e in Italia non vogliono lavorare. No. Allora non trovate nessuno perché date degli stipendi che sono ridicoli. Io il lavoro in riviera l’ho fatto, e mi ricordo, è pesissimo, è da morire. Quindi un conto è, non trovi nessuno nonostante la remunerazione, il contratto, i contributi, e allora possiamo parlarne, ma non offrono quello, spessissimo offrono degli stipendi da fame, se fortunato se hai il contratto. E quindi è chiaro che non trovi nessuno. Io sono a sfavore di questa dinamica, perché devono smetterla di avere chi lavora praticamente a gratis, perché io non conosco nessuno che avesse dei contratti.
J: Tutti cercavano personale questa estate.
G: Sì, però nessuno voleva dare contratti. Quindi non trovano per l’estate. Prima di
F: in most cases, it’s not even possible.
G: Exactly, it can’t always be done. And so, nothing for young people, I have not seen them. There aren’t even that many families anymore.
J: Yes, more migrants, bricklayers.
F: And have you ever had to deal with seasonal workers? I mean those who are not the owners, and therefore come to Lido Adriano only for the season, because they are working.
G: I have. I met this girl, through mutual acquaintances, who was a seasonal worker. If I’m not mistaken the previous year, she worked in a piadineria 21 in Lido Adriano, while this year, when I met her, she wasn’t doing it anymore and I asked her: why don’t you do it anymore? And she said it because it’s something like slavery. I mean if I have to work fifteen hours a day to earn not even a thousand euros a month and be thankful about it, I prefer to stay at home and save my money during the year. And this too, there is this huge complaint from the owners who say: “We can’t find anyone, we can’t find anyone. We can’t find anyone, in Italy people don’t want to work.” No. You can’t find anyone because you pay ridiculous salaries. I did the work in Riviera, and I remember how it is, it’s very heavy, and it’s to die for. So, one thing is if you can’t find anyone despite offering a good salary, a contract, and benefits… then we can talk about it. But often they aren’t offering that, very often they offer minimum wage and you’re lucky if they offer you a contract. Then of course you won’t find anyone to take the job. I am against this dynamic because they can’t have employees who work practically for free. I don’t know anyone who had regular contracts.
J: Everyone was looking for staff for this summer.
andarci a vivere con la pandemia pensavo poverini, poverini, come faranno, come faranno? Ma va là, stanno benissimo, specialmente i bagni, i bagni sono proprio sereni. Quindi non capisco neanche tutta questa attenzione, questa cura nel proteggerli, perché sono attività a trecentosessanta gradi. Secondo me sta meglio un bagno a Lido Adriano, che un ristorante al centro di Ravenna.
F: Mi interessa questa idea, che fra l’altro è molto italiana, di come viene privatizzata in una certa maniera la spiaggia. Legalmente possiamo camminare all’interno di uno stabilimento balneare. Non c’ è niente che lo impedisca. Però effettivamente se non affitti l’ombrellone, non senti di poterlo fare, e questo concetto in effetti è una cosa che succede così tanto o quantomeno non in uno spazio costiero così tanto esteso come da noi, da noi è proprio una distesa. Il concetto di stabilimento balneare è un concetto della riviera. Non è traducibile con “cabanas”.
G: Anche tra l’altro proprio in Italia, non è diffuso ovunque. Se vai in Puglia ne trovi molti meno per esempio.
F: No, ma infatti ho mappato tutte le coste d’Italia. E in realtà succede da noi in Romagna, in Toscana che alla stessa altezza dall’altra parte, un po’ in Lazio, e in Liguria, ma in realtà anche la costa è diversa, con una spiaggia diversa, meno continuativa. Ultima domanda, se ci fosse stata un’altra situazione in cui avreste potuto effettivamente fare comunità con altre persone, magari della vostra età, o quantomeno più in linea con voi, sarebbe potuto essere un qualcosa di positivo per tutto il paese?
G: Vai tu?
J: Non ho capito.
G: Tipo uno spazio in cui conoscere persone.
G: Yes, but nobody wanted to offer regular contracts. So, they can’t find people for the summer. Before moving to Lido Adriano, because of the pandemic, we would worry for those people: poor things, poor things, how will they do, how will they do? Nonsense. They’re doing just fine. Especially the Lidos, the Lidos are fine. So, I don’t understand all this attention, this care in protecting them, because they are all-round businesses. I think a Lido in Lido Adriano is recovering much better from the pandemic than a restaurant in the centre of Ravenna.
F: I’m interested in this idea, that’s, let’s say it, extremely Italian: the beach is somehow privatized. We can legally walk inside a Lido. Nothing is stopping you. But if you don’t rent an umbrella, you don’t feel like you can do it. And this concept is something that, to this extent…. The concept of stabilimento balneare is a concept of the Riviera. It cannot be translated as “cabanas”.
G: Besides even in Italy it is not widespread everywhere. If you go to Puglia you will find much less, for example.
F: Exactly, I have mapped all the coasts of Italy. And actually, it happens here in Romagna, in Tuscany and at the same height on the other side, a little in Lazio, and in Liguria. But in fact, the coast is also different, with a different, less continuous beach. Last question, if there had been another situation in which you could have made community with other people, perhaps of your age, or at least more kindred, could it have been something positive for the whole town?
G: You go first?
J: I didn’t understand.
G: Like a space to meet people.
J: Sì, ma non so se funzionerebbe. Guardando all’età media…
G: No, ma lei dice se ci fosse un’età media più vicina alla nostra.
J: Ahhh ok ok. Sì, sì, perché?
F: Perché il punto che avevate fatto, ovvero che vi siete spostati dalla città primaria per risparmiare, mi fa pensare che soprattutto per qualcuno che ha un salario modesto, la possibilità di lavorare smart working da un paese della Riviera come ad esempio Lido Adriano, non è affatto sciocca. E ci sono tantissimi luoghi abbandonati, per esempio le ex colonie sono degli edifici enormi che non vengono utilizzati. Se effettivamente si prende la decisione di vivere in una di queste cittadine, quali spazi non esistono per aggregazione o semplicemente per lavorare insieme?
G: Sì, è per me sono una necessità e può può essere una cosa carina, l’unica cosa che non c’è proprio, secondo me, e deve esserci, a un certo punto, è una filosofia di crescita. Perché Lido Adriano nessuno vuole renderla vivibile. Si vuole rimanere in questo limbo estremo. Se invece, come dici tu che è una bella idea, ci sono dei luoghi sempre in Riviera, che però sono praticamente disabitati, e la filosofia è riprendiamolo, ripopoliamolo, riproponiamolo in maniera sostenibile. Allora io sarei stata certamente interessata, ma tanto. Perché il risparmio, poi noi abbiamo risparmiato tanto proprio perché a un certo punto non pagavamo l’affitto. Quindi tutti quei soldi erano risparmiati. Ma volendo affittare a Lido Adriano, comunque dovevi fare dei compromessi, perché, cioè non è che fosse gratis. Trovare un appartamento normale, non da ristrutturare, con tre stanze, per una famiglia, potevi benissimo spendere sui sei settecento euro.
