Scienza Nuova
Italian institute for advanced studies in Torino ‘Umberto Eco’
Second CAT-stay at Scienza Nuova: reflecting on Green Infrastructure and Nature-based Solutions from theory to practice
The second CAT-stay of our group from May 23-27, 2022 was hosted by Scienza Nuova, a recently stablished Institute of Advanced Studies (IAS) through the cooperation of the University of Turin and the Politecnico di Torino.
This stay was the first occasion to meet Joana Guerrin in person, who recently joined the CAT team as a fifth member, as well as Anna Serra-Llobet, a researcher in Environmental Sciences from the University of California in Berkeley specialized in flood policy analysis, who joined the CAT team as a guest during this stay.
DAY 1 – Presenting our research approach with urban and local case studies
After a first morning of general discussion, we organized the workshop entitled “Urban transformations towards Nature-based Solutions (NbS) in different contexts – drivers of change and the role of researchers” to exchange with researchers of Scienza Nuova in the afternoon. We presented concepts such as NbS and Green Infrastructure, as well as the scientific objectives of our CAT project. In addition, project and case study examples from the work of the CAT network members were presented. Then, Anna Serra-Llobet gave a presentation on a Portland (Oregon) case study, where extensive Green Infrastructure measures had been implemented.
We had interesting exchanges with philosophers, sociologists and environmental engineers about the obstacles to the implementation of NbS and Green Infrastructures.
DAY 2 – Systemic Design Talk and visit to POLITO
In the morning, we virtually joined the Systemic Design Talk of Dario Forneris organized by Politecnico di Torino (POLITO). Dario is the, Business Design and Sustainability Lead at Nordic Bioproducts Group in Finland. This talk brought insights on the importance of circular economy in the implementation of sustainable strategies for material production, considering that policies are rapidly changing and investment is available. Examples were shown presenting the use of industrial subproducts and scientific knowledge (e.g., thermochemistry, biotechnology, and synthetic biology) to develop new materials with added value. This presentation demonstrated how systemic design can be used to define new visions and be open-minded about the application of sustainable principles in the design process. This approach has also relevance in the design of Green Infrastructures, considering the integration of the principles of circular economy.
During the afternoon we meet with Elena Comino, Associate Professor of Applied Ecology to Engineering and her postdoctoral researcher Laura Dominici at POLITO. We visited their facilities and their past and current experiments in the laboratory. This included experimental work by Matilde Molari, PhD student in Systemic Design, on the integration of different locally sourced and recycled materials into the substrate composition for ornamental plants as well as designs for different interior living walls created by design students. We discussed educational material for primary school students from the EU-Horizon 2020-project proGIreg such as exercise books to improve children’s environmental awareness of the benefits of plants and the importance of urban greening.
The education activities were related to a living wall installed at a primary school with the involvement of students, including certain technical aspects of living walls, such as the identification of the types of plants, their propagation, and the system composition. We discussed the potential for future collaboration and common research ideas between POLITO and members of our CAT-team around building greenery that we will follow up in the future.
DAY 3 – Exploring Mirafiori Sud District and the proGIreg project
Our third day included a visit to the Mirafiori district in the southern part of Turin. Mirafiori is a former industrial area of the automobile industry. With the decline of industrial production, the district started shrinking resulting in efforts to revitalize the area. Mirafiori Sud, located at the southern border of Turin, next to open landscape and the Sangone river, is a so-called living lab for the EU-project proGIreg.(2018-2023). The idea of proGIreg is to revitalize post-industrial urban areas by investing in Green Infrastructure and Nature-based Solutions (NbS). Each of the project’s four living labs involves stakeholders from the municipality, research organizations, businesses and civil society who co-design and implement a range of NbS.
