The Call for applications to participate in the Summer School of the Laboratorio del Cammino opens today!
Take me to the river is the 9th edition of the itinerant Summer School promoted by the Laboratorio del Cammino (LdC), an inter-university network of researchers developing research and teaching projects aimed at exploring the possibilities of walking within urban planning and design disciplines.
The goal of this ninth edition is to follow by walking the course of a river—the Pesa stream, between the provinces of Siena and Florence—in order to promote a perspective on waterways that explores their morphogenetic and multifunctional role in the landscapes they traverse. Walking along this blue and green spine and its branches, students—accompanied by professors, researchers, and local stakeholders—will broaden their perspective from the valley floor, where the river flows, to its entire watershed. They will grasp the complexity of the processes governing it and envision possibilities for giving it renewed internal coherence, balancing functionality, hydraulic and hydrogeological stability, beauty, and habitability.
The Summer School will take place from August 25 to September 4, 2026, and will consist of a walking route across the territory, starting from the upper Val di Pesa (in the municipalities of Radda and Castellina in Chianti) and ending in Montelupo Fiorentino. The final phase of production and completion of the Summer School outputs will take place there, while the final presentation day will be held in Florence at the Department of Architecture of the University of Florence.
Participants from the Bachelor’s Degree Program in Architecture Regeneration Sustainability and the Master’s Degree Program in Architecture and City Sustainability at the University of Parma will be awarded 4 credits (ECTS), based on the completion of the course assignment, which will be evaluated by the Scientific Committee during the final study day.
To apply, candidates must send, no later than Wednesday, June 3, 2026, an academic CV, a motivation letter, and two representative design work from their studies to the email address: laboratoriodelcammino@gmail.com.
The Summer School is promoted by: Dipartimento di Architettura (DiDA), Università degli Studi di Firenze; Dipartimento di Scienze, Progetto e Politiche del Territorio (DiST), Politecnico di Torino; Dipartimento di Architettura e Studi Urbani (DAStU), Politecnico di Milano; Dipartimento di Ingegneria e Architettura, Università degli Studi di Trieste; Dipartimento di Ingegneria e Architettura (DIA), Università degli Studi di Parma; Dipartimento di Ingegneria e Architettura (DICAr), Università degli Studi di Pavia; Dipartimento di Architettura (DA), Università degli Studi di Bologna; Scuola di Architettura e Design e Scuola di Scienze e Tecnologie, Università degli Studi di Camerino; Dipartimento di Bioscienze e Territorio, Università degli Studi del Molise; Dipartimento di Architettura (DiARC), Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II; Dipartimento per l’Innovazione Umanistica, Scientifica e Sociale (DIUSS), Università degli Studi della Basilicata; Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile, Ambientale e Architettura (DICAAR), Università degli Studi di Cagliari; Dipartimento di Architettura (DARCH), Università degli Studi di Palermo; Dipartimento di Scienze della Formazione (DISFOR), Università degli Studi di Catania; Department of Landscape Architecture and Urban Design (LAUD), Bilkent University; EQuiStiamo Associazione di Promozione Sociale – Progetto Vaghe Stelle; Associazione Archivio Storico Olivetti (AASO); Progetto Fiori; Ikonemi Centro indipendente fotografia di paesaggio.
For further information, please contact prof. Barbara Caselli (barbara.caselli@unipr.it) or the Laboratorio del Cammino team (laboratoriodelcammino@gmail.com) or visit the website: https://www.laboratoriodelcammino.com/summer-school-2026
