Architectural Intervention  
Constructlab

August 16 - August 25, 2017
Casa delle Agriculture  |  Castiglione  D’Otranto, Italy

Collaborator
Benjamin Blanchon

Hosts
Casa delle Agriculture
Free Home University 

After obtaining permission to transform Castiglione’s unoccupied elementary school into an agriculture school, the association Casa delle AgriCulture invited Constructlab and Free Home University to be its first in-house residents. Their idea being that of transforming the building into a place where both culture and agriculture converge. The school could then become a central point to share their different activities with the citizens of Castiglione.

Furthermore, the transformation of the school happened in parallel to the building up of the annual Notte Verde, an evening based on three principles: agriculture, utopia and community, transforming the town into a manifesto of the alternative agricultural practices present in Salento. In this context the kitchen would serve as a place for the association, the artists in residency and the neighbours to meet, nourish and and discuss after long days of work. But also as a way to slowly and respectfully inhabit a space that locals have always seen as the local elementary school.