Laura Ribotta from the City of Torino led us to our first stop Orti Generali, an urban community garden managed by a local association. Since 2018 meadows have been developed into an organic community garden with 260 plots and publicly accessible areas. All garden plots are rented to citizens (fees depend on the economic situation), while irrigation and technical assistance is provided. Stefano Olivari, landscape architect and one of the two coordinators for Orti Generali, explained the design of the garden, combining agricultural activitiese with leisure through public spaces that facilitate social relations. The garden hosts also other activities such as training in gardening, scientific collaborations, citizen science, and training for kids by disabled people.
Afterwards we visited an newly started aquaponic system. Vittorio Agú from the startup Mitte Garten explained that with the hydroponic system green leafy vegetables grow without pesticides and chemical fertilizers, as the fish eat the roots and produce waste that naturally fertilizes the vegetables. The first harvest will be donated to nearby institutions for people in need. Next, we stopped by a garden for butterflies integrated in a public green space, one of several plantings that are supposed to create an ecological corridor for pollinators from the river towards the city, designed by Simona Bonelli, a local professor and an expert on butterflies.
Just some blocks away, we saw the Orto Urbano, which consists of wooden boxes with plants for pollinators that have been planted with a local school. This project is organized by Comunità di Mirafiori Onlus Foundation, an association of local social NGOs.
Subsequently, we walked through Parco Sangone and stopped by a new regenerated soil project. Due to rubble and other remnants of former uses, urban soils are often of poor quality and for creating green space they need to be improved by bringing soil in from rural areas. The new soil project aims to produce and test regenerated soil using resources from within the urban area, following circular economy principles. Excavated urban soil from building projects was analyzed to avoid pollution, improved with compost, mycorrhizal fungi and zeolites, and used for new tree plantings in Parco Sangone.
Orto Urbano, educational garden with raised beds
We had lunch at Locanda Nel Parco, a social culinary laboratory. The building not only allocates the restaurant but also the Comunità di Mirafiori Onlus Foundation’s office. The building has a green roof, which camouflages with the Colonnetti Park. Our last stop was Spazio WOW, an abandoned area that now contains a pollinator garden, a vegetable garden, a green roof and harvests stormwater through a water retention tank. It also hosts social activities such as Yoga, Tai Chi and dancing lessons in its adjacent open space.
This visit only included parts of the NbS and interventions in Mirafiori Sud to improve the areas green infrastructure by improving access to green areas, improving the ecological quality or creating new social spaces and agricultural products.
This visit only included parts of the NbS and interventions in Mirafiori Sud to improve the areas green infrastructure by improving access to green areas, improving the ecological quality or creating new social spaces and agricultural products. The living lab reflects how social and economic activities can be developed by involving nature. Local associations, municipality, schools, researchers, and businesses demonstrated the potential for urban regeneration with NbS and by introducing concepts such as circular economy. To ensure further innovation in the area, a number of the stakeholders is involved in a new Horizon 2020-project called Fusilli, fostering urban food systems transformations.
DAY 4 – Public presentation “Urban transformations with Nature-based Solutions - Can nature work with us?”
The focus of Thursday was a public talk at Scienza Nuova Institute. Under the topic “Urban transformations with Nature-based Solutions (NbS) - Can nature work with us?” we gave insights in our research. The urban greening trend on the one hand provides support for NbS in urban areas. On the other hand, a lot of the proposed solutions only provide limited benefits and the solutions especially fall short when it comes to supporting biodiversity and ecological processes. In addition, allowing plant and animals to share dense urban areas brings challenges and potential of conflicts. So, the questions of how nature can work with us can also be reversed to “Can we work with nature?”. Our guest researcher Anna Serra Llobet introduced Western perspectives on nature, using the example of floods and resulting in nowadays Western perception that nature can be managed and dominated with technology.
CAT Research team and guest researcher Anna Serra Llobet during public presentation at Scienza Nuova
CAT Research team and guest researcher Anna Serra Llobet during public presentation at Scienza Nuova
The second part of the talk included four perspectives on what to consider when nature is supposed “work with us”: (1) benefits and costs, (2) maintenance and care, (3) participation and empowerment, (4) (in)justice and (in)equity, and (5) consideration of different spatial scales and multifunctionality to achieve benefits form a network character, using examples relating to our own research to discuss the complexity of NbS and their intended and unintended impacts on humans and ecosystems.
