The restoration of the former village of Eni in Borca di Cadore and organising the tourist offer in the mountain huts of the Alta Via No. 1: these are the themes of the two theses that received the “Ten Years of Dolomites UNESCO World Heritage” award established by the UNESCO Dolomites Foundation and sponsored by the Autonomous Province of Trento as part of the coordination activities of the Training and Scientific Research Network, through the tsm | step School for the Government of the Region and the Landscape.
Former ENI village and the future of mountain huts in the spotlight
Federico Biasotto, Ettore Focaccia, Angelo Paladin and Simone Rossato are the students at Venice’s IUAV University (Master’s Degree Course in Architecture for the New and for the Old) who worked on the theme of “Restoration of a shared space: the restoration of a former ENI colony of Borca di Cadore in a dialogue between the natural and the artificial“, under the guidance of Professor Paolo Faccio and co-supervisors Gianluca d’Incà Levis, Tommaso Anfodillo, Albano and Paolo Poli and Alberto Attilio Bassi. The unanimity with which the selection committee decided to reward this research is a testament to its value: “As stated in the rationale, the analysis is based on original archived documents and provides a complete, and in many respects unprecedented, study of one of the most identifiable examples of modern architecture in the Dolomites and the Alps. As such, it makes a contribution to enriching our knowledge of the work of Edoardo Gellner.
Nicole Dallas of the University of Padua (Bachelor’s degree in Cultural Tourism Design and Management) worked on the theme, “Alta Via 1 of the Dolomites. Organisation of the Tourist Offer in Mountain Huts“, under the guidance of supervisor, Professor Stefan Marchioro. The committee appreciated her rigorous methodological approach, original field research (which included analysing 200 questionnaires administered in the Città di Fiume and Pian de Fontana mountain huts) and the proposal of some design hypotheses, “in particular”, reads the rationale, “that of a product club for the Alta Via mountain huts”. It also “examines and compares well with the Comprehensive Asset Management Strategy developed by the UNESCO Dolomites Foundation and particularly with the specifications contained in the document relating to Sustainable Tourism in the Dolomites. In short, it represents another important contribution to the future of the Dolomites World Heritage Site, further reinforced by the committee’s unanimity in its decision.
Honourable mentions: from VAIA to alpine farmstead tourism
An honourable mention also went to Cinzia Passamani, of the University of Florence (Bachelor’s Degree in Forestry and Environmental Sciences) for her thesis on “Impacts on the soil of heavy machinery used for exploiting fallen timber: the case of Storm Adrian in the state-owned forests of Cadino and Paneveggio“, under the guidance of supervisor Professor Giacomo Certini and co-supervisor Professor Enrico March. The second honourable mention concerned the field of tourism and culture with the work of Martina Scariot of the University of Udine (Bachelor’s Degree in Sciences and Techniques of Cultural Tourism), who analysed “The alpine farmstead system in the Belluno area and its evolution in the tourism sector“, under the guidance of supervisor, Professor Mauro Pascolini.
Ready for a new call for submissions
Rewarding young graduates means not only recognising their work but also involving them in the collective debate on the conservation, communication and enhancement of the Dolomite Heritage. The project, implemented within the scope of the Fund for Neighbouring Municipalities (Law No. 191 of 23 December 2009 and subsequent amendments as part of the “Valorisation of the region through integrated management and communication actions of the UNESCO Dolomites WHS”), is pushing forward, and it is already time to think about the new call for submissions: the theses should address the Dolomites UNESCO World Heritage Site in the broadest sense, referring to the meanings and values expressed by the Convention on the Protection of World Heritage, as well as by other international agreements such as the European Landscape Convention and the Alpine Convention.
The full calls for submissions and participation forms will be available on the official website of the Dolomites UNESCO World Heritage Site (www.dolomitiunesco.info) and on that of the tsm | step School for the Government of the Region and the Landscape (https://tsm.tn.it).