Seeking harmony. Regenerating Malga Ceda of Andalo and designing a new didactic center in the natural park Adamello Brenta

Everything in nature has its own character and personality, its own language and destiny; and by observing and listening to earth it is possible to hear its voice. However, we often tend to forget our primal relationship with the natural world, too busy focusing on our fast-moving life and culture of material consumption. Too frequently we do not give enough importance to the natural environment and its inhabitants, taking them for granted and at times even considering them inferior to us. Nature surrounds us everywhere we go, in different ways and forms, but in some places its influence on us is a lot stronger, such as in natural protected areas, where it looms before us. These sites are locations which receive safeguard because of their recognized natural, ecological and cultural values. These places are essential for biodiversity conservation and they help maintaining ecological and natural processes that could not otherwise survive in other intensely managed landscapes. An enormous amount of animal and vegetal species inhabits these areas; some of them are more endangered, and some got more accustomed to human presence than others. However, what they have in common is that in many cases we as visitors approach them disregarding how our presence in their territory influences them. It is common among people to have the tendency of getting too close to the animals, to be too loud, too sudden or incautious with movements. These situations are likely to happen since many of us are not used to such a close relationship with the natural world anymore, and we are not prepared to deal with it in the most suitable way for us and for the animals. Henceforth, this thesis aims to seek an alternate perception of the relationship between man and nature, of how men need to respect and adapt to nature’s needs and not vice versa, especially when it comes to protected areas. This project takes advantage of an underutilized historical alpine pasture shelter in a natural protected park in Trentino, Italy, to give it a new life as a didactic center. The goal of the center will be not only to inform people about the different species present in the park, but especially to form them on how the animals perceive us in their habitat and how to relate with them.