Philosophy
In general a productive landscape is misunderstood as a natural, rural and coastal environment exploited by industry (including tourism), that in recent years has introduced eco-machinery in the territory (solar, wind, or wave power plants), or the industrialization of fishery and agriculture that produces food in large scale, bio-fuels and biomass. All these technological and industrial measures do not make the territory sustainable, because they expel society from their environment, transforming the territory into technological and productive ecological deserts, generic landscapes, with the implementation of the same solutions in any context independent of the rich landscape diversity (cultural and ecological).
A productive landscape is sustainable if it accomplishes the following premises:
1. It belongs to a cultural construction, which adapts to the cultural landscape and the local environment, with a clear strategy of preservation and maintenance of the cultural values and the identity of the territory, including the revitalization of the palimpsest of traditions, heritage (built and natural) and collective memory. At the same time it is adapted to the local resources, and the climatologic, geographic and ecological features of the local environment. It encourages a respect for what already exists, making visible processes that already occur in a specific context. It respects the existing local environment, and the food and energy production adapts to the real needs and demands of the local population.
2. It must be multifunctional within an integrated system of different actors involved in the same space (energy and food production, industry, tourism, education, leisure, culture, nature, health, housing, commerce). It takes into consideration the relation between all these different actors and understands the complex processes of interactions and relations between them. In the case of the rural territory, it should be economically alive and dynamic, with a diversification of work opportunities, infrastructures and services, where the rural and the urban are more integrated and inter-related.
3. It takes into account social participation, involving the self-maintenance and self-organization of the space. It encourages individuals to interact with their close environment through participatory processes and a close physical experience. It considers the bottom up synergy of people making the city, the countryside, and the coast. The individuals play a role in the transformation and change of the territory. A social commitment for sustainability is needed, through collective participation, social debate and educational diffusion.
4. It values the phenomenological qualities of the space that is perceived and experienced, looking at emotions, memories, the individual senses and the mental bonds. The phenomenal richness of landscape is present in the social imaginary, the collective memory, the desires, the tactile and the poetic experience.
5. It considers new models of mobility thinking in alternatives to the car, and betting for intermodal ways of transportation (pedestrian, bike, bus, train).
