Studies carried out since more than a decade on conservation and maintenance of the rural settlements in either coastal parks, both the Apennines, both the mountains, can contribute to face the new workshop paying a special attention to analytical methods and techniques of conservation, maintenance and consolidation of traditional physical structures. In the last few years, this kind of knowledge has increased with reference to the most suitable techniques to enhance thermal behavior and to produce energy, even recurring to renewable sources. This background will surely get rich, studying the nucleus of Castelvecchio Cavisio, giving answers to the problem - both methodological and technical - of reconstruction of parts or whole buildings damaged or destroyed by the earthquake of 2009. The case of Castevecchio Calvisio, however, cannot be only limited to the technical sphere (or to the most appropriate ways of physical intervention); it can, in fact, be assumed as emblematic of a larger issue, that of the revitalization of the ‘ghost towns’. This kind of problem covers, in Italy, different geographic sites, including the areas of the Tuscan-Emilian, Ligurian and, indeed, the Abruzzi Apennines. Recent studies carried out by groups from the University of Florence (Department of Urban and Regional Planning) and Politecnico of Milan (‘Geographies of abandonment’) demonstrate that one of the regions with the highest percentage of abandoned towns is precisely the Abruzzi. The most frequent causes of abandonment are to be ascribed, before to earthquakes, to depopulation processes related to social and economic reasons. The process of revitalization probably passes through the valorization of historical, environmental and cultural landscape (what we can call ‘collective memory’), which also targets specific administrative procedures, as shown by recent experiences such as: - Eco village in Torri Superiori (Ventimiglia), on the border between Italy and France; - Colletta di Castelbianco (Savona, Liguria), where Giancarlo De Carlo, in the ’90, anticipated the principle of ‘physical distance’ and ‘spiritual closeness’ through internet ; - International Artists' Village in Bussana (Sanremo, western Liguria), where artists occupied, since the ’50, the structures not damaged by the earthquake, giving charm to the ruin; - Varese Ligure (eastern Liguria) – the first Italian small municipality to have obtained the European environmental certification and European funds to restore its medieval historical center and to increase biological agriculture; - Santo Stefano di Sessanio (Abruzzo) – where a single real estate agent imagined and realized the ‘Diffused hotel’ (‘Albergo diffuso’), preserving the village according to the principle ‘as it was where it was’ (also using antique furniture). In such a process must be put into play local resources, for example related to new forms of equestrian tourism (Castelvecchio Calvisio belongs to a sub-branch of the horse riding trail of the Apennines of Abruzzo), non-local resources (possible forms of immigration, potential community or events), and measures to promote, with the involvement of public and private actors.

From 'ghost towns' to 'places of memory': a process of re-signification

FRANCO, GIOVANNA
2015-01-01

Abstract

Studies carried out since more than a decade on conservation and maintenance of the rural settlements in either coastal parks, both the Apennines, both the mountains, can contribute to face the new workshop paying a special attention to analytical methods and techniques of conservation, maintenance and consolidation of traditional physical structures. In the last few years, this kind of knowledge has increased with reference to the most suitable techniques to enhance thermal behavior and to produce energy, even recurring to renewable sources. This background will surely get rich, studying the nucleus of Castelvecchio Cavisio, giving answers to the problem - both methodological and technical - of reconstruction of parts or whole buildings damaged or destroyed by the earthquake of 2009. The case of Castevecchio Calvisio, however, cannot be only limited to the technical sphere (or to the most appropriate ways of physical intervention); it can, in fact, be assumed as emblematic of a larger issue, that of the revitalization of the ‘ghost towns’. This kind of problem covers, in Italy, different geographic sites, including the areas of the Tuscan-Emilian, Ligurian and, indeed, the Abruzzi Apennines. Recent studies carried out by groups from the University of Florence (Department of Urban and Regional Planning) and Politecnico of Milan (‘Geographies of abandonment’) demonstrate that one of the regions with the highest percentage of abandoned towns is precisely the Abruzzi. The most frequent causes of abandonment are to be ascribed, before to earthquakes, to depopulation processes related to social and economic reasons. The process of revitalization probably passes through the valorization of historical, environmental and cultural landscape (what we can call ‘collective memory’), which also targets specific administrative procedures, as shown by recent experiences such as: - Eco village in Torri Superiori (Ventimiglia), on the border between Italy and France; - Colletta di Castelbianco (Savona, Liguria), where Giancarlo De Carlo, in the ’90, anticipated the principle of ‘physical distance’ and ‘spiritual closeness’ through internet ; - International Artists' Village in Bussana (Sanremo, western Liguria), where artists occupied, since the ’50, the structures not damaged by the earthquake, giving charm to the ruin; - Varese Ligure (eastern Liguria) – the first Italian small municipality to have obtained the European environmental certification and European funds to restore its medieval historical center and to increase biological agriculture; - Santo Stefano di Sessanio (Abruzzo) – where a single real estate agent imagined and realized the ‘Diffused hotel’ (‘Albergo diffuso’), preserving the village according to the principle ‘as it was where it was’ (also using antique furniture). In such a process must be put into play local resources, for example related to new forms of equestrian tourism (Castelvecchio Calvisio belongs to a sub-branch of the horse riding trail of the Apennines of Abruzzo), non-local resources (possible forms of immigration, potential community or events), and measures to promote, with the involvement of public and private actors.
2015
9782930301631
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11567/778630
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