Our research aims to demonstrate the possibility of making the precincts devoted to therapeutic isolation (today mostly abandoned and awaiting new identities), inherited from 19th-century cities, interact fruitfully with the emerging demand for new spaces for personal care, as today it is interpreted in the disciplinary fields of psychotherapy and the social and anthropological sciences.
The thrust of our research lies in examining the vast disused structures present in the Region of Latium, such as asylums, sanatoriums, etc., featuring vast open spaces that today have accrued significant ecological and historical-landscape interest.
Despite the few partial recoveries that have gotten under way, numerous obstacles seem to be impeding the formation of new functional identities and collective identifications: the vastness of the complexes, the typological characterization of buildings and green spaces, the images and imaginaries connected to the painful isolation of the past, as is evident in the former psychiatric hospitals of Santa Maria della Pietà in Rome, San Francesco in Rieti and Belcolle in Viterbo, and in the former Forlanini sanatorium in Rome.
This research, in accord with some programs of the Health Departments, aims to verify the possibilities of transforming these spaces, once devoted to therapeutic isolation, into Parks for relational therapy, with reference to the projects, three major research topics:
(a) spaces favoring the autonomy of persons for developing socio-work skills;
(b) spaces able to encourage new lifestyles through "experiential paths" of well-being and psycho-physical equilibrium, especially in regard to food education and exercise;
(c) spaces transformable into Landscapes of curative relationships, possible "transitional objects", in their most advanced contemporary developments (Mindscapes), for treating mental illnesses by transforming abandoned landscapes into new vital landscapes of the mind.
The innovative nature of our proposed research can be traced back to the interconnection between new practices of care for frailty and mental distress, and projects of new curative landscapes, understood as possible spaces of cognitive and therapeutic experience through project experiments open to interdisciplinary dialogue. Our research will contribute to an advancement of knowledge through activating different viewpoints (landscape, architecture, ecology, sociology and communication) capable of interpreting the complexity and multidimensionality of abandoned care complexes and developing a mode of intervention applicable in other nationwide contexts, able to foster interaction between institutional and scientific subjects, open and constructed spaces, specific needs for curing distress and new practices of powerfully inclusive social interaction, in the spirit of present-day psychiatry.
Our research roadmap aims to develop a prototype, intended as a repeatable working method, but also as a tool for exploring limits and potentialities of intervention, whose effectiveness will be verified in three well-defined phases:
(a) preliminary planned simulation; (b) validation of the model through scientific, institutional and social comparison; (c) final formulation and dissemination
In relation to the research already carried out and the objectives defined in the previous section, the keywords, developed to ensure an effective link between social innovation and project innovation, are defined as follows:
- spatial development of new urban intersections (to interrupt physical isolation), understood as a quest for spaces in common between the city and these former precincts, linked to accessibility and outreach, as well as to citywide activities, events and encounters. In particular, spaces that enable traveling on foot or by bicycle, today considered central from multidisciplinary viewpoints for promoting movement, health and psycho-physical well-being (WHO 2018; Health City Institute 2016); ensuring participation in a network of interpersonal relationships; and increasing the possibilities of social interaction and becoming new public spaces in the contemporary city.
- spatial development of new functional and social interactions (interrupting specialized isolation) by activating actual links of activities related to work training and individual expression (creative labs), to the "practice" of wellness through education about food, movement and social relations, in order to check the spread of present-day pathologies (obesity, diabetes, depression, etc.). Spaces capable of encouraging common activities, collective uses and opportunities for encounters based not only on forms of assistance, but also configured as true "condensers" of sociability.
- spatial development of new forms of permeability with the external world (to interrupt therapeutic isolation) by developing spaces capable of supporting specific care strategies, in relation to contemporary formulations of Mindscapes. Hence spaces able to foster a relationship with the environment and the landscape for regenerating attention, improvement of cognitive faculties, and reduction of mental fatigue and states of anxiety or depression.
The prototype¿s aim will be to develop transversal topics of broad contemporary interest, linked to the quest for flexibility, understood as the ability of these spaces to diversify its modulations in relation to a variety of user needs, for example, to modify, in the course of assisting patients, the deployment of skills and abilities or even face up to failures and deteriorations. Another transversal topic is recognizability of the often invisible spaces where activities aimed at alleviating distress are carried out, by affirming the right to new forms of contemporary iconicity, capable of instilling form and appreciation in regard to therapeutic solutions in a very different way than in a past dominated by grim scenes of separation, admittal, hospitalization and even forced internment.
The model proposed is also innovative in that its administrative, economic and social feasibility can be measured through the prototype. This means considering the complexes of therapeutic isolation as patrimonies that are no longer abandoned but revivable as a cultural and economic resource, capable of attracting a sustainable tourism and stimulating cultural initiatives for informing the public on issues of health and well-being. The model therefore also foresees developing ideas on administrative feasibility that can guide development in all its "implementation" components.