Students from The Sir John Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design have started a three-year regeneration collaboration with Belmonte, Italy.
Date: 1 December 2017
Architecture Studio 3 and Unit 6 students from The Sir John Cass School of Art, Architecture and Design (The Cass) recently visited Belmonte to start a three-year collaboration project, entitled ‘Crossing Cultures’, which will work on the regeneration of the town.
Since 2016, students, graduates and staff from The Cass have been working in Belmonte with local stakeholders and refugees, in order to address the depopulation of Belmonte's old town, focusing on proposals for public spaces and buildings which can enrich the everyday life of the town and create a larger scale regeneration strategy for the area.
During the study trip, the collaboration agreement was signed, and the Comune has offered The Cass a research 'lab' with public interface in the old town. This will allow students to return to carry out collaborative work with local inhabitants and other stakeholders and to increase their presence in the town. Students are now developing proposals with the theme of "re-imagining campus” for Belmonte, and have brought their initial ideas to the town by projecting short films they have developed in London in collaboration with Cass Animation.
The visit was also an opportunity for the students and staff to meet with two universities in the region, who are interested in collaborating on The Cass’s “Crossing Cultures” project.
