Vol. 21 No. 1 (2023): Paradoxes of water
Editorial (Current series)

Paradossi dell’acqua. Un dialogo tra opposti

Fabio Di Carlo
Sapienza Università di Roma | Facoltà di Architettura
Carlo Peraboni
Politecnico di Milano

Published 2023-12-14

How to Cite

Di Carlo, F., & Peraboni, C. (2023). Paradossi dell’acqua. Un dialogo tra opposti. Ri-Vista. Research for Landscape Architecture, 21(1), 7–27. https://doi.org/10.36253/rv-15360

Abstract

This issue of Ri-Vista reflects on the inseparable link between forms of water and landscapes and on the meanings that this relation assumes in the design, both when it is explicit or implicit. It investigates the paradoxes of water and analyses the different attitudes, both on conceptual and technical levels. Moving from the different interpretative points of view hosted in this issue, we have chosen to present in this editorial two interrelated and complementary reflections about the opposite effects generated by increasingly recurrent climatic phenomena. The different contributions present a dialectic of opposites, often insufficiently investigated and sometimes inevitably ambiguous, which involves a continuous change of perspective in the reader. Following this "fluid" path, we met floods and storms as much as the drying up of the countryside and growing droughts. But these are the paradoxes of water and we think that today landscape design expresses entirely this duality. With this issue of Ri-Vista we collected experiences, projects and reflections that illustrate the propulsive role of water in the construction of contemporaneity. It is divided into 4 sections called: Narratives; Water territories, identity and contexts; Landscapes for water; Waters for living. They present the different strategies we can use in the management of water and how they become central, even when these are complementary to the different project aims.