2025 marked a pivotal moment for Fondazione Canova through the actions of the Ghesc_Lab project. Funded by Fondazione Cariplo’s Luoghi da Rigenerare call, the programme brought together restoration worksites, artistic residencies, education, research and technological innovation, transforming an abandoned village into an international cultural laboratory.
Restoration, training and sustainability
At the heart of the project was the recovery of three buildings, now home to a teaching room, a professional kitchen and new spaces dedicated to cultural use.
The works—carried out using natural materials such as lime, hemp and reed—have made Ghesc a model of sustainable restoration and bio-building experimentation.
A total of 160 students from 12 countries worked on site alongside craftspeople and Italian and international universities, creating a training experience that combined theory, practice and research into stone architecture.
Art, music and community
At the same time, Ghesc became a true cultural stage. In collaboration with Tones on the Stones, the village hosted musical artistic residencies exploring the relationship between voice, echo and landscape.
The Qualcosa in Comune project further expanded this path by involving schools, families and new residents in landscape theatre and land art workshops. More than 120 children, accompanied by teachers and parents, walked through forests, alpine pastures and ancient paths, turning the experience into a shared educational journey.
Heritage research and digital technologies
The survey of traditional stone architecture in the Ossola Valley reached 10 municipalities and produced over 500 new records, now collected in a geo-referenced archive.
Alongside fieldwork, collaboration with the Politecnico di Milano led to the creation of the 3D Virtual Center, an immersive digital model that allows Ghesc to be explored through laser scanning, photogrammetry and augmented reality—a bridge between memory and the future, designed for scholars and professionals as well as for a wider audience.
Looking ahead
2025 confirms that Ghesc is not merely a place to be preserved, but a cultural ecosystem in constant evolution: a village that brings together architecture, nature, art and innovation.
The challenge for the coming years? To keep it alive—by expanding artistic residencies, strengthening international collaborations and building a permanent Documentation Centre dedicated to stone architecture.
