Mountain Smart Community Living Lab: culture, remote work and community housing for resilient inner areas

We propose Valle Soana, in Piedmont, Italy, as a pilot territory for experimenting with a new generation of “smart communities” in mountain and inner areas. The model combines three mutually reinforcing dimensions: a permanent cultural programme, an Alpine coworking/community hub, and accessible community housing for temporary and potential new residents.

The goal is to understand how cultural participation, remote work, digital services, reuse of underused buildings and participatory governance can help counter depopulation, reduce seasonality and improve quality of life in fragile mountain territories.

The pilot is already rooted in an ongoing local process. Comunità Sassifraga is developing MontagneOltre, a diffuse mountain festival planned in Valle Soana, and is working with local actors, municipalities and community organisations to activate new forms of participation, hospitality and territorial regeneration.

Partners sought
We are looking for municipalities, universities, research centres, NGOs, social innovation organisations, digital service providers, architecture/design studios, energy experts and organisations working on rural/mountain regeneration.

What we offer
A real Alpine pilot site, community engagement capacity, local stakeholder access, cultural programming, participatory methods, early-stage experimentation on temporary residency, and a replicable model for mountain smart communities.

Relevant topics
Smart communities; rural and mountain regeneration; social innovation; smart villages; cultural heritage; remote work; community housing; resilient territories; participatory governance; adaptive reuse.

Keywords
Mountain smart communities; rural living labs; depopulation; coworking; cohousing; cultural regeneration; community engagement; smart villages; Alpine pilot; Valle Soana.