Matteo Ghidoni

The workshop proposes to examine the intimate relationship between the island of Ortigia and the main structuring element of its territory: the water.
Access to clean water sources is a key factor of social inclusion among international indicators on human rights.
The presence of water in the city - nowadays mostly reduced to a picturesque feature - has always concretely addressed real human needs: drinking, washing, personal hygiene, reservoir for fishermen and sailor.
At the same time more or less monumental fountains and water basins directly construct an idea of “living together” that goes beyond the mere symbolic form.
The workshop will imagine and design a series of BATHS scattered around the island of Ortigia, in search of a more direct, varied and inclusive relationship to water.
THE BATHS are thought as activators of small and simple forms of collective space.
THE BATHS will intercept the existing water infrastructure and its terminations: the popular ones (Fonte Aretusa, Fontana degli Schiavi, Bagno della Regina, The Miqwé) as well as the more hidden or forgotten ones (Concerie, Occhi di Zivillica).
THE BATHS will encourage proximity and a certain degree of promiscuity. They will expose rituals of self-care and celebrate the connection between the human and the political body.