**7.7 Resetting spatiality**

Every spatial arrangement is the product of structural information [12, 64–66].

Information has been considered as a basic property of the universe like energy and matter. Information refers to order, structure and organization. Moving materials and debris from one place to another for maintaining the status of human habitat means reshaping topography and creating new processes that lead to the creation of new topological and ecological patterns.

#### **7.8 Shaping action**

Design is envisioned as a series of actions that intentionally induce spatial alterations with the aim of putting in place a clear form of evolution [20, 22, 68].

The project is intended as a precise and sophisticated tool able to synthesize agents and complexities generating an alteration of place, and which the place itself will be able to metabolize through time and space. One has not to look for an appreciable formal composition in a still image, but rather has to seek the connections and relationships between the elements that make up a landscape, of visible and invisible components. Soil is the physical dynamic matter influencing these transformations.

#### **7.9 From fragment to framework**

Starting from the resolution of local issues through environmental specificities, soil is proposed as catalyst element involved in situating the parts in relation with the whole. The spatial configuration of contemporary territories is pervaded by the figure of the fragment and the dispersion. Reframing the soil as a palimpsest provides to detect the matrix of structural transformations approaching territorial scale to neighborhood unit. Thus, the fragments become framework components for a structure of connections, strategically transformed into levels of essential infrastructures as a qualification for an organic vision of the territory, capable of evolving in the space– time relationship by defining a direction of change [20, 21, 37, 69].

#### **7.10 Processing possible reality**

Processing possible reality affords the greater proximity to what exists and what is yet to come. In replacing natural dynamism and features, landscape design praxis should be addressed to take care of the impact of moving materials and energy flows and to analyze the design effects through several assessment scenarios. Simulating a field of possibilities offers the greatest closeness to the manifestation and manipulation of the ground itself, making the landscape present and vivid, as it exists and as it could be [19, 49].

### **8. Conclusions**

As main conclusion, the study of literary sources combined with the study of concrete practical examples constitutes the basis for elaborating on the research objective and research questions toward an argued theory, which is not based on rigid consistency but on correspondences. The result is not the proof of a theorem but the discovery of an unexpected point of view.

The landscape design tries to interpret the contemporary needs in updating and adapting the territories to new challenges. The aim is to drive these values into the future by increasing the level of compatibility between the evolution of the human habitat and the maintenance of nature's regeneration times toward a novel esthetic.

The research offers a comprehensive and detailed overview on the topic without finalizing the debate on it. The lack of a specific bibliography and the high interdisciplinarity of the topic—landscape and soil—leads to this effort of creating a new approach, able to bring innovative contributions. For a matter of time and possibilities, the argument cannot be completed or ended but can be highly implemented both in speculative terms and in landscape design praxis.

Moving from theoretical frameworks to operational approaches is, however, still a challenge, for a number of issues, and one has to be aware that there are also difficulties for designers who want to conduct research by design. From an operative point of view, it can be deployed on more case studies in combination with parametric programs, and the interpolation of soil data could bring to design implementation and more effective and realistic forecasting in territorial transformation. Otherwise, the soil data and information basis are often not adequate—or it is at insufficient resolution, or it is contradictive—and the simulation tools that can be used to test the design hypotheses are not always as much reliable as needed.

*Moving Horizon, Design Praxis through Soil Transformation: A Landscape Manifesto DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.110176*

Even if the recognition of the multifunctionality of soil was already present in the definition of soil quality, the difficulty of finding indicators able to describe this complexity remains a critical issue. Since soil data and simulation tools are constantly developed and their reliability is continually improved, their value for design hypothesis testing within research by design continuously increases.

The framework is flexible, in defining indicators and in calculating them. It can be used at different spatial scales and is capable to integrate new knowledge when available. In this view this framework opens new avenues for more research by design in the academic field of landscape architecture and environmental design in the future.

Nevertheless, for further implementation, William Bryant Logan work 'Dirt, the ecstatic skin of the Earth' [5] remains a good inspiration for those who are approaching to the topic: "We spend our lives hurrying away from the real, as though it were deadly to us. 'It must be up there somewhere on the horizon,' we think. And all the time it is in the soil, right beneath our feet."

### **Acknowledgements**

The work presented is an excerpt from the PhD's thesis work of Vittoria Mencarini. The work concerning the SECAP of Ravenna represents only an application of the methodology elaborated during the development of the thesis. All the authors took part in this work as well as Lorenzo Tinti and Beatrice Magagnoli, from University of Ferrara (Italy). This work would not have been possible without the help, guidance and support provided by many individuals I have had the pleasure of getting acquainted with over the course of the thesis. In particular we would like to extend my gratitude to the following people for their contribution in transferring the results of my research into effective impacts: Dott.ssa Luana Gasparini, responsible of Educational Environment Office in the Municipality of Ravenna; Dott.ssa Laura Prometti, geologist, management staff CBR (Consorzio di Bonifica della Romagna); Dott. Massimiliano Costa, biologist, Director of 'Delta del Po' Park; Dott. Paolo Mannini, agronomist, General Director of CER (Canale Emiliano Romagnolo); Dott. Simone D'Acunto, biologist, Director of CESTHA (Centro Sperimentale per la Tutela degli Habitat); Dott. Luciano Vogli, enviromental scientist, researcher at CIRI EA (Interdepartmental Centre for Industrial Research on Energy and Environment) University of Bologna.

Since July 2021, Vittoria Mencarini has been working at the Municipality of Ravenna, as designer and building site director in Naturalistic Area office. She is also in charge to the SECAP dissemination and implementation. This work allows her to carry on applied research on the topic and to transfer the result of PhD thesis into reality.

### **Conflict of interest**

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

*Land-Use Management – Recent Advances, New Perspectives, and Applications*
