What is test-design and how it works

In contrast to common opinion, industry has shaped the social and environmental features of many Alpine landscapes as well as the economy. For this reason and to this aim, trAILs (the EU-project trAILs 2018-2021 was co-financed by the European Regional Development ERDF within the Interreg Alpine Space Programme of the European Union), implemented what is known as the test-design procedure. Based on hard facts and data from the context, a series of design “explorations” are outlined by planners and designers from the partner universities, with the aim of showing a variety of possible futures for the same site. The proposals, as “test designs”, are then screened by means of a comparison matrix, in order to select the most significant ones for discussion with local communities and stakeholders. In a two-day test-design workshop, the evaluation of the selected test designs was conducted jointly by local and regional experts and synthesized in a set of mutually agreed planning recommendations. The main goal of the test-design procedure is to provide a platform to enable discussion, that is, as an operative framework to help local communities to evaluate performances in the regeneration process.