site map
My name is Virginia and when people ask me what I do for a living, I tend to answer that “I work in design and construction with natural materials,” fully aware that this is an incomplete answer, but concise enough and therefore socially functional in some contexts.
The answer I would actually like to give is that during my first years of university studies in architecture, I found it extremely difficult to conceive of design as separate from manual knowledge. So I started looking for a way to train myself while also being on site. That’s how I learned about self-building, a way of building in a community, where everyone can learn and contribute to the process. On some of these sites, I delved deeper into techniques for building with natural materials: lime, earth, straw, and many other materials that were commonly used until the pre-industrial era and that have incredible properties, a reduced environmental impact, and great benefits for the health of inhabitants.
But it was the discovery of permaculture, a design method that imitates the cyclical structure of natural models (which do not produce waste or pollution), that allowed me to connect the dots and truly integrate design and construction, as well as a healthy way of doing it together, promoting care for the earth and personal well-being, thus generating added value and integrating every process into a complex vision (that is, made up of many elements interacting with each other).
APR24
HEART OF EARTH - Interview with Virginia Stammitti
edited by Franco Cimei, RIVISTA STANCA
OCT23
BETWEEN EYES AND SOUL - Ep.7 Building with natural materials
edited by Sario Ramingo
In this new perspective, my interest in self-production, herbalism, fermentation, fields that in the meantime I had begun to explore, were no longer just hobbies or a dispersion of energy, but on the contrary, they completed an increasingly rich and coherent picture.
Another fundamental element of my journey was the encounter with nonviolent communication, a facilitation method theorized by M. Rosenberg, which starts from the idea that our well-being as human beings is closely connected to our needs, and that learning to recognize and communicate them gives us the possibility to create a more harmonious relationship both with ourselves and with others.
By adding up all these stages, a broader panorama began to take shape, within which home, food, health, environment, relationships, were no longer separate fields, but primary needs to be met through daily practices and actions that promote our well-being in harmony with the environment in which we live. The work of designing, building, self-producing thus took on a new dimension, in which every aspect is inextricably connected.
Realizing that I couldn't overwhelm every poor soul who asked me "what do you do for a living?" with all these words, and at the same time experiencing the frustration of having to choose between the activities I was pursuing in order to fit myself into one or another recognizable professional role, I decided to focus my work on disseminating these topics, sharing practical knowledge with an integrated approach, to design, build and act with increasing awareness and therefore well-being. Now, after a few years of building sites, courses, experiments, collaborations and many, many reflections, I feel that the time has come to give a name and an identity to “ what I do ”.
This is how Incolte was born.
> INTERVIEWS
OTT23 | BETWEEN EYES AND SOUL - Ep.7 - Building with natural materials | - curated by Sario Ramingo
APR24 | HEART OF EARTH | Interview with Virginia Stammitti pt.1 - curated by Franco Cimei, RIVISTA STANCA
APR24 | HEART OF EARTH | Interview with Virginia Stammitti pt.2 - curated by Franco Cimei, RIVISTA STANCA
> COLLABORATIONS