waiting for the Po

Piacenza is a city without a river. It is inwardly facing, bound by railroad tracks and highways transporting people and goods, and marked by the ancient city walls that once defined where the city ended and the countryside began. But what of its river 300 meters to the north? Severed from the city by railroad tracks, the A21 highway that runs from Torino to Brescia and flood control infrastructure, the area between Piacenza and the Po has become a place in waiting. This workshop asks students to work within this intermediate and uncertain state to invent and activate a narrative of Piacenza and the Po.

The Landscape Of(f) Limits International Workshop
Politecnico di Milano - Polo Territoriale di Piacenza
Professors: Hope Strode, Federico De Molfetta, Atelier De Molfetta & Strode
Role: Tutor
Student work shown, by: Zhu Xiangxiang, Zhao Xinyu, Stephen Soniya

Students were asked to examine the relationship between geology, ecology, topography, river dynamics, climate, social dymanics and history from both the poetic and the analytic standpoints to begin to develop a narrative for their project.

The work was represented in the format of video and animations, which were intended to express site potentialities by putting into relation the intuitive and atmospheric readings of the site with the analytical explorations of site dynamics through mapping.

Students developed projects for the site that aimed to activate the uncertain and indeterminate landscape between the city and the river.