J: E d’estate 2000.
J: Yes, but I don’t know if it would work. Looking at the average age…
G: No, but let’s say there was an average age closer to ours.
J: Ahhh okay okay. Yes, yes, why?
F: Because the point that you made, that you moved from the bigger city to save money, makes me think that especially for someone who has a small salary, the possibility of smart working from a town on the Riviera such as Lido Adriano, it’s not silly at all. And there are many abandoned places, for example, the former colonies are huge buildings that are not used. If you decide to live in one of these towns, what do you think are such spaces are needed for aggregation or simply for working together?
G: Yes, it’s a necessity for me and it can be a nice thing, the only thing that isn’t there, in my opinion, and there must be, at some point, is a growth philosophy. But no one wants to make Lido Adriano livable. They want to stay in this limbo of extremes. But what you say it’s a nice idea, there are still places in the Riviera, which are practically uninhabited, and the philosophy is let’s take it back, repopulate it, and propose it again in a sustainable way. Then I would certainly have been interested, really much so. You could save money that way. Then again, we have saved a lot of money because we didn’t pay rent at some point. So, all that money was saved. But if you wanted to rent in Lido Adriano, you still had to make compromises, because, that is, it wasn’t free. Finding a normal apartment, not to be renovated, with three rooms, for a family, you could very well have spent around six-seven hundred euros.
J: 2000 euros a month during summer.
G: And I mean in Faenza my brother spent five hundred. We have saved a lot.
G: Che voglio dire a Faenza mio fratello ne spendeva cinquecento. Noi abbiamo risparmiato particolarmente. Chiaro che costa meno di milano, quello ovvio. Però ci sono delle cose da considerare se invece ci fossero delle zone completamente disabitate in Riviera da riabilitare, a me sarebbe piaciuto. Comunque si sta bene, non è una brutta vita, poi io sono fan dell’Italia, secondo me si vive abbastanza bene in termini di qualità della vita. Ma ci sono tante cose che non funzionano. Lido Adriano in particolare secondo me nessuno vuole che tu ci viva, cioè non si vuole creare una comunità, è un parco giochi, e non penso migliorerà.
Of course, it costs less than Milan, that goes without saying. But there are some interesting things to consider if there were completely uninhabited areas in the Riviera to be rehabilitated, I would have liked it. In any case, it’s good, it’s not a bad life, then I’m a fan of Italy, in my opinion, you live quite well in terms of quality of life. But there are so many things that don’t work. Lido Adriano in particular, in my opinion, nobody wants you to live there, that is, you don’t want to create a community, it’s an amusement park, and I don’t think it will improve.
F indicates Fiorenza, the interviewer, while R indicates Roberta, and S Stefano, the interviewed couple
Forese is an adjective that means rural, agricultural, not urban. But in the Emilia-Romagna region, the term has assumed the character of a specific location, in a semantic process similar to the term Riviera
BENINI / FRAIESE FAMILY CASTIGLIONE DI CERVIA
F: dove vivete, e da quanto?
R: Allora, noi viviamo a Castiglione di Cervia, che è un piccolo paesino nel forese, cioè oltre alle saline… Al di là di Cervia, passi le saline e arrivi a Castiglione. È un piccolo paesino dove c’ è un po’ tutto, è un po› nel formato di un paese, l’abbiamo scelto proprio per questo.
S: Da vent’anni
R: Da vent’anni perché poi i bimbi, pista ciclabile, scuole vicine, eccetera: era abitabile. Però noi siamo nati a Cervia. Io a duecento metri dal mare…
S: Io a quattrocento
R: Poco distanti, abitavamo poco distanti
S: Insomma già una situazione di privilegio, duecento contro quattrocento metri…
R: No, era casuale, era casuale, casuale
S: Era casuale però era un privilegio
R: Era un privilegio però non lo sapevamo. Infatti, non abitiamo più lì perché era un privilegio fittizio. Lui magari no. Però io ero in affitto con la mia famiglia…
S: c’è anche una discrepanza di nove anni fra di noi
F: where do you live, and for how long?
R: So, we live in Castiglione di Cervia, which is a small village in the Forese 22 area, that is, beyond the salt pans… Beyond Cervia, you pass the salt pans and you arrive in Castiglione. It’s a small village where there’s a bit of everything, it’s a bit like a village, that’s exactly why we chose it
S: For twenty years
R: For twenty years because you know the children, cycle path, nearby schools, etc.: it was more livable. But we were born in Cervia. Me two hundred meters from the sea…
S: Me four hundred
R: Not far away, we lived not far away
S: In short, already a privileged situation, two hundred against four hundred meters…
R: No, it was random, it was random, random
S: It was random but it was a privilege
R: It was a privilege but we didn’t know it. In fact, we no longer live there because it was a fictitious privilege. Maybe not him. But I was renting with my family…
Subject: There is also a nine-year dis-
R: Però diciamo che noi affittavamo ai bagnanti durante l’estate, e quindi noi andavamo in garage. Lasciavamo la nostra casa ai bagnanti che venivano tutti gli anni. Ormai li conoscevamo come parenti, erano sempre gli stessi
R: E quando ci siamo trasferiti qua, abbiamo scelto Castiglione, appunto, perché ci era sembrato… anche per una questione economica…
S: Abbiamo trovato la casa giusta
R: Esatto perché prima eravamo a Pinarella, ci eravamo trasferiti in casa mia. Però eravamo in cinquantasette metri quadrati con due bambini e due gatti e due lavori, tutto lì dentro. Abbiamo trovato questa casa a Castiglione, ce l’ha presentata un nostro amico geometra, tutta da sistemare. E abbiamo scelto questa
F: Voi ai tempi quando stavate a Pinarella facevate già gli artisti? Gli Artigiani?
