An abandoned quarry at the feet of the Alps is given a new life becoming a natural theater
While all the theaters in the world were closed due to the pandemic, a natural stone theater took life from a former extraction quarry at the foothill of the Italian Alps, thanks to an innovative and challenging environmental redevelopment. Tones on the Stones accepted the challenge with the building of Tones Teatro Natura, a place surrounded by nature, dedicated to the new generations and offering them brave new visions to build a more sustainable future.
Regional
Italy
Ossola Valley, Piedmont
It addresses urban-rural linkages
It refers to a physical transformation of the built environment (hard investment)
No
No
Yes
2022-09-30
As a representative of an organisation
Name of the organisation(s): Tones on the Stones Type of organisation: Non-profit organisation First name of representative: Fabrizio Last name of representative: Bressani Gender: Male Nationality: Italy Function: President Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Via Repubblica 7 Town: Verbania Postal code: 28923 Country: Italy Direct Tel:+39 393 063 1433 E-mail:fondazione@tonesonthestones.com Website:https://tonesteatronatura.com/
In 2019, Tones on the Stones, a non-profit foundation, acquired an abandoned quarry committing to its redevelopment, turning a site doomed to be a landfill into Tones Teatro Natura, a theater amidst woods, pastures, and mountain gardens, dedicated to innovation, performing arts, well-being, and educational activities.
The project is focused on culture and sustainability as the engine for the economic and social development of our territory, beautiful but at risk of cultural pauperization and progressive abandonment by the youngest.
At the core of a vast ecosystem, Tones Teatro Natura connected Art and Nature to create unique contents and opportunities that contribute to environmental, social, and cultural evolution.
As a gateway between its territory and the world, the project has an inclusive and participatory approach, following the guidelines of ISO20121 compliance, involving local businesses and major national and international brands which contributed to the making of Tones Teatro Natura.
Specific initiatives that fully represent our vision:
1) Campo Base Festival, made with and for the citizens and local associations. It explores the relationship between men and nature. It covers the mountain culture at all latitudes, breaking down the barriers between man and nature, domestic and wilderness, endorsing a new concept of environmentalism to be given as a legacy to the new generations.
2) RiGenerAzioni, dedicated to students aged 6 to 18, features workshops to discover local biodiversity by creating green areas to be used for outdoor activities for people’s well-being. It also includes creative labs on recycling and reuse, based on the principles of the 2030 agenda, and theatrical practices to create its manifesto, where students express their views and hopes about the pandemic, war, the cost of energy, and the consequences of climate change. They also meet with philosophers, writers, and innovative start-ups dealing with the circular economy.
Art&Nature
Inclusion
Sustainbility
Innovation
Education
The conversion of an abandoned industrial space into a new place of culture for developing and promoting a territory with a strong tourist vocation brought along the creation of new job opportunities for creative, artistic, and show business in a place that ended its legacy production. The summer season offers unique immersive shows that cannot be replicated in other locations.
The events and initiatives that take place in Tones Teatro Natura are ISO20121 compliant. The ISO20121-certified system is adopted for the sustainable production of our events, evaluating even the smallest details from a social, environmental, and economic point of view.
The users are strongly encouraged to use public transportation and car sharing; given the scarcity of public services in the region, we make special arrangements with travel operators to provide a dedicated service in correspondence with our shows.
The merge of the theater and its natural surroundings creates a new agorà for citizens, an always available space, with the functions of the interchangeable infrastructures (ex., the scenic turret which becomes a birdwatching post)
Two workshop areas for educational activities, team building, and corporate welfare; climbing gyms, life paths, and green spaces to play, think and relax were created with the lowest environmental impact in mind (recycling, plastic-free, eco-sustainable toilets with phytoremediation systems) and extensively using waste and recycled materials from mining and industrial activities.
The architectural strategy is based on three fundamental principles: modularity - transparency - flexibility. These three aspects determine a new and constant dialogue with the surrounding nature and future users who can shape the space according to their needs.
The project establishes a new dialogue between the territory's natural context and history, allowing a continuity that draws its roots from the past, handing future generations the possibility of using these spaces and contributing to their transformation. It enhances the natural context through a modular and flexible compositional strategy for different ways of use. The entire project is based on the geometric lines defined by the quarry, respecting the morphology of the landscape. The theater maintains the majesty of the quarry, and all its natural elements now serve new purposes.
