Encouraging Reuse

Encouraging Reuse was an action research Challenge conducted in the Lys Valley within the municipalities of Fontainemore and Perloz in Valle d'Aosta between spring 2024 and early 2025. The main objective was to explore how granular knowledge of built heritage (building by building) can support reuse strategies in mountain areas subject to depopulation, and what kind of supporting infrastructure is really needed to transform this knowledge into action.

The project is part of a line of work initiated by Liminal in the municipality of Pettorano sul Gizio (Abruzzo) and in Monti Prenestini (Lazio), consolidated through a master's thesis at MIT on the village of Guadagnolo (Lazio). In these contexts, a mapping method was developed and refined based on indicators visible from outside the buildings and on georeferenced digital forms that register data to detect their typology, degree of occupancy, and state of conservation. Encouraging Reuse represents the first test of this method on a larger territorial scale and with the systematic involvement of local actors and institutions in the Region of Valle d'Aosta.

The Challenge was divided into two phases. Phase 1 focused on territorial research and mapping. A mixed Liminal–MIT–local youth team mapped over 700 buildings in the hamlets of Fontainemore and Perloz, collecting standardized data and photographs for each one. At the same time, discussions, interviews, and working sessions were held with businesses, associations, services, and local governments, producing SWOT analyses and user journeys on the reuse of existing real estate assets. On this basis, a number of building clusters were identified as laboratories for reuse scenarios, and techniques for analyzing the data collected were tested to provide insight for these scenarios.

During Phase 1, discussions with local actors highlighted that the main bottleneck to reuse lies not so much in the absence of actually available properties or regulatory instruments, but in the lack of a third party capable of accompanying citizens along complex reuse journeys (from the idea to the economic model, from relations with the bureaucratic system to communication). This realization led to Phase 2, dedicated to defining, testing, and documenting an initial version of the role of local reuse facilitator.

In Phase 2, a group of local initiatives in various stages of development voluntarily participated in a support program marked by periodic meetings, shared diagnosis sessions, working tools (strategic canvas, financial plans, communication materials), and interim reviews. This support program, designed as a case study, demonstrated in concrete terms the extent to which the facilitator can help to bring order to objectives, resources, and constraints, and to engage in brokering dialogue between funding bodies, institutions and local initiatives.

In terms of results, Encouraging Reuse has:

1. Consolidated an operational method for surveying real estate assets in small towns, using digital tools and reusable protocols.
2. Produced a georeferenced dataset and an initial training set of images useful for future methodological developments based on image-recognition.
3. Helped train young people in the area in the use of these tools and in the critical interpretation of built heritage.
4. Defined and tested, with dedicated tools and guidelines, the role of the Local Reuse Facilitator, rooted in real problems, people, and artifacts in the Lys Valley.
5. Opened a structured dialogue with GAL Valle d'Aosta and the regional government, laying the foundations for future applications of the results on a GAL or SNAI scale, and via inter-territorial cooperation projects (LEADER and Interreg programs).

Overall, the Challenge has made it possible to consolidate a two-pronged approach: on the one hand, a knowledge infrastructure on built heritage stock, and on the other, a model for supporting local initiatives that choose to invest in reuse. Some aspects initially envisaged, such as the legal analysis of tools for the reuse of real estate assets, were deliberately kept in the background in order to focus energies on developing the mapping method and experimenting with facilitation. This was due to the fact that the experience on the field proved that they were the most relevant elements for the context in question.