From November 11th to 13th, 2025, the Province of Bergamo, in collaboration with LE2C, hosted the second transnational mission of the SPACE-NEST project, bringing together partners from Italy, Spain and Slovenia for an immersive journey into mountain regeneration, social economy and community-led transformation. The mission provided a rich programme of interregional learning, field visits and collaborative design fully aligned with the values of the New European Bauhaus.
During the first day of study visit, participants explored some of the most emblematic examples of rural innovation in the Bergamo valleys. In Dossena, they discovered how heritage sites such as the mines and the Tibetan bridge have been transformed into drivers of sustainable tourism and community entrepreneurship through the work of the cooperative I Raìs. On the same day, visits to La Bonne Semence and Contatto illustrated how former industrial buildings and disused social facilities can become welfare centres, therapeutic communities and inclusive workplaces. The visit to Contrada Bricconi showcased how a 15th-century alpine hamlet can be reborn as a contemporary ecosystem integrating agriculture, gastronomy and farming.
On the second day, the mission moved into the Scalve Valley, where partners conducted on-site visits to buildings in two locations.
In Azzone, the group explored the village square and the Casa nella Roccia, an abandoned structure of strong symbolic and historical value. Both sites represent strategic opportunities to reconnect people, heritage and landscape through new forms of social economy and community services. In Schilpario, participants visited a former school and a second central building rich in potential for cultural and social uses.
Building on insights from the visits, participants co-designed four forward-looking concepts that reinterpret the selected sites as engines of cultural, social and economic regeneration for the Scalve Valley.
One proposal imagines “La Casa nella Roccia – Ventaglio Route”, turning the iconic rock house in Dezzo (Azzone) into the symbolic gateway to the valley system through a museum area, a tourism and information hub, and a new inter-valley path linking local industries, heritage sites and emerging entrepreneurship.
Another concept, the “Scalve Valley Mountain Hub”, transforms a large, abandoned house into a circular, multifunctional centre with an upcycling and design lab, mountain training services, an Alpine coworking area and residencies for artists and designers, forming a productive ecosystem rooted in sustainability and local culture.
A further idea, “Bridge Future–Past”, proposes a dual-building approach in which the historic Casa nella Roccia becomes a centre for interpreting local history, while an adjacent renovated structure hosts a rural social innovation lab and flexible community spaces, connected by a symbolic bridge between heritage and future development.
Lastly, “The House Within the House” reimagines the building in Schilpario as a community-driven hub hosting culinary workshops on the ground floor and temporary residences for trainees, researchers and cultural actors on the upper levels, complemented by a “data house” system that monitors activities and supports informed, inclusive and long-term regeneration.
