Architecture and Design Master Plans for Reusing Mafia-Confiscated Properties

During the Biennale dello Spazio Pubblico in Rome (May 25–28, 2017), a master plan for repurposing properties confiscated from the mafia was presented at the Faculty of Architecture of Roma Tre. The plan, conceived and coordinated by the Agrorinasce-NIB Laboratory, includes converting former bosses' houses, villas, and land into startup incubators and biomass parks. The projects were developed within the Master Architettura|Ambiente at the NIB School of Architecture in Salerno, coordinated by Centola&Associati, which offers scholarships totaling €60,000 for Italian architects, landscape architects, planners, engineers, and designers under 35. A flagship project is the 'Mosaico Vegetale,' an educational farm to be built by 2018 at Santa Maria La Fossa, Caserta, on a masseria confiscated from camorra boss Francesco Schiavone 'Cicciariello.' The farm will host 2,700 bioplastic pots—one for each local citizen—symbolically involving the community. Designed by Luigi Centola and Innocenzo Bortone, the project won first prize in a competition for recovering camorra-confiscated properties, promoted by Agrorinasce as part of the cultural project 'Dal degrado alla bellezza.'