| Transform a derelict building into a modern training, research and environmental-protection facility: this was the challenge taken up by Claber when it created the "The Academy of Water". In the early years of the 20th century, on the banks of the Fiume river, near Sostegno di Pasiano (where as long ago as 1190 a mill stood), a hydroelectric plant was constructed, seen at the time as the veritable embodiment of progress. Destroyed during the Great War then reconstructed in the early 1950’s, the building was dealt a lethal blow in 1966 by a catastrophic flood. Thereafter, the ruins of the building stood not only for the end of a relationship, but also for a critical imbalance between man and the environment – that is, until the restoration project undertaken by Claber in partnership with local institutions. |