R: Diciamo di si…
S: Sì artisti relativamente, perché lei faceva il grafico
R: Io ho sempre fatto il grafico per trentacinque anni, poi tante altre cose… però diciamo che quello era il principale
S: Poi più che altro io non mi sono mai sentito artista…
F: Artigiano
S: Artigiano con della gente che diceva “vieni a fare le mostre, sei un artista”. Idem per lei chiaramente. Però per me l’artista è qualcosa di più vago, di più ideale
R: Forse di meno concreto, anche se in realtà gli artisti fanno… campano di quello insomma
crepancy between us
R: But let’s say that we rented to bathers during the summer, therefore we were staying in the garage. We were used to leaving our house to the bathers who came every year. By now we knew them as relatives, they were always the same
R: And when we moved here, we chose Castiglione, precisely, because it seemed to us... also for an economic matter...
S: We have found the right house
R: Exactly because we were in Pinarella before, we had moved into my house. But we were in fifty-seven square meters with two children, two cats, and two jobs. We found this house in Castiglione, a surveyor friend of ours presented it to us, all to be fixed up. And we chose this one
F: At the time when you were at Pinarella, were you already artists? Or Artisans?
R: Let’s say yes…
S: Yes relatively artists, because you were a graphic designer
R: I’ve always been a graphic designer for thirty-five years, then many other things... but let’s say that that was the main one
S: Besides, more than anything else, I’ve never felt like an artist...
F: Artisan
S: Artisan with people saying “Come and do exhibitions, you’re an artist”. Ditto for her of course. But for me, the artist is something vague, more idealised
R: Perhaps less concrete, even if in reality the artists do… they are based on
S: C’è della concretezza ma non… però noi… Io non ho mai pensato di avere molto da dire agli altri da quel punto di vista lì, oppure di dirlo in quel modo lì. Appunto io ho voglia fare delle cose
F: forse è quasi più uno sfogo personale, più che per definire l’arte nel mondo
R: Si… intanto comunque devi portare a casa i soldi per campare. Gli artisti che riescono a vivere di arte hanno fatto un bel percorso, hanno fatto le loro scelte, si sono preso i loro rischi e hanno avuto i loro riconoscimenti anche da quel punto di vista lì. Questi sono gli artisti, poi ci sono gli artisti poveri che magari non hanno mai avuto questo riconoscimento. Magari non sono neanche riconosciuti. Sono in tanti…
R: Però alla fine noi diciamo che non siamo artisti, però abbiamo cambiato tante volte modo di fare arte. Quello che abbiamo fatto sono state tante sculture, tanti oggetti tra cui lampade, varie cose, portacandele, tanti collage, tanti pannelli, tante foto e tanti vestiti…
S: L’area è quella tra l’artigianato il design
R: Eh esatto, il decorativo
S: L’oggetto di design, l’oggetto decorativo che va verso un certo stile… uno lo può anche confondere o identificare o sovrapporre all’arte. Se fai un pezzo solo…
R: Esatto sì, però anche riproducibilità ce n’è poca, nel senso che… anche i collage che abbiamo fatto magari pezzi diversi, poi dopo magari replicavamo quelli che ci chiedevano. Un filo di ferro - anche lì, alla fine erano comunque tutti i pezzi unici, perché una volta pieghi il ferro in un mondo, la volta dopo in un altro.
S: Non c’è mai una macchina ecco…
that, in short
S: There is some concreteness but not... but we... I never thought I had much to say to others from that point of view or to say it in that way. Well, I want to do things
F: perhaps it’s almost more of a personal statement than to define art in the world
R: Yes… in the meantime, however, you have to bring home the money to live. The artists who manage to make a living from art have made a good journey, they have made their choices, they have taken their risks and they have had their recognition even from that point of view. These are the artists, then there are the poor artists who may never have received this recognition. They may not even be recognized. There are many…
R: But in the end, we say that we are not artists, but we have changed our way of making art many times. What we did were many sculptures, many objects including lamps, various things, candle holders, many collages, many panels, many photos and many clothes…
S: The area is the one between craftsmanship and design
R: Oh exactly, the decorative
S: The design object, the decorative object that goes towards a certain style… one can also confuse or identify or superimpose it on art. If you make one piece…
R: Exactly, yes, but there is also little reproducibility, in the sense that… even the collages we made maybe different pieces, then later maybe we replicated those who asked us. An iron wire - even there, in the end, they were all unique pieces anyway, because once you bend
R: Esatto, io vestiti ne ho fatti non so quanti uno diverso dall’altro. La ceramica è sempre diversa. Le borse, perché chiaramente per avere uno standard di vendibilità è giusto che sia così. Però comunque c’è una certa capacità e un certo occhio per un’estetica particolare… dipende da nel settore
S: Bisogna dire che sono le proporzioni che fanno il design
F: Ma invece quando vi siete trasferiti in una casa più grande immagino sia stato un po’ a causa di entrambe le cose: il fatto che c’erano i bimbi e immagino anche il fatto di avere la possibilità di avere il laboratorio a casa
R: Assolutamente si
S: L’idea era una casa-laboratorio. Lo slogan era: “questa casa si deve pagare da sola”, nel senso che deve essere anche l’ambiente di produzione
R: Si, non potevamo prendere altri locali in affitto. Infatti, il nostro portico ogni tanto era preso d’assalto da legno, ferro, pennelli, cose varie
S: Dentro quella casa sono state costruite cose che veramente… da mobili di arredo per chi ce li commissionava…
R: Allestimenti…
S: Non era falegnameria, eh. Perché mio padre, che era falegname, dicevo sempre con lei, “se mi vedesse lavorare così mi darebbe le botte”…
R: Ma anche mia nonna che era sarta mi darebbe le botte
S: Però alla fine sono venuti fuori degli oggetti che hanno arredato dall’ufficio del turismo di Cervia, alla rocca di Riolo Terme. Dei bagni al mare, delle sedute, tavoli, scrivanie, armadi. Un po’ di tutto
iron in one world, the next time in another
S: There’s never a machine here...
R: Exactly, I have made I don’t know how many clothes, one different from the other. Ceramics are always different. The bags, because clearly to have a standard of saleability it should be like this. But in any case, there is a certain ability and a certain eye for a particular aesthetic… it depends on the sector
S: It must be said that proportions make design
F: But instead when you moved to a bigger house I imagine it was a bit due to both things: the fact that there were the children and I imagine also the possibility of having the laboratory at home
R: Absolutely yes
S: The idea was a house workshop. The slogan was: “This house must pay for itself”, in the sense that it must also be the environment of the production
R: Yes, we couldn’t rent other premises. In fact, our porch was occasionally besieged by wood, iron, brushes, various things
S: Inside that house, things were built that really… from furniture for those who commissioned them…
R: Arrangements for exhibitions…
S: It wasn’t carpentry, huh. Because my father, who was a carpenter, I always said to her, “If he saw me working like this, he’d beat me”...
