About

The International Summer School “The city and the Water” starts from the awareness of the value of the Massaciuccoli Lake (Massarosa, Lucca) and its territory. In continuity with the past edition, the summer school will focus on the part of the Massaciuccoli Lake belonging to the Municipality of Viareggio: the area between the town of Torre del Lago-Puccini and the industrial area of San Rocchino. This area is characterized by a high landscape potentiality but, at the same time, high physical, social and environmental degradation, in contrast with the San Rossore-Massaciuccoli Park regulations. If the town of Torre del Lago-Puccini represents today an international cultural centre, strictly linked to the figure of Giacomo Puccini, the adjacent area towards Viareggio is characterized by anonymous places and the huge “Carbonaia” dump. This area is therefore a fragment, a neglected thin strip of land between the Tirrenian sea and the Apuan Alpes, called "Fishbone park" for its physical shape. Students will be engaged in developing projects for the valorization of the landascape values of the area, under the guide of tutors, professors and experts in the field of architecture, landscape design.

The final projects of the Summer School could therefore represent the starting point for stimulating discussions about how the landscape environment can represent an opportunity for the inhabitants of the municipalities of Massarosa, Viareggio and Vecchiano, for the small and medium-sized enterprises operating in the territory, as well as for the local institutions, in terms of contribution to improve the awareness of their own potential and wealth, and above all for the people living in the small village of Torre del Lago, which could become a strategic link between the lake system and the sea.

The City and the Water course is offered at the University of Pisa.