Lago di Garda

The „Scenarios between Water and Mountains“ put forward with this book have been the underlying question for two urban design studio projects on Lake Garda and for the connected research activities of the Chair of Regional Building and Urban Planning of Leibniz Universität Hannover. Starting from observations of spatial dynamics, of cultural, social and economic energies around Lake Garda— that are bound to places of dense spatial characteristics—the book explains and displays a design and research approach: on one hand it is shown how creative interventions can bundle and accelerate current trends, dig territorial capital, and crystallise shared visions—and on the other hand the approach examines how the creative interpretation of places is bound to visions of the future. Lake Garda with its manifest architectural values, dramatic natural spaces, and a rich cultural context is seen not first-hand as area to be protected or to become even more touristic, but as social and economic spatial body outside of the metropolitan agglomerations of Northern Italy and the urban poles in the Alps. A latent spatial body, since the area is crisscrossed by regional borders, different cultural (and touristic) influences. Addressing „Habitat Horizons“ asks for a new role and vision of Lake Garda as place to live and as space of productive activities of almost 500,000 permanent inhabitants.