R: But even my grandmother who was a seamstress would beat me
S: But in the end, some objects came out, they furnished even the Cervia
The “Casa Colonica Romagnola” is a type of rural, agricultural house, built in the open countryside, where those who lived and worked there were not the owner but the “colonist”. The term Colonial farmhouse derives then from the act of settling the land
F: Quando avete trovato la casa avevate già un’idea, come sarebbe stata o…?
S: Dunque, ci siamo inciampati in quella casa lì… perché noi avevamo, cercavamo un terreno in realtà, dove costruire una casa della quale avevamo un disegno. Doveva essere costruita poi con dei criteri particolari di edilizia, un misto fra acciaio, mattone e vetro, eccetera. Era compresa una serra interna. Un progetto interessante. Andammo a vedere questo terreno. Però in realtà su questo terreno c’era edificata una vecchia casa colonica romagnola, datata probabilmente alla fine ottocento. Non dicono milleottocento settanta perché non era accatastata…
R: Con dei pezzi originali, pavimenti, camino
S: Pavimenti di cotto, volte nel soffitto, una stalla. E stava crollando. Letteralmente un angolo della casa era staccato. Sopra una parte del tetto del portico era caduto un albero, quindi era sfondato. Acqua cadeva da tutte le parti… Noi siamo entrati un giorno di pioggia lì dentro e abbiamo pensato a come trasformarla, e abbiamo deciso di prenderla. Abbiamo messo da parte l’altro progetto. È abbiamo preso questo qua
R: Abbiamo fatto un restauro conservativo, quindi non abbiamo cambiato tanto. Abbiamo fatto delle modifiche, però abbiamo tenuto più che potevamo quello che c’era della casa. Anche perché non è che avevamo tutti questi soldi. E poi anche perché abbiamo dato priorità ai lavori importanti. Quindi le fondamenta, perché non ce la aveva… oltre a non essere accatastata non aveva le fondamenta. Abbiamo fatto il tetto…
S: Alcuni mattoni erano a crudo, pezzi di pietra messi in mezzo… La casa non è in squadro, non è in squadro
tourism office, at the fortress of Riolo Terme. Cabanas, seating, tables, desks, wardrobes. A little bit of everything
F: When you found the house, did you already have an idea, of what it would be like or…?
S: Well, we stumbled upon that house there... because we had, we were actually looking for land, where to build a house of which we had a drawing. It had to be built with particular building criteria, a mix of steel, brick and glass, etc. An internal greenhouse was included. An interesting project. We went to see this land. However, in reality, an old farmhouse 23 was built on this land, probably dating back to the end of the 19th century. They don’t say eighteen hundred and seventy because it wasn’t registered…
R: With some original pieces, floors, fireplace
S: Terracotta floors, vaulted ceilings, a barn. And it was collapsing. Literally, one corner of the house was detached and partially collapsed. A tree had fallen over part of the roof of the porch, so it had caved in. Water was falling from all sides… We went in there one rainy day and thought about how to transform it, and we decided to take it. We put the other project aside. And we got it
R: We did a conservative restoration, so we haven’t changed much. We made some changes, but we kept what was of the house as much as we could. Also because it’s not like we had all this money. And then also because we have given priority to important jobs. So the foundations, because it didn’t have it... besides not being stacked up, it didn’t have the foundations. We made the roof…
S: Some bricks were raw, pieces of stone placed in between... The house is not
R: Per terra, nella strada ci sono i sassi del fiume. E poi la stalla era stata tagliata… Era una stalla con delle volte meravigliose e delle colonne bellissime, era stata tagliata perché ci doveva passare il vicino di casa col camion. Insomma, è stato un lavoro notevole!
S: Per le fondamenta sono andati da sotto, hanno proprio scavato trincee, una interna ed una esterna. Poi sotto collegate con dei i pilastri, secondo la norma antisismica
R: Poi però abbiamo recuperato quello che potevamo: il cocciopesto fuori… abbiamo cercato di riutilizzare per quanto abbiamo potuto
S: I pavimenti che mancavano li abbiamo presi da delle demolizioni di case coloniche…
R: la calce italiana… abbiamo usato le pitture a calce
F: Un architetto ha seguito il progetto?
R: No…
F: Solo il geometra
S: No ma il disegno aveva delle modifiche che comunque ho fatto io. Sono agronomo, ma prima ho fatto la scuola per geometri, quindi un po’ di disegno… la distribuzione l’abbiamo guardata insieme
R: Per raddrizzare un muro storto…
S: Si, abbiam guardato per ottenere degli spazi, la cabina armadio, il solaio
R: Ce lo siamo fatti da soli
S: Volevamo sfruttare al massimo gli spazi, perché poi la casa non è enorme, non è quelle case coloniche gigantesche…
squared, it is not squared!
R: On the ground, on the road, there are stones from the river. And then the barn had been cut… It was a barn with wonderful vaults and beautiful columns, it had been cut because the neighbour had to pass by with the truck. But all in all, it was a remarkable job!
S: For the foundations they went from underneath, they just dug trenches, one inside and one outside. Then underneath connected with the pillars, according to the anti-seismic standard
R: But then we recovered what we could: the cocciopesto outside… we tried to reuse it as much as we could
S: We took the missing floors from the demolition of farmhouses…
R: Italian lime… we used lime paints
F: Did an architect follow the project?
R: No…
F: Only the surveyor
S: The drawing had some modifications that I made anyway. I’m an agronomist, but first I went to school for surveyors, so I did some drawing... we looked at the distribution together
R: To straighten a crooked wall…
S: Yes, we looked to get some space, the walk-in closet, the attic
R: We made it ourselves
S: We wanted to make the most of the space, because then the house isn’t huge, it’s not those gigantic farmhouses...
R: It has many small rooms
R: Ha tante stanze piccole
S: Però in tutto, compreso il portico sono centosessanta metri quadri…
R: Però manca qualcosa di esterno, manca un magazzino, o un garage…
F: Si, è vero
S: Si anche il bassocomodo, il capannone, ce li avevano tutte le case di questa tipologia…
F: In realtà è una questione di cosa avete preferito. Perché potenzialmente quello spazio a veranda che avete davanti poteva essere un garage... Però è molto più importante per voi avere quello spazio…
R: Adesso è una serra praticamente, è pieno di piante, ed è bellissimo
S: Però è interno… Un capanno fuori che volendo si potrebbe fare, ci sarebbe lo spazio per poterlo fare. Secondo il piano regolatore potremmo costruire un’altra casa come quella dichiarata... però ci piace il giardino, per le feste
F: Per me tutta questa storia è affascinante ovviamente per il fatto dell’artigianato e dell’arte… ma anche perché in un certo modo siete andati contro un sistema, ovvero quello di prendere il massimo possibile dalla speculazione…
R: Certo
S: Si non ci abbiamo mai pensato minimamente. Lì di fianco, c’è un lotto con la stessa quantità di metri cubi… ci hanno costruito una palazzina con sei appartamenti. No, cinque appartamenti grandi. A noi hanno detto: “non tenete questa casa, buttate giù, poi fate appartamenti, uno ve lo tenete per voi, le altre quattro le vendete.” Ma noi non volevamo
S: But in all, including the porch, it’s one hundred and sixty square meters...
