MASTER IN PROGETTAZIONE DEI PARCHI NATURALI. VERIFICA DEGLI OBIETTIVI FORMATIVI E CONSIDERAZIONI SUI TEMI DI RICERCA

The volume takes into account the second edition of the International Master of II Level in Natural Parks Design, promoted by the Mediterranean University of Studies of Reggio Calabria and the Ècole d’Architecture of Paris La Villette. It retraces and brings in again the experience matured in the formative paths of the first edition which focused on Natural Parks Management.The course falls within the initiatives approved by the Ministry of Instruction, University and Research, in the ambit of the Internationalization project, and allows to achieve the study title of University Master of second Level with a value of sixty university formative credits.The volume contains the specialization theses according to that logic of interdisciplinarity which inspired the formative project and which was also requested as an added value to the thesis itself. On the other hand the interest of the specialization course in Natural Parks Design was not suitable for mono-disciplinary issues, and it inevitably brought forward different and inter-disciplinary fields of knowledge.Professionals postgraduate students could count on the care and the scientific supervision of university professors and experts in the disciplinary areas regarding the specific fields of knowledge which were selected for a widening. The issues approached by the specialization theses can be grouped in the following macro areas: Park, Paper and Memory; Extended Use in Time and Space; Didactic and Experimental Workshops; Architecture of the Green and Forest Heritage; Landscapes of Terracing and Ravines; Rural Landscape and Typical Products Quality Mark.The theme “Park, Paper, Memory” is approached by three theses which share the interest in the signs and the meanings of the territory, in the genetic code traceable in the sense of belonging to a context in term of culture of inhabiting, symbolic and anthropologic memory of the places and settled people. The paths are not different: they follow with a rigorous method the research of a statute, a Paper, among people and places, a sort of “pact of values” collectively written and applied with the hope of a shared future; they develop a reflection rich of concepts related to the possibility of capturing and realizing through a project the product originated by the interaction between collective memory and sensitive memory of the planner, who creates art by working with territory plasticity and by capturing the intimate features hidden in a past which is already present and which is becoming something else; they explore the history of the places as it is narrated by the material and immaterial culture with a systemic approach which unites naturalistic, architectonic and archeological resources to “decode its image, the palimpsest of its material characterizations” to give birth to a deep knowledge, that is the fundamental humus of any project.The theme “Extended Use in Time and Space”, leads to a conceptual extension which goes beyond duration and geographical borders to imply ideas’ innovation capability in time and space.Referring to an extended use means conceiving of forms and giving direct duties to the majority of potential users, that is kids, young people, adults and elders who would like to enjoy what a park can offer in a safe and pleasant way without performance anxieties, especially in those persons who have not full capabilities, get easily tired and can move slowly.The section “Didactic and Experimental Workshops” proposes the instrument of the workshop as a work method for the valorization of the resource ‘territory’, with effects on the formative didactic field and the educational process, on the experimental field with specific realizations in rural ambits, and on the proposals referring t