The Telematic Crustacean

di Annalisa Dominioni 01.12.1998 00:00

The village has been equipped with sophisticated technological infrastructures manufactured by Teleura that will allow the future inhabitants to use a much wider range of telecommunication means yet be able to enjoy the peace and quiet, and the feeling of isolation offered by the village.

The village has been equipped with sophisticated technological infrastructures manufactured by Teleura that will allow the future inhabitants to use a much wider range of telecommunication means yet be able to enjoy the peace and quiet, and the feeling of isolation offered by the village.

In No.22 of OFX published three years ago, we mentioned the start of an experiment in a place called Colletta di Castelbianco, which involved the renovation of the village combined with computerized infrastructures. The whole idea was to allow the inhabitants of the ancient mediaeval town to live in the heart of nature but be connected real time with the rest of the world.

This XII century village in the Ligurian countryside has been completely uninhabited for 30 years. It is currently being renovated by means of a two-tier project. On the one hand, there is the generalized restoration of the ancient settlement in full respect of the original techniques and materials, a project supervised by Giancarlo De Carlo; on the other hand, the village has been equipped with sophisticated technological infrastructures manufactured by Teleura that will allow the future inhabitants to use a much wider range of telecommunication means yet be able to enjoy the peace and quiet, and the feeling of isolation offered by the village. One of the major advantages of living here is the beauty of the surrounding territory but the people will not lose contact with the work environment and the information resources available throughout the world.

The first people moved in to the completed part of the village last June. They have the choice of whether or not to live in Colletta for extended periods, not necessarily in coincidence with the traditional holiday periods as they will now have the option of telematic work links; they can also choose to make this there permanent residence.

The project for the telematic links in Colletta were conceived and produced by Valerio Saggini and Stefania Belloni of Teleura in collaboration with Telecom Italia.

"The network is being completed in step with the renovation project explained Valerio Saggini -.It is structured on the basis of fiber optics and copper (155 Mbs) and acts as a single means of transmission for all the telematic services past and present, the so-called 'broad band', such as interactive television or video on demand that makes use of video signals.

There is a capillary network in the village. Each building will be fitted with two double telematic sockets, with the option of adding more if required. These can be used indifferently for the telephone or the computer. The telephone is digital and uses the Isdn network. We have a private telephone switch board that consents the direct connection with the Internet without the need of a modem. This allows us to obtain a very high quality service, if we compare it to the normal household supply. The service is provided through an Internet Server and a dedicated telephone line, operative 24 hours a day. This eliminates the cost of the telephone charges.

We also have a centralized Tv plant, a mobile telephone system, cordless and voice-mail or rather an advanced answerphone service accessible by phone from every home. This can also interface with the e-mail system, a very useful system because the person living in Colletta can telephone through the voice-mail box and listen to the e-mail messages that have been converted into synthetic vocal messages.

The choices made during the design phase and the work done on the communication plants for the village leave the options open - among the future possibility of a service of interactive television, not yet a reality in Italy with the exception of a few fortunate areas. But the plant has been designed for this type of service as soon as it goes into operation. The cable system that we have used will still be valid 20/30 years down the line, thanks to the width of the band.

In 30 years time, we will probably have to change the machinery connected to the networks but not the cable system. We are also designing, on an experimental level, a service of interactive television for integration with the internal Internet transmission in Colletta, reserved for the inhabitants in the village ".

For what reason?

"To test the various types, to understand what potential lies in a village with a network system like this, because it is the only one of its type in the world. There are some cabled cities in the Usa but this is different. In the Usa, the city is cabled bit by bit, block by block. In the case of Colletta, technology is an instrument that allows the inhabitants to live a very special life in a very special place -a mediaeval village. I don't think there are many similar situations".

Apart from telecommunications, have you planned any other in integrated systems of domestic automation?

"At the outset, we made some very deliberate choices, we didn't to carry out experiments of Domotics, Intelligent Building. What wanted to do was to recreate a living situation linked to the past, as a contrast to that strong presence, yet to create something that was invisible, technology and telecommunications, the means to give people the option of living and working somewhere other than the big cities. There was the possibility of inserting other forms of technology but the initial idea was to keep the home in the same dimension as man. In the reconstruction, we gave preference to the materials and autoctone technology, information that had to be studied and reconstructed starting from the ruins that had been left standing. According to the architect De Carlo, it was necessary to comprehend the genetic code and its method of generating the spatial events, or rather making a close examination of the ways the cells aggregate, typical of a crustacean that grows slowly and adapts to its support, which is also organic. However, even the natural solutions for water-drainage and recirculation of air proved to be extremely efficient when joined with the new technology and this served to raise the standard of living.

The technology is invisible. This is a mediaeval village that has been renovated to its former glory of centuries past. De Carlo is adamant about this, everything had to be done in the original manner. The frames were designed on the basis of the originals using the same techniques and the same materials. The technology is visible only depending on the use people make of it. It is not an end to itself but a means to allow the inhabitants to live that very special dimension".

"With this project, we enjoyed the surprise of discovering -explains Giancarlo De Carlo in the book 'From stone to bit: rediscovering the sense of belonging in the era of the global village' -that the adaptations were actually quite easy and the crustacean system we were working on was much more docile and reactive that the vertebrate system that has been so widely used in modern architecture. Another surprise was to have found the confirmation -more so than in previous cases -that an ancient building material such as stone, with its rigid laws linked to the very nature of the materials and the techniques used to combine them, supports the insertion of advanced lightweight technology better than the inserts of heavy technology used in the modern building.

The plants were conceived in order to create maximum efficiency, in an easy manner with no volumes or ruptures that would have proved hard for these spaces to support".

What percentage of the costs were accounted for the telematic operations in comparison to the renovation costs for the village?

"As we chose to perform very careful restoration in this project, costs were very high -continued Valerio Saggini -so I would estimate the infrastructures and the cabling network corresponded to small part of this total".

What sort of people are buying property in Colletta di Castelbianco?

“We have numerous professionals: university professors, writers, industrial designers; we also have doctors, architects... there's a good mixture”.

Have you managed to identify a common denominator connected to the type of work done by these professionals?

"Of course. It's a very important aspect for the people who have decided to buy or who have shown serious interest. In actual fact, this was the idea behind the project. We felt that there were a lot of people who had such specific needs for their predominantly intellectual activity, people who needed the peace and quiet of the countryside yet who needed to be part of a small community where social interaction is simpler and more immediate.

We felt that they would need this type of technology. If you consider that the project was started in 1991, you can see we were well ahead of our time. At that time hardly anyone spoke of the Internet, it was a word that conjured up mystery. We were surprised when we started selling. Our hypothetical client actually existed. There were people who were looking for somewhere to live and work, people who used this technology on an everyday basis. These people were from all walks of life but found themselves grouped together under the umbrella of a vision for an alternative life.

I never tire of saying that it is the village itself that selects its inhabitants. Colletta is a very special place that one person might like but another may hate!

The stark rooms with their mediaeval structure, the buildings split over several floors, the internal steps and stairs... but if you like it, you like it completely. And that is why everyone who comes to buy a house in Colletta has something in common with his neighbors, and that is why I am optimistic that a community will be created within the village. It has already started with the first few houses sold. We don't want to create an artificial community; what we wanted to do was create the conditions so that a community would be created. So we decided to build a coffee shop and an amphitheater. On the one hand they are used for socialization for the inhabitants of the village, and on the other, there are plans to turn Colletta into a place where cultural events will be held periodically, particularly when the weather is good. It's just another element that brings live to the village, real life because we don't want to transform it into a tourist trap or commercialized holiday camp".

[OFX, november - december 1998]

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