LANDSCAPE’ S POLARIZATION THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT: INLAND AND THE LAKESHORE
Standing in the middle of Iseo Lake, as its own name suggests Monteisola is both an island and a mountain at the same time: the diversity of its physical and environmental features has indeed favoured the development of different settle arrangement by the population, as well as different kind of activities.
In inner towns the main activities were those related to the land, such as agriculture, forestry and pastoralism. Towns are usually smaller, and they spread around their center toward the surrounding campaigns, between the woods and the fields. Buildings in here assume rougher traits, by the distinctive use of the local natural stone.
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The old towns next to the lake shore on the other hand have always been growing in relation to fishing and related crafts activities( like the manufacture of nets and boats). They therefore spreads following the coastline, and the houses seem to be rising from the waters and climbing up to the slopes, rather than being firmly secured to the land.
These are the two dominant polarities of the landscape around the Island, and we could maybe state that the authentic“ genius loci” lies in the very same dialogical relation growing across the centuries between these two realities, enriched by continuous and reciprocal contaminations.
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