Paolo Verzone © Kongsfjorden (King Bay), Spitsbergen, Norway, 2018
The Department promotes research and initiatives that investigate historical, cultural, economic and social relationships stratified within the landscape. Its focus is in the relation between landscape and cultural heritage, understanding the former as a key player in order to pursue an effective preservation and valorization of the latter. The landscape reflects historical processes and dynamic perceptions of heritage, while also referring to the community which is the custodian of its heritage. In this view, an in-depth understanding of the link between heritage and landscape can be seen as a basis for territorial sustainable transformations also in light of emerging global challenges (climate change, energy transition, social justice, health and quality of life).
Vittorio Sella, Ultimo picco del Cimon della Pala San Martino di Castrozza 26 agosto 1891 © Fondazione Sella, Biella
Landscape is at once an inter-disciplinary system and a method of investigation. The “landscape approach” to cultural heritage allows one to better understand the complexity of the heritage, including its material and immaterial components. Moreover, through innovative technologies, along with other disciplines such as art, photography, and storytelling, it is possible to establish integrated systems to understand, interpret, and represent the landscapes and their relationship to territorial heritage.
The Department aims at defining new models for heritage preservation and valorization that take into account the cultural and natural environment of heritage, where the shape of the territory, the identity of the communities and the perception of landscapes represent key components for territorial and sustainable development. Through specific instruments for heritage and landscape preservation and management, the communities become able to develop local landscape projects and enhance social awareness of cultural heritage and landscape.
The Department develops initiatives and projects in the field of knowledge, interpretation and mapping of the landscape, with a focus on cultural itineraries, territorial heritage, landscape design and its governance and management. It also develops research in the field of social and cultural processes and urban landscapes. The department offers advanced training courses for practitioners and public institutions, international summer schools, exchange experiences and site-specific laboratories.
