Summer School 2026 as part of Waterschool South

Along the coasts of Syracuse, the sea was for centuries a space where fishing, cooking and craftsmanship were interwoven into daily life, and where knowledge was passed down through gestures and shared time. Until the 1970s, the city's port was populated by boats, nets and small coastal economies. Then, with its progressive “touristification”, these practices gradually disappeared, displaced to the margins of a transforming landscape.

A fish out of water It is the annual Summer School organised by Abadir for Syracuse Academy, aimed at male and female students of the University of Minnesota and cleaned by Giulia Colletti. It is part of WaterSchool South, Abadir’s educational programme focuses on water as a finite resource and a crucial element for regional development; it is the Mediterranean offshoot of the Waterschool, founded in Rotterdam by Studio Makkink & Bey.

The workshop investigated the collective life of the Syracusan coast, observing how coastal communities have organised their daily lives in relation to the sea and how the environments we define as “natural” are strongly shaped by human choices, value systems, practices and negotiations stratified over time.

Over the course of seven weeks, moments of territorial exploration alternated with practical activities in which the observation of places and people was translated into collective design processes and prototyping exercises.

In the photo: introductory talk and walkscape in Ortigia with Moncada-Rangel, visit to the fish market with Giulia Colletti and Francesco Tiralongo, cooking class with Marco Falcone.

We started with the walkscapes, walk through Ortigia and the Plemmirio protected marine area, aimed at critically analysing the coastal landscape, the architectural context, local ecologies and economies, traces of the past and ongoing transformations along the seafront. 

We then focused on fish, understood as a key to interpreting life on the island. Fish is part of a network marked by seasonal rhythms, environmental conditions, orally transmitted knowledge and exchange systems: a boat trip together with local fishermen and a visit to the fish market of Ortigia allowed us to familiarise ourselves with fishing-related activities and the infrastructure that regulates the movement of fish in the city, and to immerse ourselves in the dynamics of life and work in a small coastal town.

We then experienced cooking as a convivial act, and not merely as a practical means of subsistence, thanks to a cookery class led by Marco Falcone, architect and chef, which concluded with a shared meal.

In photo: prototype development with Luigi Greco / GRRIZ, visit to the Rodolico shipyard in Acitrezza (CT), talk with Carlo Roccafiorita and upcycling of fishing nets.

The third week of the summer school marked the transition from the experiential phase to material experimentation. The meeting with Luigi Greco, an architect specialising in tactical urbanism and co-founder of GRRIZ, introduced the concept of temporary architecture and reversible spatial systems – adaptive practices that are ideal for a fragile ecosystem such as that of the Plemmirio, as they are designed to be dismantled without leaving a trace. Together with him, we developed the first prototypes, which laid the foundations for the final installation.

From Ortigia we temporarily moved to Acitrezza, on the Cyclops Riviera (Catania), accompanied by Alice Valenti, an artist specialising in Sicilian pictorial-decorative arts, who is on the front line in promoting endangered artisan trades through initiatives such as The last shipwright. At the Rodolico Shipyard, we observed the work of the shipwrights, builders of wooden boats and the last guardians of a centuries-old tradition that embodies an intimate knowledge of the coast and of life in seaside villages.

Back at the Syracuse Academy, the focus on traditional craft practices shifted to fishing nets: Carlo Roccafiorita, a project manager specialising in the circular economy and material regeneration, presented the project undertow, dedicated to sustainable fishing practices, inaugurating two days of practical work on net repair and the circular regeneration of discarded fishing gear, during which the textile surfaces of the final installation began to take shape.

Pictured: final working sessions with Giulia Colletti and Alba Balmaseda Domínguez.

During the final phase of the summer school, we undertook a process with Giulia Colletti to catalogue and reorganise all the materials, references, narratives and ideas collected, working on documentation as a practice capable of holding together research, memory and public communication.

Starting from the regenerated nets, alongside Alba Balmaseda Domínguez we developed a series of individual modular elements, tested against wind, light and human interaction, before being reconfigured into progressively more complex spatial compositions.

The work culminated in the collective construction, alongside Luigi Greco, of the final pavilion in the garden of the Syracuse Academy in Neapolis: a site-specific and eco-sustainable structure made of chestnut wood and regenerated nets, presented to the public at a final event that brought together male and female students with designers, institutional members and local communities.