R: But something external is missing like a warehouse or a garage is missing…
F: Yes, that’s true
S: Yes, even a shed, all houses of this type had them...
F: It’s actually a question of what you preferred. Because that veranda space in front of you could potentially be a garage... But it’s much more important for you to have that space...
R: Now it’s basically a greenhouse, it’s full of plants, and it’s beautiful
S: But it’s inside... An outside shed could be built if one wanted to, there would be space to be able to do it. According to the master plan, we could build another house like the one declared... but we like the garden, for parties
F: For me this whole story is obviously fascinating because of the craftsmanship and art… but also because in a certain way, you went against a system, that is the one of building speculation…
R: Sure
S: Yes, we never thought about it at all. Next to it, there is a lot with the same amount of cubic meters… they built a building with six apartments. No, five large apartments sorry. They told us: “Don’t keep this house, tear it down, then build apartments, you’ll keep one for yourself, sell the other four.” But we didn’t want to
R: The idea could also be good, to keep a house with a garden. Because, among other things, whoever sold it to us, the
R: L’idea poteva anche essere buona, tenersi una casa con il giardino. Perché tra l’altro chi ce l’ha venduta, il vicino di casa, ci ha lasciato il terreno agricolo perché così lui ha tirato dritto verso casa sua, ci ha dato qualche metro in più
S: Ci siamo trovati con novecento metri quadrati di giardino
R: Ci sono anche le galline
F: È come se aveste deciso voi le vostre regole
R: Eh si
S: Si, come vuoi chiamarle? Le nostre priorità. Magari è una stupidaggine però…
F: No, secondo me è quella la parte che è più difficile da trovare in altre realtà
R: Allora adesso dico una cosa: qui a Castiglione ci sono stati un marito e una moglie che hanno deciso di non sfruttare un terreno che gli avrebbe sfruttato tipo un milione…
S: No, no, di più: due milioni e mezzo di euro. Gli avevano dato un’edificabilità di… In pratica su un ettaro e mezzo, quindi quindicimila metri quadrati, gli avevo dato edificabili duemilaquattrocento metri quadri. Quindi veniva una bella fila di villette a schiera. Questi signori abitavano in una casa in viale Gazzena, dall’altra parte c’era il loro terreno. La signora ogni mattina apriva la finestra e diceva però sarebbe bello fare un giardino qui davanti. Poi questa signora è venuta a mancare e il marito ha detto: “Bene basta, qui facciamo il giardino.”
R: E hanno fatto un parco pubblico
S: Lo hanno donato alla comunità. Hanno degli eredi, i figli che potevano mettersi in tasca i due milioni e mezzo
neighbour, left us the agricultural land because in this way he drove straight towards his house, giving us a few more meters
S: We ended up with nine hundred square meters of garden
R: There are also chickens
F: It’s like you set your own rules
R: Oh yes
S: Yes, what do you want to call them? Our priorities. Maybe it’s silly but...
F: No, in my opinion, that’s the part that is more difficult to find in other realities
R: So now I’ll say one thing: here in Castiglione there were a husband and wife who decided to not exploit a piece of land that would have made them like a million...
S: No, no, more: two and a half million euros. They had given it a buildability of… Basically on one and a half hectares, therefore fifteen thousand square meters, they had given two thousand four hundred square meters of building land. It could have come a nice row of terraced houses. These gentlemen lived in a house in Viale Gazzena, and on the other side was their land. The lady opened the window every morning and said, however, it would be nice to make a garden out front. Then this lady passed away and her husband said: “Well, that’s enough, let’s do the garden here.”
R: And they made a public park
S: They donated it to the community. They have heirs and children who could pocket the two and a half million euros. Understood? So there are, there are
di euro. Capito? Quindi ci sono, tutto sommato, ci sono delle persone che guardano anche a queste cose. Anche il nostro lusso… non è che avessimo così tanti soldi che potevamo permetterci di tenerci la casa singola e non andare a spartire. Non potevamo. Abbiamo tanti soldi?
R: Direi di no
S: Non mi sembra
R: Abbiamo comprato il negozio, l’anno scorso, e abbiamo fatto il mutuo per il negozio
F: Prima lo affittavate?
R: Si
S: E invece due anni prima avevamo fatto il mutuo per pagare le tasse per il COVID… Vedi quando stai chiuso però le tasse le devi pagare comunque
F: Si, anche mia madre con la merceria…
R: Tanto questo lavoro è così… ti puoi permettere di dire: “questa mattina io sto a casa e faccio altre cose e va in negozio lui”. Posso permettermi determinati orari, dopo però chiaramente tutto per tutto quello che fai sei dipendente… noi anziché ricevere la tredicesima dobbiamo pagare in anticipo le tasse
F: Mentre invece la scelta del laboratorio ovviamente è stata perché dà più libertà, immagino
R: Perché in casa non potevamo lavorare… Hai sempre bisogno di committenza esterne, non puoi essere indipendente nella vendita, hai bisogno di qualcuno che venga da te. E un’amica ci ha chiesto se questo negozio ci interessava, abbiamo fatto una prova… abbiamo iniziato, senza borse. Quindi facevamo
some people who look at these things as well. Even our luxury... it’s not like we had so much money that we could afford to keep the single house and not go to share. We could not. Do we have a lot of money?
R: I would say no
S: I don’t think so
R: We bought the store last year and took out the mortgage on the store
F: Did you rent it before?
R: Yes
S: And instead two years earlier we took out a mortgage to pay taxes for COVID... You see when you’re closed, you still have to pay taxes
F: Yes, even my mother with the haberdashery…
R: This job is like this anyway... you can afford to say: “This morning I’m at home and I do other things and he goes to the shop”. I can afford certain hours, but clearly, after everything you’re an employee for everything you do... instead of receiving the thirteenth salary, we have to pay taxes in advance
F: Whereas the choice of the laboratory was obviously because it gives more freedom, I imagine
R: Because we couldn’t work at home… You always need external clients, you can’t be independent in selling, you need someone to come to you. And a friend asked us if we were interested in this shop, so we gave it a try… we started, without bags. So we made furniture and pottery. Then the bags arrived… and there we set off
mobili e ceramica. Poi sono arrivate le borse… e lì ci siamo avviati
JOSÉ
LIDO DI SAVIO
F indicates Fiorenza, A indicates Alice, the interviewers, while J indicates José, the interviewed.
