The Ways of Water. The Filter of the Monteponi Mining Complex

The project area includes the Rio San Giorgio valley, within the Geominerario Park of Sardinia, and addresses the issue of improving water quality, restoring ecosystems and preserving the resource, in an area characterised by prolonged droughts and the presence of numerous contaminated disused mineral sites, in line with the sustainable water management of Goal 6. A strategy of environmental, landscape and functional redevelopment of the entire area is proposed with interventions on a territorial scale throughout the valley to the mouth of the river to recover the polluted groundwater, purifying and re-circulating them in the territorial water system through the use of renewable energy sources. Water is the element that binds the entire park structure. The area of Monteponi, located upstream of this hydrographic system, develops on different levels and stands as a large filter that cleans and redevelops the mining site. It is a “water machine” where the water resource is taken through a system of underground networks and rainwater collection basins to be conveyed to the purification plants that exploit the slope of the terraces and vegetation. The water, once purified, is distributed for different purposes, especially for drinking. The area will also become an enjoyable centre of attraction: the water descent path will be flanked by the visitors’ ascent path, adapting to the mountain’s morphology and creating rest areas in large circular cisterns. Here the water relates to the architecture and landscape in different ways, generating sensations of calm and psycho-physical well-being.