The Presidential Estate of Castelporziano – Design Workshop

The ambition of the project located in the Presidential Estate of Castelporziano, recognized as Natural State Reserve in 1999 and included in the Natura 2000 network, is to create a strong bond with the metropolitan city of Rome enhancing the accessibility and the connection both to the city and to the surrounding territory, in order to promote the awareness of the visitors and the citizens on the unique value of the Reserve. The Workshop has developed from the collaboration between the PhD Landscape and Environment and the Presidential Estate scientific and technical commissions, with the aim to establish a better understanding of the ecological preservation processes and in order to offer an immersive experience to the visitors with the purpose of spreading the knowledge of its archaeological and cultural heritage and its wealth of biodiversity. The urban sprawl and water consumption are threatening this area and, for these reasons, the relevance of Castelporziano as a fragment of untouched wildlife and as an environmental monitoring system is nowadays more significant than ever. Based on this overture, the PhD group developed a multidisciplinary research and a multi-scalar approach that involves the interaction of four strategies: Perception, Water, Itineraries and Edges. The project suggests new lines of development taking advantage from the present conditions, to solve hard issues while providing a genuine experience of the landscape, bringing a rounded vision on this reservoir of true biodiversity that is to be protected and nourished.