RE-heritage Studio Trip:
Developing Architecture Students’ Global Citizenship through Knowledge Building and Knowledge Exchange Abroad
RE-heritage, ArCHIAM-led BA3 studio, has recently piloted a full-immersion learning experience in Buddusò (Italy) exposing the students to culturally unfamiliar settings with the aim to foster the development of cross-cultural sensibilities and an international outlook as global citizens and design professionals.
A shrinking historic rural town un inland Sardinia, Buddusò, like most traditional built environments worldwide, faces demographic shifts and rural-urban migration causing economic, social and infrastructural marginalization as well as loss of cultural heritage. The town has been chosen as the site of the second semester project: the adaptive reuse of dilapidated vernacular buildings and outdoor spaces into a heritage training and interpretation centre, complemented by temporary accommodation. In the centre, people will learn about and experience the natural and cultural heritage of Buddusò, Bitti and their surroundings through creative interpretive responses, and will develop heritage-related skills. Capitalising on the local white granite quarries, unique pre-historic archaeological sites and canto a tenore, a Sardinian form of polyphonic, male-only guttural singing inscribed on UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, the centre will support the valorisation, practice and transmission of local craft, gastronomic and performing art traditions, with a view to enhancing the attractiveness of the area, fostering economic growth and jobs creation, and eventually stimulating the settlement’s re-occupation and re-inhabitation.
Co-funded through the School of the Arts Internationalisation Fund the field trip was organised in collaboration with Alghero’s Architecture, Design and Urban Planning Department and Buddusò Municipality. From 2nd to 7th February 2024, 27 students, accompanied by 3 members of staff, documented the project site, visited two heritage museums, a pottery workshop, Neolithic and Bronze Age archaeological sites and a granite quarry, and engaged in co-curricular knowledge building and knowledge exchange activities. After the welcome of Buddusò mayor and his staff, Prof Antonello Monsù Scolaro from Alghero’s Architecture, Design and Urban Planning Department delivered a talk on the history and present-day challenges of the town, before leading a walking tour focused on the morphology, typology and construction of local vernacular granite masonry buildings. The trip culminated in a hybrid colloquium where academics from Liverpool and Alghero presented research and design work exploring strategies for countering the loss of cultural heritage in shrinking rural settlements from Japan to Oman, Italy and Portugal.
Back to Liverpool, students shared findings, perceptions and understanding of the site – acquired both in person and remotely – during in-studio presentations. In March, Prof Antonello Monsù Scolaro visited LSA to take part in studio reviews and advise students on their design proposals, drawing on his experience of built heritage reuse and knowledge of Buddusò.
Students rated the educational experience of the trip highly, with one describing it “Overall a very well organised trip that was a lot of fun and really enhanced our understanding of our site and heritage”, and another commenting, “I really enjoyed the trip to Sardinia, it gave me a greater insight into adaptive reuse architecture, and also made me appreciate a different type of architecture to which I am used to”.
Giamila Quattrone
RE-heritage Studio Team:
Dr Giamila Quattrone (Studio Lead, ArCHIAM, LSA)
Dr Konstantina Georgiadou (ArCHIAM, LSA)
Claudia Briguglio (ArCHIAM, LSA)
Prof Soumyen Bandyopadhyay (ArCHIAM, LSA)
Phil Owen (Huge Architects, LSA)
Gallery
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