Local Bauhaus Festival: the ranking of the six winning projects for an innovative and sustainable future of inner areas

Minucciano, 14 June 2025 – The Local Bauhaus Festival took place at the Garfagnana Innovazione center in Gramolazzo. The event was promoted as part of the European project Bauhaus4MED (Interreg Euro-MED 2021–2027), inspired by the founding values of the New European Bauhaus: beauty, sustainability, and inclusion. The day was a moment of exchange between institutions, citizens, and the academic world, with the aim of collectively imagining the future of inner areas through design and co-creation.

At the heart of the event was the awarding of projects created by students of the Design for Sustainability course at the Department of Architecture of the University of Florence (DIDA – UniFI), the result of a process of listening and field research in Minucciano. Six projects were selected for their ability to interpret the needs of the territory, integrating environmental sustainability, social innovation, and the enhancement of local identity and aesthetics.

Here is the ranking of the winning projects:

1. First Prize Overall and Citizens’ Choice Award

SOHAM – What if stopping became a priority?

Gabriela Caballero Villa and Aurora Giuntini

An outdoor furniture system for psychophysical well-being, made from marble waste and eco-resins. The seating is designed for secluded and quiet places in the woods of Minucciano, allowing people to immerse themselves in nature, create spaces for retreat, practice meditation, and breathe in the landscape. SOHAM offers a sober yet evocative design that highlights silence, nature, and the slow rhythm of inner areas. It was awarded the Citizens’ Prize for its ability to interact with the landscape, promote mental health, and encourage new forms of experiential tourism.

1. Second Prize

The Traces of Marble – An illustrated history and workshop exploring marble and its hidden secrets

Laura Coppini and Marco Altemura

An interactive editorial and educational project for children that tells the story of Minucciano’s marble, the quarryman’s work, and local knowledge through simple texts and original illustrations. Designed for primary schools and educational workshops, the book becomes a tool to transmit local intangible heritage, offering interactive activities and creative spaces for children. A bridge between material culture and environmental awareness, it strengthens emotional ties between children and their territory, fostering intergenerational connection.

1. Third Prize and Evaluation Committee Award

ARDE – Outdoor lamp

Carolina Fioretti and Amira Eldhazawy

A modular lamp inspired by the shape and ritual of the Nataleccio, the traditional Christmas bonfire of the Garfagnana. Using natural and recycled materials such as local wood and marble waste, it is designed to furnish public spaces or trails with a luminous and strongly symbolic element. With an iconic and poetic design, ARDE evokes collective memory, rituality, and a sense of belonging, reinterpreting the archaic gesture of lighting a fire for the community in a contemporary way. In addition to third prize, it received the Evaluation Committee Award for its expressive strength and balance between form, function, and local identity.

1. Fourth Prize and Sustainability Award

materiaFondente – Marble waste as a resource for innovative ceramics

Victoria Sabba

An experimental project exploring the reuse of marble powder, a by-product of the quarrying industry, in the composition of artistic and functional ceramic glazes. The proposal shows how waste material can become a technical and aesthetic resource, contributing to the circular economy and opening new opportunities for local crafts and production. The Evaluation Committee awarded materiaFondente the prize for the most sustainable project, in recognition of its focus on environmental impact and innovative vision for material cycles.

1. Fifth Prize

S-TOOLS – The sound of the quarry

Jacopo Fillini and Simone Giannini

A sound and tactile installation that allows users to "enter" the world of marble through the sounds, tools, and gestures of the quarryman’s craft. S-TOOLS offers a participatory, multisensory experience, capturing the fatigue, rhythm, and poetry of quarry work. It is a project of sound memory and social design that highlights work culture and conveys it to younger generations through a contemporary and accessible language. The project is designed for public spaces, schools, or museums, encouraging direct community engagement and enabling a new narrative around the material and human heritage of the Garfagnana.

Special Award from the Evaluation Committee for the most beautiful and inclusive project

Minu.ti

Giulia Costa and Virginia Piombino

A participatory storytelling project that offers a digital platform where the inhabitants of Minucciano can share stories, places, knowledge, and life moments from their village.
Minu.ti is a web and digital application designed to give voice to the people of Minucciano. It is a living archive of authentic voices and local memories, and it also serves as a tool to promote conscious and intergenerational tourism by collecting stories, memories, itineraries, and genuine experiences accessible to visitors. The platform encourages slow and respectful tourism, strengthens community ties, and provides opportunities for the local economy. The jury awarded the project for its ability to combine social inclusion, digital innovation, and cultural enhancement in an accessible and scalable format.

A strong signal for the future of inner areas

The Local Bauhaus Festival demonstrated how the synergy between universities, territories, citizens and institutions can generate shared visions and concrete solutions for the challenges of ecological and social transition. The projects narrate the richness of Garfagnana’s territories – a wealth of knowledge, resources, and imagination – capable of attracting new energy and shaping innovative futures rooted in local identity. They offer a virtuous example of how the New European Bauhaus can be meaningfully translated into action within small towns and the inner landscapes of Italy.