F: Nome? Età?
J: José, ho 60 anni
F: Ci sono altre persone vivono con te?
24
José lives abusively in Colonia Varese, an abandoned former summer colony, which he calls “home”
25
With canteen is intended the refectory where meals are served to people in financial need or homeless. They usually have public, or charitable character
J: C’è stata una donna per sette mesi, badava la casa, lavava i vestiti, andava alla mensa per mangiare, facevamo delle passeggiate
A: Prima di lei chi viveva qui con te?
J: Sempre solo. Anzi no un’altra persona dormiva, un brasiliano ha dormito qui
F: Ah, un brasiliano dormiva qua?
J: Si era fatto un letto, poi c’erano i materassi, e poi poteva uscire
[…]
A: Quindi solo per questi sette mesi sei vissuto con qualcuno. Dal 2003 stai qui hai detto
J: Si, poi quando vivevamo insieme anche con quella donna, c’erano anche le sue figlie, andavamo insieme alla mensa e mangiavamo tutti insieme
F: Quale mensa?
J: A Cervia, vicino alla stazione
F: E dovevi andare in bici fino a Cervia?
J: No prendevo da mangiare e lo portano
F: Name? Age?
J: José, I’m 60 years old
F: Are there other people living with you?
J: There was a woman for seven months, she looked after the house,24 she washed the clothes, she went to the canteen to eat, we went for walks
A: Before her, who lived here with you?
J: Always alone. Actually no, another person was sleeping here for a while, a Brazilian slept here
F: Ah, did a Brazilian sleep here?
J: He had made himself a bed, then there were the mattresses, and then he could go out
[…]
A: So just for these seven months you lived with someone. You’ve been here since 2003, you said
J: Yes, then when we lived together with that woman, her daughters were here too, we went to the canteen 25 together and ate together
F: Which canteen?
J: In Cervia, near the station
F: Ogni quanto ci vai alla mensa? Tutti i giorni?
J: Non vado tutti i giorni. La mia compagna lavora là
A: Ah, quindi ti porta… […]
F: Per arrivare alla mensa a Cervia quanto ci metti?
J: È in centro… 4 chilometri
F: Di più di dieci minuti allora! Quattro chilometri sono tanti se ci devi andare a piedi…
J: Non so molto bene, ma comunque o tre e mezzo o quattro chilometri
A: Beh però se hai la bici dai […]
F: E come fai con l’acqua da bere? Dove la prendi?
J: la prendo dalla fontana di fronte ai Carabinieri, per il resto questi
F: È ingegnoso!
J: Questo per lavare le coperte, lì la roba piccola. E questa è la doccia.
F: Ah, la doccia!
[…]
F: Come mai hai scelto questa colonia o non un’altra?
J: Perché nell’altra ci vanno a dormire tutte le persone, ci sono dei Rumeni con
F: And you had to go by bike to Cervia?
J: No, they used to get food, and they were bringing it here […]
F: How often do you go to the canteen? Everyday?
J: I don’t go every day. My partner works there
A: Ah, so she drives you…
[…]
F: How long does it take to get to the canteen in Cervia?
J: It’s in the centre… 4 kilometres
F: If you’re now with the bike, more than ten minutes then! Four kilometres is a lot if you have to walk…
J: I don’t know very well, but still, it’s three and a half or four kilometres
A: Well, if you have a bike, it’s ok
[…]
F: And what about the water to drink? Where do you get it?
J: I take it from the fountain in front of the Police station, for the rest I have them 26
F: It’s ingenious!
J: This is for washing the blankets, the small stuff there. And this is the shower.
F: Ah, the shower!
[…]
F: Why did you choose this colony and not another one?
26
Here Josè showed a self-built system he invented for the domestification and distribution of water inside the abandoned colony
“the other one” referes to Colonia Montecatini, analysed in the interlude “Mega-genealogies” 28
pation
29
Referred to the bedroom pavilion
tutti i figli, c’è davvero tanta gente, questa qui è più tranquilla. È più pulita. E più fresca
[…]
F: La Pineta di qui è più bella rispetto a quella dell’altra colonia
J: Questa è piccola. Poi c’è la colonia bianca, in mezzo alla pineta, vicino ai militari, vicino alla strada
F: E qualcuno vive là?
J: C’è un marocchino che vive là, è una buona persona. Ma ci sono anche delle persone cattive, dei violenti…
F: Ti è mai capitato che ti abbiano dato fastidio qui?
J: Persone che mi volevano dare fastidio ce ne sono sempre ma qui non vengono
[…]
A: Ah ti eri appena trasferito
J: Era il 2013. È venuto un polacco e mi ha aiutato. C’era un polacco in quel periodo, mi ha aiutato a costruire la camera
A: Ah ti ha aiutato
J: Si mi ha aiutato a procurarmi tutte le cose, adesso abita a Cesena
A: Ah, a Cesena
[…]
F: Non ho capito bene, quindi questa ti ha aiutato il tuo amico polacco a farla? E viveva qui anche lui?
J: No, no mi aiutava e basta (mostra delle foto e disegni)
[…]
J: Because in the other one,27 all kinds of people go to sleep there. There are Romanians with all their children, really a lot of people, this one here is more peaceful. It’s cleaner. And fresher […]
F: The pine forest here is more beautiful than that of the other colony
J: This is small. Then there is the white colony, in the middle of the pine forest, near the military, near the road
F: And does anyone live there?
J: There is a Moroccan who lives there, he is a good person. But there are also bad people, violent people…
F: Have you ever been bothered here?
J: There are always people who want to annoy me, but they don’t come here usually […]
A: When did you move (here)?
J: It was 2013. A Polish came and helped me. There was a Polish at that time, he helped me build the bedroom pavilion 28
A: Ah he helped you
J: Yes, he helped me get all my things, now he lives in Cesena
A: Ah, in Cesena […]
F: I didn’t understand well, so did your Polish friend help you to do this? 29 And did he live here too?
J: No, no he just helped me (shows photos and drawings)
A: Chi lo ha fatto il disegno?
J: Una ragazza indonesiana sette anni fa
F: Vengono tante persone a vedere la colonia?
J: Quando la stagione è buona, viene molta gente qua
F: Ho visto che c’erano anche scritte di Hannover dalla Germania!
[…]
F: Il tuo amico polacco come lo hai conosciuto?
