Per il turismo, ma oltre il turismo. Il progetto di restauro ed ampliamento del Villaggio di Grangesises in Alta Valle di Susa (1972-1986)

Born as a reconstruction project of a rural hamlet and later expanded, the village of Grangesises, designed by Pompeo Trisciuoglio and built between 1972 and 1986 in the Alta Valle of Susa, represents a singular case in the history of Alpine tourism in the second half of the twentieth century. Situated within the broader cultural framework that, between the 1960s and 1970s, called into question the paradigm of ski-total as the sole development model for the Alps, the Grangesises project stands out for its intention to create a settlement that cannot be reduced to the logic of winter tourism. Drawing on previously unpublished archival material, the paper tries to reconstruct the intentions of the preliminary project, highlighting how the intervention went beyond the dominant dynamics of the time by explicitly adopting tourism as a vehicle for neo-population. The study of local architectural characteristics, developed during the reconstruction phase and reworked in the subsequent, only partially realised, expansion phase, gave rise to a project that, although heavily criticised, demonstrates a strong integration with its territory. Reconsidered today, in the context of the structural crisis of mountain tourism, Grangesises does not present itself as a replicable model but instead emerges as a significant episode, capable of opening a critical reflection on the role of architectural design as a mediating device between the environment and forms of mountain inhabitation beyond tourism.