MINIMAL LIVING IN THE MOUNTAINS
Fesival all'insú

We warmly invite you to the opening of the exhibition on Tuesday, September 6, at 7:00?PM at the Architekturgalerie München.

How can we build in the mountains in a contemporary, sustainable way, and with minimal impact? The traveling exhibition presents outstanding examples from across Italy – from the Alpine regions to the Apennines and the islands – demonstrating how small-scale architecture can open up new ways of living and community life, conserve resources, and foster dialogue with landscape and context.

The exhibition was developed within the framework of Festival all’insù, an architecture festival organized by the Comunità Montana di Valle Camonica. It is supported by Festival Architettura – Edition 3, promoted by the Directorate-General for Contemporary Creativity of the Italian Ministry of Culture.

On display are all 42 projects submitted to the prize of the same name, MINIMAL LIVING IN THE MOUNTAINS : including two winners, four special mentions, and twelve mentions. Accompanied by the jury’s statements, the exhibition panels provide a wide-ranging insight into contemporary Italian architecture. Represented are works from the provinces of Aosta, Avellino, Belluno, Bergamo, Bologna, Bolzano, Catania, Cuneo, Lucca, Siracusa, Sondrio, Turin, and Udine.

The spectrum ranges from public buildings given new life, to abandoned dwellings reactivated with new functions and architectural quality, to revitalized historic centers. Many of the projects are located in peripheral, non-urban areas – places that, through architecture and often with minimal resources, have regained value, identity, and in many cases a new soul.

Prize
The ABITARE MINIMO IN MONTAGNA Prize was established by the Comunità Montana di Valle Camonica as an integral part of Festival all’insù. Its aim is to highlight good examples and practices of transformation, especially in small mountain villages. The prize honors projects that, with minimal construction impact and low land and energy consumption, nevertheless achieve high architectural quality.

At its core lies the small-scale intervention in mountain areas – projects that optimize resources, enhance existing buildings through restoration, reuse, conservation, or partial reconstruction, and open new perspectives for housing and community life through a coherent dialogue between old and new. Eligible were completed projects from the past decade located at altitudes of at least 600 meters above sea level.

The jury – composed of Dario Costi, Carla Bartolomucci, Federica Visconti, Antonio De Rossi, and Giorgio Azzoni – evaluated the submissions according to five criteria:

1. the balance between quality achieved and resources employed,
2. the architectural dialogue between existing structures, context, and new intervention,
3. the scope of the project in terms of architectural and community regeneration,
4. innovation as well as environmental and energy sustainability,
5. the replicability of the chosen strategies.

After stops in Italy, Switzerland (Chur, University of Applied Sciences Graubünden), and Slovenia (Bled Culture Institute), Munich marks the final major stage of the European traveling exhibition – which presents a broad range of experiences, projects, and perspectives and shapes the discourse on the future of building in the mountains.