2 LANDSCAPE AND FULLING MILLS

BROKEN LANDSCAPE

The valorization of the Remole fulling mills as a systemic key to a territorial experience

Students: Lorenzo Maria Benzoni, Alex Beretta, Giulia Biondi Supervisors: Marco Voltini | Stefano Tropea | Academic Year 2019/2020

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TRANSVERSAL VISIONS

The Remole fulling mills, as well as those of Quintole, Girone, and Rovezzano, are born as a response to the high energy demand required by the fulling process pursued by the Florentine wool industry. This is the reason why the four plants were placed along the Arno river within various inlets: the exploitation of the water system made them a perfect manufacturing system closely linked to the territory. The thesis proposal therefore aims to overturn this historical relationship through the conservation and architectural refurbishment of these medieval complexes, considering that the recovery of these artifacts would allow a process of protection and new life of the territory itself, placing them as key points of a larger scale system.

LANDSCAPE AND FULLING MILLS

A “widespread industry”

Fulling mills are born as autonomous and independent complexes one from another

ROVEZZANO FULLING MILLS

43°45’47.7”N 11°18’52.0”E

Site potential

Built as exploitation machines of the territory

GIRONE FULLING MILLS

43°46’02.2”N 11°20’04.8”E

Industrial advancement

The evolution of the production processes led to the disposal of the fulling mills, erasing the close

relationship with the territory

QUINTOLE FULLING MILLS

-Key points

Consolidation of hydro-geological risks Accessibility

New slow-mobility routes Recovery of agricultural complexity

REMOLE FULLING MILLS

43°47’18.0”N 11°23’02.9”E

Rewriting an inherited relationship

The recovery of the architectural artifacts would allow a process of enhancement and protection

of the territory

FULLING MILLS POTENCIAL FRAGILITIES

ELEVATION LEVEL

AGRICULTURAL SYSTEM

The Florentine countryside is a heavily contaminated agricultural territory composed of different types of crops, denoting a stratified agricultural complexity. In particular, in the areas surrounding the four fulling mills taken into consideration, there is a relevant presence of shrub vegetation, pine forests, and hardwood ones, mixed with vineyards and, above all, olive groves.

This variety of crops and, more generally, the agricultural landscape itself, represent a fundamental value under the perspective of an intervention aiming at rewriting the inherited relationship between architecture and territory.

HYDRO-GEOLOGICAL INSTABILITY As evidenced by the strategic location of the fulling mills, the Arno river has been a fundamental resource for the economy and development of the city of Florence and the surrounding area for centuries. However, this resource, over time, has turned into an important issue to be contained, mainly due to the numerous floods and river level rises that have occurred over the last few decades. These have determined the need for a hydrogeological risk classification of the area (divided in four different levels of danger).

The intervention therefore should aim at safeguarding the river landscape and preventing any floods of the river.

ACCESSIBILITY

Critical point of the relation between territory and fulling mills is their accessibility: in particular the Remole fulling mills, being the only one located on the opposite bank of the Arno river compared to the others. For this reason, the project should aim at intensifying the use of the railway as a strategic connection between the fulling mills and the city of Florence, with the support of bus lines that are currently not sufficient to ensure an adequate connection.

It could also be useful rebuilding the small port of the Remole fulling mills destroyed by the flood of 1966, restoring the ancient connection of the two Arno banks.

VISUAL PERMEABILITY

The system of the medieval hydraulic factories, established on the banks of the river, is characterized by an always different orography of the ground leading to diverse conditions of visual permeability: upstream, where the Remole fulling mills are located, the more hilly landscape allows greater permeability view towards the inlet of the Arno in which the ancient factory is located; vice versa downstream, the other fulling mills, closer to Florence, result hidden in the context.

LANDSCAPE FACTORY FACTORY LANDSCAPE

Low-level of instability Medium-level of instability High-level of instability Maximum-level of instability Main road Road network Railway Bus|train stops Wild forests Pine forests Hardwood forests Olive-groves Vineyards Arboreal vegetation Agricultural fields 10m contour lines Field of vision