J: Con un mio intimo amico spagnolo, che abita vicino a Cervia, me lo ha presentato lui. Lavoravano tutti e due insieme […]
F: Come hai fatto ad imparare a costruire? Sapevi già fare? Hai imparato mentre lo facevi?
J: No perché la mia passione è fare il muratore. Mi piace
F: Io faccio l’architetto però vedi, non saprei farlo. Studiamo la teoria ma non sappiamo fare le cose con le mani
J: Ho fatto io anche la finestra
F: Ah bella!
J: Che lui diceva di fare una fila di finestre sola, ma io ho detto 3 file
F: E invece il cemento dove lo hai preso?
J: Lo comprava lui
A: Quanto ci hai messo a fare quella casa?
[…]
A: Who did the graffiti on the wall?
J: An Indonesian girl seven years ago
F: Do many people come to see the colony?
J: When the season is good, a lot of people come here
F: I saw that there were also Hanover writings, from Germany!
[…]
F: How did you meet your Polish friend?
J: A close Spanish friend of mine, who lives near Cervia, introduced us. They worked together
[…]
F: How did you learn to build? Did you already know how to do it? Did you learn by doing?
J: No because my passion is to be a bricklayer. I like it
F: I’m an architect but you see, I wouldn’t know how to do it. We study the theory. but we don’t know how to do things with our hands
J: I also made the window
F: Oh beautiful!
J: That he (the Polish friend) said to make only one row of windows, but I said 3 rows
F: And where did you get the concrete instead?
J: He bought it
J: Due giorni
A: Solo due giorni?
F: E la stanza in fondo? Quella dove ti hanno aiutato?
J: Ah quella lì… piano piano. Prima facevano un po’ questo, dopo facevamo l’altro
[…]
A: Ah lavoravi nelle imprese in Portogallo.
J: Si si. E quando arrivavo a casa la sera non c’era niente da fare. Avevo un appartamento mio. Lavoravo tutto l’anno senza ferie, da lunedì a sabato. Lavoravo con il mio collega, nell’impresa. E così per alcuni anni, così pensando alla mia vita e tutto, fa male al cervello. Così la mattina di ferragosto, era festa grande. La mattina mi alzo prendo uno zaino, due vestiti, un paio di scarpe e vado via
[…]
F: Quindi col traghetto poi sei arrivato… sei andato ad Ancona? Non sei arrivato subito qui
J: Ho fatto tanti giri, mamma mia. No, giravo di qua e di là.
F: Non sapevi dove andare?
J: Usavo il passaporto e i biglietti, ma a volte non bastava. Quando non avevo i documenti mi è capitato di essere preso dalla polizia, avevano paura che scappassi, quindi mi hanno accompagnato al treno, entrarono dentro al treno tutti e due. Se non entravano sarei scappato. Mi hanno dato cinquanta euro, la polizia. Sono entrati, passa la prima, la seconda, la terza stazione
A: How long did it take you to build that house?
J: Two days
A: Only two days?
F: And the room at the back? How did he help you?
J: Ah that one there… slowly. Before they did a little bit of this, a bit of that
[…]
A: Ah you worked in companies in Portugal.
J: Yes yes. And when I got home in the evening there was nothing to do. I had my own apartment. I worked all year round without holidays, from Monday to Saturday. I worked with my colleague in the company. And so for a few years, so thinking about my life and everything, it hurts the brain. So, on the morning of mid-August, it was a big party. In the morning I get up, take a backpack, two dresses, and a pair of shoes and go away
[…]
F: So, you then arrived by ferry... did you go to Ancona? You didn’t get here right away.
J: I’ve done a lot of moving, my goodness. No, I wandered here and there.
F: You didn’t know where to go?
J: I used my passport and train tickets, but sometimes it wasn’t enough. When I didn’t have the documents, I happened to be caught by the police, they were afraid I’d run away, so they accompanied me to the train, they both entered the train. If they didn’t enter, I would have escaped. They gave me fifty euros, the police. They entered, and pass the first,
F: Perché hai dato cinquanta euro alla polizia?
J: No, loro a me
F: Ah! Loro a te
J: Me li hanno dati, per comprare chissà che
A: Infatti cosa ci fai con 50 euro?
J: Esatto, ma almeno puoi mangiare qualche cosa, e quindi sono stato a Milano, a Pavia
F: Ti volevo chiedere se eri stato in una grande città infatti
J: Si a Milano. Ma c’è la Mafia a Milano! Mamma mia. Dormivo dove ci sono i treni
F: A Milano? A Rogoredo?
J: Si. Ho dormito due volte là, due giorni. Poi ho comprato i biglietti per Ravenna. A Ravenna ho fatto un mese in cui dormivo nelle piante, vicino alla stazione, mi alzavo alla mattina e andavo a mangiare…
F: Alla mensa che c’è lì?
J: Alla mensa di San Rocco. Sono stato lì per un mese, poi sono scappato. Sono andato a Savio
F: Come mai dopo un mese sei scappato da Ravenna? Non ho capito dove dormivi quando stavi a Ravenna
J: Dormivo in mezzo alle piante
F: Era inverno o estate?
J: Era un po’ inverno
F: Non un bel periodo
J: Sarà stato verso marzo.
second, and third station
F: Why did you give fifty euros to the police?
J: No, they to me
F: Oh! They to you
J: They gave them to me, to buy who knows what
A: In fact, what do you do with 50 euros?
J: Exactly, but at least you can eat something, and so I’ve been to Milan, to Pavia
F: I wanted to ask you if you had actually been to a big city
J: Yes, in Milan. But there is the Mafia in Milan! Oh, mama. I was sleeping where the trains are
F: In Milan? In Rogoredo?
J: Yes. I slept there twice, two days. Then I bought tickets to Ravenna. In Ravenna, I spent a month sleeping in the bushes near the station, getting up in the morning and going to eat…
F: To the one that’s there?
J: At the San Rocco canteen. I was there for a month, then I ran away. I went to Savio
F: Why did you escape from Ravenna after a month? I didn’t understand where you slept when you were in Ravenna
J: I was sleeping among the plants
F: Was it winter or summer?
J: It was a bit wintery
F: Not a good time
F: Beh non è caldo a marzo a Ravenna
J: Ah per me, adesso si, prima no. Non è così freddo
F: Non è gennaio dai, mettiamola così
J: No, non gennaio. Novembre, dicembre già comincia ad essere come le galline
F: Allora dopo sei andato a Savio?