In addition to the events area, the project includes several ancillary functions for the correct development of all activities. The master plan consists of two stages, one for events of up to 1,500 seated and 3,000 standing, and a second for performances of up to 500 spectators, a ticket office, a refreshment area, plus technical, workshop and training areas.
Within the area, you can find a small sustainable educational park with free admission called the Green Library, which can be used at any time of the year, created by planting trees and plants which in the past have built the wealth of the area. We created an educational path useful for schools and a pleasant place to spend time and laze around as in the tradition of think gardens.
Our main objective is to keep constant and strong the engagement and involvement of the public of all ages and categories towards Tones Teatro Natura. We do it with:
1) Very varied programming for aimed at different cultural and age targets so that no one feels excluded, creating a balanced mix between niche projects and events featuring popular artists
2) Discounted tickets and packages for students, residents, elderly, disabled.
3) Seasonal tickets to favour the exchange of the public between different activities and to bring young people closer to all the shows
3) Projects with third sector entities to include disadvantaged and migrants
4) Agreements with local associations with which actions and events have been planned to develop a sense of belonging.
5) Entrust services for the management of TTN and ancillary services to local subjects so that the project is considered positive also in terms of economic return.
6) Involvement in the strategies and in the composition of offers for tourists and spectators of small local entrepreneurs (B&B, agri-food producers, outdoors) to generate a network of relationships and business for everyone.
The challenge was positioning the theater as a "center" with the energies, dynamism, and visions of a large city, connecting them to the identity of the territory and labeling them with the binomial Culture & Nature. The result: instead of no man's land, a dynamic and future-driven community that develops rules of coexistence, closeness, and participation thanks to an ideal city with its Agora: a Theater in Nature. The first beneficiaries are the residents, with an essential focus on the new generations, entrusted with active roles and growing responsibilities to reverse the course of demographic, social, cultural, and economic impoverishment we are witnessing in this peripheral mountain area. The project's strength lies in its prospects: it is a process of inclusion and training that is part of a far-reaching strategic line and projected into the future from which are already benefiting the thousands of students, young people, and citizens who participate every year in our initiatives.
GREEN SENTINEL: Group of young residents responsible for environmental education and storytelling towards the public and the ecological "holding" of the quarry/theater. The group will also include young migrants who have been welcoming TotS for years in the implementation of projects. Evolution of the traditional festival and event volunteers, the Green Sentinels are site curators, and testimonials of all the cultural, social and environmental values the space promotes and disseminates. The Green Sentinels also have the task of telling the public how the theater was born and what the "rules of conduct" are for inhabiting it and taking advantage of the opportunities.
CAMPO BASE FESTIVAL: A national-wide festival created jointly with local associations, citizens, and micro-enterprises in the agro-food sector in the tourism, sports, and hospitality sectors: All contribute to promoting an environmental culture and valorizing the natural capital of the mountain's intangible heritage.
The first step in the creation of Tones Teatro Natura was to create "Before and After" in the summer of 2020, a study work with the participation of architects, philosophers, researchers, cultural operators and artists, in which all could support the design. At the same time, citizens met to gather their requests and ideas. All of this has been channeled into the architectural and strategic design.
The Piedmont Region has been the partner for finalizing the project and the environmental redevelopment process for two years. After the geological interventions, the project passed to landscape evaluations with the final approval of the Superintendent of Fine Arts. The Banking Foundations were important interlocutors and actors: they followed the planning and eventually contributed to the architectural part and the regeneration involving the citizens.
The Municipality of Crevoladossola was involved in setting up services aimed at better fruition and discovery of Tones Teatro Natura (street lighting, parking lots, roads, and connections).
The project showed a surprising ability to attract private individuals and businesses who made goods and services available in kind, allowing the making of the theater in record time. Marble slabs to set up the stage, cables and electrical systems at symbolic prices, bleachers built with local materials cut to measure and assembled with ancient techniques: the values of the project, deeply linked to the 2030 Agenda, the beauty and uniqueness of the place, and the artistic and cultural quality of the programming, allowed something that has never happened before in Italy to become a reality.
Tones on the Stones is waiting to apply for new national and European opportunities to construct a plant that allows green energy independence.
The design was commissioned in 2020 to a team of young architects in Milan. They teamed up later with a group of local architects and engineers with extensive experience in the stone sector. The project has seen from the start a strong engagement of local stone companies who have supported it by proposing sustainability solutions and technical simplification, both linked to the varieties and functionalities of the materials used.