We concluded with a discussion on who benefits from NbS in social-ecological system and that mutual benefits for society and ecosystem cannot be taken for granted.
For designing and implementing NbS, knowledge from social sciences and natural sciences needs to be as important as technological science. Knowledge from natural sciences is needed to asses if a project is actually making ecosystems healthier and expertise from social sciences is needed to consider unintended negative impacts on social groups, i.e., through gentrification. The discussion with an audience of mainly philosophers touched upon questions if humans would be able to assess when or how ecosystems are healthy and the complex relations between humans and ecosystem, including use of resources and what a shift in use of major energy sources historically entailed and might entail for the future, i.e., shifts between using wood compared to oil. Preparing a talk for an academic audience mostly far from our own professions was very helpful to sharpen our own perspectives and elucidate nuances in our own approaches and lines of thought, including similarities and differences.
DAY 5 – Visiting Parco Dora
Our last day meant final reflections, planning for the coming months and departure. Some of us, who could stay longer, visited Parco Dora or even went to Milan during the weekend.
Parco Dora is located in the north of Turin’s city center in a former industrial area. After the decline of the automobile industry, the park was created during the revitalization of the area. The park is characterized by the remnants of the industrial heritage and the river Dora. The remaining columns of a former steel mill are widely visible and the park is accessible from the surrounding neighbourhoods, which seem to be in lower price ranges and home to culturally diverse communities. On a Friday night, the park was full of groups of people doing sports and other group activities, and people going for a walk. The banks of the river Dora have been made more accessible, more natural and a flood plain area has been developed.
Also built on a former industrial area in Milan, Bosco Verticale is an icon for green buildings, featured in numerous publications on sustainable cities and Nature-based Solutions. Located in what is now a major European and extremely profitable business district, Porta Nuova, the two skyscrapers with tall trees on the façade are indeed impressive. However, this lush green impression should not obscure the resources and energy needed to keep trees alive and secure at such heights and in such confined spaces, including highly professional and costly maintenance and dependance on technologies for irrigation and fertilization. The towers contain apartments in luxury price categories only available for a tiny fraction of society so that this model will hardly be replicable at a larger scale.
Bosco Verticale is located next to the “Library of Trees”, a new public park with a wide variety of plantings and spaces for cultural and recreational activities. The trampled patches in blooming wildflower beds and people posing in front of the towers show that this is as a popular photo spot, attracting many visitors, including tourists. A small water feature was a place where the visitors could get close to water fowl and next to gastronomy and playground this is was one of the busiest spots, bringing wildlife and people together. Despite irrigation systems not all of the different planting plots were thriving.
Overall, Parco Dora and the green investments around Porta Nuova represent quite different versions of urban regeneration and promotion of Nature-based Solutions: Parco Dora on the one
hand, whose aesthetic qualities are lauded by landscape architects, seems to operate mostly as a local attraction meeting the needs of a diverse urban community, while preserving the area's cultural heritage and restoring the river as natural heritage and ecological system. Porto Nuova's new green spaces and green buildings on the other hand, provide an aesthetic stage for self-expression, social events, and appear to function mostly as an internationally oriented visitor attraction, showcasing trendy designs and elaborated technologies such as façade greening with larger trees. These differences also relate to the maintenance needs with more robust vegetation and extensive management in Parco Dora and plantings requiring intensive care and technologies such as irrigation in Milan.
In any case, the question should be asked if investments in high-tech Nature-based Solutions is the best choice, considering their embedded material and energy footprint or vulnerability to technological failure, or if there are low-tech approaches requiring limited interventions, i.e. by including ecological processes where this is possible in dense urban environments.