J: Si, sono scappato da Ravenna. Sono andato a Savio per due mesi, sono stato sotto il ponte
A: Ah il ponte di savio che c’è… quello coi capanni
J: Esatto, si. Quello di qua. Ho fatto una baracca col cartone e quattro legni. Poi un giorno ho sentito delle voci, vado là a guardare: Ah, vaffanculo! C’è un marocchino, dobbiamo scappare. Quindi siamo scappati, abbiamo trovato la colonia. In tre…
A: E hai detto: qui adesso sto tranquillo
[…]
A: Ah c’erano anche tutti i pini…
J: C’era un muro, e delle piante
F: C’era un muro? Ah, una parete di rovi!
J: Si! C’era un muro là, e quella roba
F: Ah si, l’edera!
A: Ah, l’hai dovuta strappare tutta
J: Era come entrare… era tutto bloccato dall’edera, qua c’era una montagna di spine fino a là in fondo, c’erano i fichi, ma non erano fichi buoni. Quindi li ho tagliati
J: It must have been around March
F: Well, it’s not hot in March in Ravenna
J: Ah for me, now yes, not before. It’s not that cold
F: It’s not January come on, let’s put it this way
J: No, not January. November and December are already starting to be like hens
F: So, you went to Savio afterwards?
J: Yes, I escaped from Ravenna. I went to Savio for two months, I lived under the bridge
A: Ah, the Savio bridge there is… the one with the fisher sheds
J: Exactly, yes. The one here. I made a shack out of cardboard and four pieces of wood. Then one day I hear some voices, I go there to look: Ah, fuck you! There is a Moroccan, we have to escape. So, we escaped, and we found the colony. In three…
A: And you said: I’m serene here now […]
A: Ah there were also all the pine trees... 30
J: There was a wall, and some plants
F: Was there a wall? Ah, a wall of brambles!
J: Yes! There was a wall there, and that stuff
F: Ah yes, the ivy!
A: Ah, you had to rip it all off
F: E tutte le piante che hai piantato te le hanno portate o le hai…
J: No no
F: Le hai trovate?
J: Le ho prese dai fiori dei comuni, dalle scuole, prendo un rametto, l’ho tagliato, e l’ho piantato…
F: Quindi hai imparato anche come far crescere le piante o lo sapevi già?
J: No no, lo sapevo già
F: Ah io non so fare per esempio
J: L’ho imparato quando ero piccolo. E queste piante sono tutte mie. Là c’è il pesco, dalla pesca del mercato. Questi alberi grandi li ho fatti crescere da un rametto di una scuola di Cervia, e ha fatto tutto questo albero grande
A: Pensavo fosse più difficile qui, con il terreno sabbioso, e invece…
J: No. Taglio un rametto, pianto, e cresce
F: Eh ma detto così sembra facile, non è così facile!
J: È facile, non è facile da spiegare, bisogna capirlo. Bisogna metterci acqua, perché questa è terra secca
F: Fai mai delle feste qui con i tuoi amici?
J: Oh si, facciamo la grigliata
F: Bellissimo!
J: Con il mio amico italiano, il mio amico spagnolo, si si […]
F: Ti hanno mai chiesto di andartene dalla colonia?
J: It was like entering… everything was blocked by ivy, here there was a mountain of thorns up to the end, there were figs, but they weren’t good figs. So, I cut them
F: And all the plants you planted were brought to you or did you…
J: No no
F: Did you find them?
J: I took them from the flowers of the municipalities, from the schools, I take a twig, I cut it, and I planted it…
F: So, did you also learn how to grow plants or did you already know that?
J: No no, I already knew that
F: Ah, I don’t know how to do it for example
J: I learned that when I was little. And these plants are all mine. There is a peach there, from a peach of the market, and I made these big trees grow from a twig from a school in Cervia, and it turned into this whole big tree
A: I thought it was more difficult here, with the sandy soil, but instead…
J: No. You cut a twig, weep, and it grows
F: Eh but having said that it seems easy, it’s not that easy!
J: It’s easy, it’s not easy to explain, you have to understand it. You have to put water in it because this is dry land
F: Do you ever party here with your friends?
J: Oh yeah, we have barbecues
F: Beautiful!
J: Ogni tanto vengono i carabinieri a controllare
A: E il carabiniere non ti ha detto che te ne dovevi andare?
J: No, mi fanno restare
J: With my Italian friend, my Spanish friend, yes yes
[…]
F: Have they ever asked you to leave the colony?
J: Sometimes the police come to check
A: And didn’t they tell you that you had to leave?
J: No, they let me stay
DECONSTRUCTED IMAGINARIES
Appendix 2, Deconstructed Imagineries, is a collection of attempts. Photographing the case studies is an exploratory act. Using those same photographs as a base for constructing (or deconstructing) an imaginary world is a design act. By painting on tracing paper with the guidelines of the photographs taken, it was a back and forward process that followed the thesis throughout its entire development.
1
Riviera Ligure means sea- shore “of Liguria”, a coastal region in the north-west Italy. Consequently
Riviera Romagnola means seashore“of Romagna”, a region in the central-east Italy
2
Reference to Thomas Cook’s invention of Modern tourism, and the later exported American model phenomenon
Etymologically the term Riviera derives from the Latin ripa, generally indicating a stretch of coastline safe for landing. Due to touristification processes, the word lost its general meaning of seashore, referring to a specific location on the Mediterranean coasts, such as Riviera Ligure, Riviera Romagnola, or Riviera Francese.1 Therefore, used as a proper noun in the spoken language, it has been shortened from its qualifications. How to detect which riviera? Never explicit, always assumptive, the specific place was purely guessed through the messenger. To each riviera its subject.
Moreover, as a consequence of the mass tourism2 mania, Riviera started to suggest an imaginary that had nothing to do with a particular place, but with a constructed abstraction, specific in its decontextualized genericness. According to Riviera’s re-semanticization, the term has been general, then specific, and ultimately generic. Following this logic, the actualized space of seaside settlements enriches the Riviera mindset, but simultaneously the mindset itself influences its spatial development. And the more space and mindset are building one another, the more subjects (and bodies) follow the construction. Therefore, in the Riviera performance, space, mindset, and subject build one another.
Gelato, vespa, disco, festa, dolce vita, cocco-bello, estate Italiana, aperitivo, bella.
Words that are meant to sell a constructed imaginary. But what happens when summer ends?
Culminating in mass tourism collapse, abandonment, and seasonal confinement, the mono-functional specialization of the seaside settlements produces an urban condition that detaches from the Riviera imaginary, occupying an ambivalent position of both control and resistance towards the mindset performance. Therefore, through the analysis of seaside settlements of coastal Italy, the main object of investigation of the thesis is the paradox of the edge, a condition waving between polarity and alienation.