“Seminary EXTRA: sowing education and growing community”, a project proposal by Pool Landscape srl, Arch.Ilaria Forti, Arch.Ludovico Centis, Arch.Francesco Laserpe, Dott.Arch. Federico Vascotto wins a competition Ex Seminario San Massimo.

The purpose of the ideas competition, organized by the Diocese of Verona, was to choose the best ideas and proposals to set out a project to redevelop and enhance the former Seminary of San Massimo of Verona, owned by the Episcopal Seminary, ecclesiastic entity of the Diocese of Verona. The purpose of the competition was to promote a reflection on the possible transformations and forms of use for this place, subsequently setting out opportunities to involve the local community, institutions and a place for dialogue with potential partners interested in its regeneration.

The project proposal “Seminary EXTRA: sowing education and growing community” intends to gather the positive aspects of this important legacy and to suggest possible paths of reuse and development that will reengage this area of considerable size, about 17 hectares, connoted until now by a monofunctional program and a marked degree of autonomy with respect to the surrounding areas of the neighborhood.

In order to preserve a continuity between the legacies and memories of the past and the ability to detect the challenges and potentials of future development, a new cycle related to education and training with respect to sustainable agriculture, from indoor hydroponic cultivation to agro-forestry, is envisioned for the former Seminary in the light of the challenges raised by climate change and the opportunities that digitization and technological progress offer.

The involvement of the community intended as a combination of people (students, teachers, occasional users) and institutions becomes a fundamental condition for the creation of a living, fertile and attractive place. Sowing new knowledge together (in the agro-technological sphere, applying notions directly in the field) contributes to growing a more cohesive, eco-respectful community ready to face the challenges of the future.

Rather than founding an ex-novo institution, it seems wise and promising to look to realities already strongly rooted in the context that cover with their educational offerings the central themes of the production chains of the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors of the Veronese economy, also embracing the different production landscapes-from vineyards to rice fields-of the territory of the province of Verona. The ultimate goal is thus to incentivize ecological, sustainable and digitally supported agricultural production that makes conscious use of new technologies to maximize the output while respecting the environment.

Under the proposal, the current monofunctional and autonomous character of the complex will have to work toward spaces with high degree of permeability, a vital requirement for greater inclusiveness toward the city of Verona and the surrounding area. Through this new functional program, a relationship between “inside and outside” would be fostered, promoting more extensive use. Alongside a hoped-for reconnection process in terms of soft and sustainable mobility, it is considered essential to flank in this urbanized portion of the countryside a renaturalization process that hybridizes and updates a centuries-old rural culture to the challenges of climate change and the possibilities offered by technological progress. This means reinterpreting the elements of the Veneto agricultural landscape.

“Seminary EXTRA: Sowing Education and Growing Community” prefigures for the former Seminary a new role for the community and the city: embedded in the new “landscape of knowledge,” rooted in the history of its land, it opens up and tells its story to the Veronese community and beyond, and provides the spaces to look ahead to experimental education and environmental sustainability.

Info: info@pool-landscape.it