Paola Gullino

Planning Rural Landscapes: A Participatory Approach to Analyse Future Scenarios in Monferrato Astigiano, Piedmont, Italy

Abstract The future of rural landscapes in Europe is the subject of considerable debate between policy-makers and researchers. This paper aims to analyse public awareness of social, economic and political forces affecting future rural landscapes in an effort to support local planning policies implementing the European Landscape Convention in a rural landscape (Piedmont, Italy). Public consultation with two focus groups (Institutional Stakeholders and Civil Society Stakeholders) was set up to reveal personal perceptions. In the first part, the main driving forces affecting local landscape transformations were identified and their likely effects were discussed with the participants. Participants’ preferences regarding three alternative future scenarios were analysed in the second part. Results confirmed the complexity of a shared decision-making process in planning rural landscapes. Not only did the two groups differ in expectation, perception and attitude, but also in their interpretation of the landscape scenarios.

The interpretation of the English landscape garden between 1815 and 1840 through Xavier Kurten’s work in Piedmont (north-west Italy)

Abstract Xavier Kurten (?–1840) was a Prussian landscape gardener who worked for the Savoy family in the Piedmont region of Italy in the first half of the nineteenth century. He designed or redesigned all royal parks, creating a specific style based on the English naturalistic garden approach. This research was performed with the aim of investigating the development of the English landscape garden in Italy. Historical documents relating to Kurten’s biography and his work in Piedmont, including plans, were collected and analysed. We analyse and discuss the features that characterised his work: the relationship between the landscape—garden—house, the path system, the use of water, the vegetation, and the garden as a productive landscape. Kurten’s style is compared with the projects of William Kent and Lancelot ‘Capability’ Brown.