OILANDSCAPES. Research by design as a multi-scalar methodology for the resignification of the trans-regional scale of oil meshes in Adriaitc-Ionian region

The current debate about the relationship between energy and landscape is at the centre of attention as we are witnessing an epochal change in the way energy is produced, moving from a centralized system, to a distributed territorial one (Sijmons, 2014). From this point of view, the cathedrals of modernity of energy production (Branzi, 2006) of the second industrial revolution will see their territorial role completely compromised, as well as the large and interconnected infrastructural network spread over vast areas. In the light of their territorial role and in view of the energetic transition foreshadowed by Rifkin’s third industrial revolution (2011), the paper looks at the widespread physical connections among upstream, midstream and downstream activities as the real potential that an oil infrastructures’ reconversion could share for the forthcoming territorial restructuring. It will be necessary to overcome the notion of oil infrastructures which scatter territories, and embrace the systemic vision of oil meshes spread over vast territories in order to outline innovative development scenarios with a wider restructuring potential, which integrate socio-ecological dimensions to the infrastructural design domain and define new OILANDSCAPES. The research wonders about how the oil mesh of the North-Eastern Po valley in Italy could be de-engineered, and, thanks to its renewed role of green energy backbone, could enter the domain of green infrastructures planning. In this way, OILANDSCAPES should become those landscape articulators which could foster the dialogue across territorial, urban and energy production scales, and assign a new role to green energy infrastructures in the definition of new urban models for the third industrial revolution. Research by design is the methodology chosen to investigate territories, using mapping and scenario-building tools in order to imagine and evaluate spatial futures (Viganò, 2012 and Sijmons, 2014).