Campofei: incontro tra tradizione e innovazione

Campofei is one of the most important villages in the Municipality of Castelmagno, in the higher Valle Grana, and is characterised by a unique complexity in terms of settlement morphology. The phenomenon of land abandonment has been quite dramatic since the first half of the 20th century. However, in 2009 four entrepreneurs decided to invest in the renovation of the entire village by setting up a farming partnership called Chandarfei. A few targeted measures led to the economic revitalisation of the village through the creation of small businesses connected with the Castelmagno cheese supply chain and the production of herbs. The ambitious goal of this intervention is not the renovation of a single building but rather of the entire village and the landscape. The problem of ownership fragmentation has been solved through the purchase of the entire housing cluster and its outbuildings. The renovation project translated into a number of small and large-scale strategic measures within a more complex design. The goal is to trigger, through individual interventions, a chain reaction for the renewal of the village and of its landscape. The designers are the same that gave new life to the village of Paraloup. The renovation project had to deal with issues related to the criteria of intervention on a widespread heritage, relaunching the challenge of designing the dialogue between old and new for the creation of new landscapes.