Liminal Fellowship

Approximately 70% of Italy’s territory consists of small and medium-sized municipalities with fewer than 6,000 inhabitants which have been grappling with depopulation disinvestment, degrading infrastructure, and mounting environmental stresses. As a result, their rich cultural, historical, and natural heritage has remained on the margins, neglected, and deteriorated over time. Liminal Lab is tackling this condition by implementing a research laboratory spread over the Italian territory that leverages small municipalities’ historical and natural heritage, and transforms their underutilized infrastructure into places of learning and research.

This initiative is a high intensity fieldwork experience that documents, analyzes and proposes solutions for the sustainable development of small communities. As an applied research program, it brings together students and local stakeholders to tackle intractable problems faced by communities through a multi-disciplinary approach. We are looking for a multi-disciplinary group of students that together have a knowledge base in landscape architecture, territorial mapping, graphic design/visual identity, data visualization and coding.

Liminal Lab Monti Prenestini will be working in the towns of Castel San Pietro Romano, Rocca di Cave, Capranica Prenestina and Guadagnolo. The towns are located in the region of Lazio, approximately 50 Km away from the city of Rome. Students and researchers will spend 6 weeks, from July 3rd until August 11th, working in direct contact with the territory of interest and its stakeholders.

Students will engage in:

1. Conducting meetings with territorial entities that are pushing forward activities instrumental to the social economic and cultural regeneration of the Prenestini Mountains;

2. Visiting archives and local museums and;

3. Territorial activities of interest for project proposals such as hiking, local food festivals.

Students from the fields of architecture, landscape, urbanism and data science will work together to perform field research and engage in conversation with local stakeholders, experts and community members. They will learn about the major challenges faced by communities, and explore concrete avenues through which these communities may maximize their exposure to the socio-economic development opportunities that the grants they won could generate. The initiative will conclude with a public review and conversation of the work. Students will be asked to put together a report that highlights the opportunities and challenges brought forward with their project proposal.

Liminal Lab will allow students to take the field experience they will develop through the first week of the program and augment their understanding of the site through granular data that they will be collecting. This includes GIS maps, photogrammetric models of key site features, qualitative and quantitative surveys and a synthesis of current fundings and initiative being brought forward by the municipalities.

The objective of the workshop is to develop a cohesive web platform that documents and narrates a novel identity of the territory suited to the 21st century. This will include:

1. Study of consistent visual identity for the territory;

2. Mapping of itineraries through which the territory can be discovered and its environmental, historical and artistic assets can be revalued;

3. A architectural and landscape interventions for Sensory Islands along the trails in the territory and;

4. A proposal for reusing underutilized infrastructure.

This is a high intensity workshop that will require students to engage in long conversations, go on many hikes, and be respectful of the time and space local mayors and citizens will be carving out for us.

Flights and lodging will be booked directly by Liminal before the student's arrival. Living expenses will be reimbursed at the end of the program. Students will need to provide appropriate fiscal certification of the expenses they sustained.

Liminal will ask students to sign a:

1. Waiver for any pictures or any recordings that will be taken and published by the non-profit or the municipalities Liminal is collaborating with;

2. Release of liability in case of an event.

Given last year large volumes of applications, we might ask for an interview over zoom in order to go over your schedule and make sure you are truly interested in taking part in the initiative. There are no language requirements but preference will be given to individuals with a basic knowledge of the Italian language.

Liminal is a network of young professionals that work with local communities and government authorities to shape the future of rural areas of Italy struggling with depopulation and disinvestment. Liminal is an Italian non-profit organization with a stakeholder-focused approach. Its members share a strong belief in on-the-ground knowledge transfer and capacity building.

Liminal was born out of the desire to promote a prosperous, equitable and environmentally responsible future for the Italian territory. To its members, this means reinforcing a model of poly-centric sustainable development that builds upon the country’s historic settlement conditions, north to south.

We live in an age that requires us to reassess every assumption. How we work is changing. The ways we build community are changing. The behavior of our environment itself is changing, radically. Liminal was founded with a drive to reimagine the relevance of small cities and towns, and help transition them into the exciting, complicated future that lies ahead.