"Living is being at home everywhere." Ceramics interventions in Montelupo Fiorentino (FI)

Montelupo Fiorentino (Florence) is a ceramics town. With a long ceramic tradition, Montelupo and its territory are a space for creativity and collective participation. Here, ceramics is identity, memory, and future. Unfortunately, in the last two decades, the historic center has lost its centrality and attractiveness. Commercial and social activities have been relocated, and, in some parts of the day, the borgo looks like a ghost town. To invert such a condition, the local administration pursued various actions, like site-specific art installations, international exchange experiences, and art residencies. Among these, there is an ongoing research project by the Department of Architecture of Florence (DiDA). Its goals are defining cultural strategies on a territorial scale and interventions to the urban regeneration of the old town, according to the Cultural SDGs of the UN 2030 Agenda. The paper presents one of the outputs of such a project: the thematic seminar called “Mani in pasta”(hands in dough). Interpreting Montelupo as a creative construction site in progress and following Ugo La Pietra’s exercises (2013), the goal is to design punctual ceramics interventions to inhabit the old town again. The project involves students enrolled in architectural courses. Their designs propose a way to inhabit the city, starting from themes such as the totem, the threshold, walls and murals, playing, and the fragment. The seminar foresees collaborations among local ceramists, ceramic workshops, artists, designers, curators, and cultural associations. The outcome is the creation of prototypes to be discussed with the local community.