Migration and the rise of informal settlements in contemporary rural areas: the contribution of landscape architecture

Abstract

Significant migratory phenomena are affecting contemporary rural territories, making them complex, heterogeneous areas in which strong contradictions emerge. Migration has become a structural component of territorial transformation processes, whose spatial effects are formalised in the rise of informal settlements. Inhabited by migrant farm workers and known as ‘ghettos’, the article describes their spatial characteristics. The territorial context studied is Apulia, specifically the province of Foggia, where two cases with extreme characters emerge: Gran Ghetto and La Pista in Borgo Mezzanone. In order to identify solutions for the construction of new spatial configurations capable of overcoming the strong current criticalities, the article intends to give voice to landscape architecture. The theme is examined through the figure of the American landscape architect Garret Eckbo, who worked in the 1940s in the United States rural territories, in a context that offers effective insights on the contemporary.