Residenza "Ernesto d'Alfonso"
Casa La Magnolia, Sesta Godano (SP)
A space for research and creative practice located in a Mediterranean Inner Area. The Residency invites researchers, writers, artists and cultural professionals to work within this territory as a site for experience and knowledge production.
Programme
The Ernesto d’Alfonso Residency was established as a space for research and creative practice in Sesta Godano, in the heart of the Val di Vara. Promoted by the Conoscere Sesta Godano e la Val di Vara Association, it is open to researchers, writers, artists and cultural professionals, with no restrictions based on age, nationality or discipline.
Residencies last between two weeks and one month, depending on the requirements of each project.
What the Residency offers
The Residency provides free accommodation at one of the properties of La Magnolia in Sesta Godano (SP), offering a peaceful setting in which to focus, work and experience the beauty of an unspoilt rural area.
Who is it for
The Residency is open to researchers, writers, artists and cultural professionals from all countries and at every stage of their professional careers.
Topics of interest
The themes to which we pay particular attention are inspired by the interests of Ernesto d’Alfonso, whose research focused primarily on architecture, landscape, philosophy, art history and local history, with a strong interdisciplinary approach.
The call is nevertheless open to all types of creative proposals.
Ernesto d'Alfonso
The Residency is dedicated to the memory of Ernesto d’Alfonso, architect and professor at Politecnico di Milano, where he taught throughout his academic career, first in Stylistic Characteristics of Monuments and later in Architectural and Urban Design. Founder and director for a decade of the PhD Programme in Architectural and Urban Design, he was also the creator of the journal Arc – Architecture, Research, Design, conceived as a platform for exchange and coordination among PhD programmes in Architectural and Urban Design. After his retirement, he founded Arc2Città, an editorial project to which he devoted the final fifteen years of his career with tireless dedication and passion.
A scholar of remarkable originality, Ernesto d’Alfonso developed an interdisciplinary body of research, bringing together history, architecture, urban planning, architectural theory and philosophy. His work gave rise to a rich teaching practice and an extensive body of books and essays.
Deeply connected to Sesta Godano and the Val di Vara, in 2010 he co-founded the association Conoscere Sesta Godano e la Val di Vara and promoted numerous cultural initiatives aimed at enhancing the value of the area and strengthening awareness of its identity.
Through this initiative, we seek to offer researchers and cultural practitioners the opportunity to spend a period of research and work in a place that encourages reflection, exchange and creativity, ideally carrying forward the intellectual and human legacy of Ernesto d’Alfonso. Immersed in the unspoilt landscape of the Val di Vara, the Residency aims to be a space where dialogue between disciplines, people and landscape can continue to nurture the same spirit of curiosity, rigour and openness that characterised his entire academic and cultural career.
Why choose Val di Vara
The Val di Vara, located in the hinterland of the Province of La Spezia, just inland from the Cinque Terre, represents a particularly significant setting for research, situated at a historic crossroads between the Apennines and the Mediterranean.
The valley preserves a rich heritage of landscapes, agricultural practices, architecture, memories and social relationships that offers a local perspective through which to explore phenomena affecting the European Inner Areas of the Mediterranean basin.
