Urban Thinkers Campus – Communities’ Sustainable eXperience
Solutions for sustainable, resilient, inclusive, and accessible community regeneration
Organizing body: Madonie Living Lab
Event location: Madonie Campus, former Convent of the Reformed Fathers, Petralia Sottana (PA)
Event date: September 22 – September 24, 2023
Event description:
The Urban Thinkers Campus – Communities’ Sustainable eXperience is one of the most significant initiatives of the Madonie Living Lab project, serving as a platform for discussion and planning dedicated to the sustainable development of inland areas. The event represented a strategic opportunity to present a broad portfolio of community-led processes, practices, and solutions, focusing on the value of sustainable, circular, and responsible innovation in the Madonie region.
Through conferences, roundtables, and side events, over 100 speakers—including professionals, local administrators, university researchers, and representatives of organizations and businesses active in the area—discussed key territorial development issues, consistent with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations Urban Agenda. In particular, attention was focused on three strategic axes:
- Skills development and reduction of inequalities (SDG 10), as a lever for strengthening social and economic equity in rural areas;
- Inclusive and sustainable economic growth (SDG 9), based on the valorization of local resources and skills;
- Participatory design of sustainable processes (SDG 12), which recognizes communities’ active role in building solutions for the future.
During the first day, the panel “What Future for Small Municipalities” provided a central moment of reflection.
Among the speakers, architect Mariano Genovese, director of INSULAE, presented the company’s contribution, starting from a design approach that integrates architecture, territorial vision, and community participation. His presentation emphasized the role of small municipalities as laboratories of social and spatial innovation, capable of experimenting with sustainable development models rooted in places and relationships.
From this perspective, Genovese also shared the results of the CAMPUS ASIA 2023 Workshop – “Valledolmo Paradise 2030,” an international program involving 42 students and faculty from the universities of Busan, Kyushu, Tongji, Vienna, and Palermo. This experience strengthened the dialogue between education, research, and local communities, confirming the value of international cooperation as a tool for imagining possible futures for inland areas.
INSULAE’s participation in the Urban Thinkers Campus CSX confirms the company’s commitment to promoting sustainable transformation processes based on listening to communities, project quality, and a long-term vision for fragile yet potentially rich areas like the Madonie.
event gallery
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