High-profile consultancies related to Multimedia Entertainment Engineering Design have been activated to allow the space to become a place of innovation and experimentation in the field of live entertainment.
For the value, strategic and mission part, residencies were held with philosophers, writers, and artists, leading to the drafting of a manifesto.
A two years process with various design revisions following the activities, alternating with the construction phases, allowed the performance of the shows, making it possible to find the best answers to the needs that emerged over time and real-life experience.
QUANTITIVE KPIs
1) 10,000 attendance since July 2022
2) 30 shows
3) Over 100 artists hosted
4) 10 laboratories
5)RiGenerAzioni: 30 workshops already scheduled for spring 2023 with the participation of 400 students
6) 15 private companies that in kind supported the creation of the theater for a value of € 250K
7) 3 major foundations have supported the project with a financing of €455K
QUALITATIVE KPIs
1) We made a "Place of Culture" available to people living in a peripheral mountain area, capable of bridging an evident gap compared to the opportunities offered by metropolitan areas.
2) We created a flywheel project for the tourist development of a territory that must renew its positioning more captivatingly to intercept new national and international users under 50.
3) We reshaped a business model in the cultural field that supports the entertainment industry and teaches young people how opportunities can exist where there seem to be none.
We have no evidence of a similar project, entirely managed by a non-profit organization of artistic extraction, which has been able to create and attract so much attention from the business world and the media around the project and which has intercepted a profound need to revolutionize the approach to the fruition of post-pandemic culture.
Everything has changed, and we need to find new approaches that bring people into theatres. Creating activism around cultural and environmental issues is fundamental, and at Tones Teatro Natura, this can be done simultaneously.
Tones Teatro Natura is located in a remote mountain location, but young people are arriving from all over Europe, attracted by the quality and artistic refinement. The new RiGenerAzioni project is an example because as soon as it was launched, it completely fulfilled the availability in just three months; 400 students will arrive. All of this is something extraordinary, especially in Italy.
The project was conceived and designed from the very beginning with a sharing approach in mind: institutional, with citizens, with private businesses, and with local associations. No one has been left behind.
The commitment was total to find the balance between gathering high professional skills, making sure of having structural and infrastructural quality, and at the same time using great simplicity and always inclusive objectives in all our communication. The goal was not to position Tones Teatro Natura as a magnificent but alien spaceship that somehow landed in the middle of our mountains but as a theater that arose from the historical and social foundations of the area, and it’s owned and taken care of by everybody.
For the entire infrastructure, in-depth studies were carried out to make long-lasting choices with the lowest environmental impact and enhance the local stone heritage. As a result, today, Tones Teatro Natura almost doesn’t need any maintenance, offering at the same time great possibilities for modifying spaces through easily removable and relocatable modules to meet the needs of diversified activities, from live shows to climbing gyms.
Tones Teatro Natura is a virtuous example of how territorial criticality (there are hundreds of abandoned quarries) can become an economic, social, and cultural lever for a truly fragile territory. New professions appear in a region that lacks opportunities; young people can return to living in peripheral mountain places if they have stimulating examples and options from strategic planning in networks involving social, business, and cultural sectors.
The issue of exhausted quarries is a hot topic in Italy, and we usually deal with essential environmental redevelopment. However, virtuous reuse, which generates a new economy or becomes the bearer of cultural and social values, is not an absolute novelty. For this reason, Tones Teatro Natura is an example to be inspired by.
The fact that it was created with a perfect mix of resources and has captured the attention and generosity of many companies is a sign that, perhaps even in Italy, the time is ripe for this type of operation. In fact, in recent times, the Tones on the Stones Foundation has been invited to worktables in other regions several times to bring its know-how to this area. We talk about it in the Polytechnics and the ministries and are ready to tell it all over Europe.
Our programming addresses the global challenges through several actions:
Inviting artists capable of bringing deep observations on the biggest current topics, artists able to shake everybody’s consciences
During Campo Base Festival, we offer activists opportunities to present their causes and projects
We contribute to the education of young kids, presenting activities that form an environmental awareness
In our space management, we adopt strategies such as:
1) Local food suppliers
2) Free water, no single-use plastic
3) We promote rules of conduct through all our channels which we have called "Instructions for sustainable participants"
4) Supply of energy from renewable sources and fundraising to build your own plant for green energy independence
The 2030 Goals that have been certified in 2022 are: #4, 5, 7, 10, 11, 15 and #17
