Archaeology and nature: hyblean cultural landscape and territorial ...

Archaeology and nature: hyblean cultural landscape and territorial
regeneration
Franca RESTUCCIA, 1 Venera GRECO, 2 Mariateresa GALIZIA, 1 Cettina SANTAGATI 1
(1) Department of Architecture, Facoltà di Ingegneria, Università di Catania, Catania, Italia,
franca.restuccia@alice.it; mgalizia@dau.unict.it; cettina.santagati@dau.unict.it
(2) Head of Department of Cultural Heritage of Catania, soprict@regione.sicilia.it
Abstract
This study is the result of an interdisciplinary cooperation among specialists, scholars and different skills
aimed at the requalification/regeneration of the archaeological park of Kaukana in Santa Croce Camerina
(RG). It is a wide area along Mediterranean which becomes the driving for economic and functional growth of
territory, along with landscape valorisation and environmental restoration.
This area is one of the best Sicilian well preserved late antique period settlement. Over there archaeology
and nature merge in a cultural landscape which is unique in its genre and that has been studied by means of
innovative cognitive tools (3d laser scanning, photomodeling, and so on) which constitutes the first step
towards a conscious territory government.
By acting without big distortions; by supporting the vocation to transformation through actions aimed at the
restoration of the past; by qualifying spaces and reinventing green fruition actractive paths; then the
archaeological area becomes a resource, regenerated and inserted into touristic distrects, which produces
work and both material and immaterial richness.
It represents a regenerative model founded on virtuous values of nature and biological models, which are
able to carry out a development “founded on the reduction of the waste of raw materials, human resources,
assets”. That is a conscious intervention which through the survey, the re-drawing and the analysis of
existent places generates less wastes/more life improvement, less environmental impact/ more essentiality.
Keywords: laser scanning, archaeological landscape, 3D modeling, territorial regeneration.
1. Introduction
Franca Restuccia
Today’s globalization destroys the history and the identity of places and it causes deep changes not only to
society but also to economy and “cultural territories” development. Very often the state of neglecting and
degradation of archaeological assets obscures the landscape and environmental values of territories.
Through processes of creative regeneration and new government methodologies these assets and/or sites
could be culturally rescued. The purpose is to add more value to regions and places so that they become
competitive in the image of the territory and in the promotion of local economic development [1].
By the requalification of spaces and the re-invention of attractive paths of green fruition, the archaeological site
can be regenerated without big changes and according to the vocation of place. Moreover as it is embedded
into a touristic district, it becomes a resource of work and richness both material and immaterial.
This is a way to provide regenerative patterns based on virtuous values of nature and biological models, which
are able to realize a development “based on the reduction of the waste of raw materials, human resources,
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assets”. Thus it is necessary to aim at coherent and conscious interventions that - through survey, re-drawing
and analysis of existent places – create less waste/more life improvement, less environmental impact/more
essentiality, less aesthetics/more essence. These interventions contribute to landscape enrichment, to the
environmental recovery together with the economic and functional growth of the territory itself.
The archaeological site of Kaukana in Santa Croce Camerina (RG) is a good example of that recovery policy
aimed at the regeneration of what already exists. This site is a wide territory along the Mediterranean coast
in the area of Ragusa in which archaeology and nature merge in a cultural landscape unique in its genre: it
represents one of the best Sicilian well preserved late antique period settlement. It is a place of deep
Mediterranean identities, which offers wide opportunities of cultural and economic investments.
Fig. 1: Aerial photography of the state-owened area of Kaukana where the three contiguous areas cut by the littoral road
are highlighted in red.
This study is an extract of the cooperation work between the Department of Cultural Heritage of Ragusa and
the Laboratory of Architectural Photogrammetry and Survey “Luigi Andreozzi” of the Engineering Faculty of
Catania. Through innovative cognitive tools (3d laser scanning) the interdisciplinary study provided the basic
elements for a conscious government of the territory. As a matter of fact, this work has been a good opportunity
to face with a wide extension and complexity theme due to archaeological, naturalistic and environmental
values of the site. Actually this is a park of archaeological interest, a place of attraction and study where the
culture inhabits the landscape. The potentialities of the place grant to it an active role in the project of cultural
and environmental quality: it could be the driving force for economic and functional growth of territory.
The need to accurately document this archaeological asset and the relations which, during the time, it has
established with the natural environment of the park – rich of landscape suggestions between the sea and the
Mediterranean vegetation – has required the use of an operative methodology which renovates ways of
documentation, perception, analysis, representation and management by using informatics technologies.
Indeed, they have been applied renewed “models of doing” able to “catch” nature and built in a unique cognitive
model aimed at the project of valorisation and fruition. It is a model of digital synthesis that prefigures the
revaluation project founded on the global qualitative change and the identity of the area - as required by the
Department of Cultural Heritage who manages and maintains the “hyblean” archaeological park.
The Department plans to organize the area with operative interventions aimed at the quality and
sustainability according to the existent resources. The purpose is to have a virtuous recovery of the site; to
transform the heritage into a resource in favour of economic development and of cultural growth, avoiding
morphological and structural changes of the natural area. That is, to act a reuse that - keeping readable the
traces and the memories of the past - will recover them for collective fruition, according to a productive
synthesis of nature and history: “less waste/more quality, research and ideas; less waste more ethics/more
investments and sustainability”.
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2. Kaukana project: territorial regeneration between nature and archaeology
Venera Greco
Kaukana was a small village placed in the territory of the town of Santa Croce Camerina (Ragusa) which was
used to be very important during byzantine age.
The Greek name (Kaukanae) was used to describe a series of villages in which Kamarina exiles in 258 b. C.
found refuge. As a matter of fact, they choose this site thanks to its natural landing places, the fertility of the
soil and the richness of water. In 535 A.D. the General Belisario left from Kaukana in the direction of Malta,
during its campaign against Vandals [2]. In those years the settlement had an important urban development
and its seaport growth in importance until it was destroyed by Saracens. It was an important commercial
anchorage, very active between the IV and the VII century A. D.
The cover-up of the coast protected the late roman settlement with a layer of sand so that the walls of the
buildings have been almost fully preserved. Today Kaucana hosts a large archaeological park that has
discovered one of the best preserved late antique age settlements in Sicily.
The recovered complex consists of 25 buildings of different kind among which a small church (with three
naves) which belongs to a burial area. Reported and studied by Paolo Orsi, the complex was brought to light
in the '80s by the team headed by Dr. Paola Pelagatti, despite the strong contrasts of the private owners of
the land, who planned to build very profitable touristic residences [3,4].
Fig. 2, 3: The remains of Kaukana late-roman age settlement (pictures by Giunta).
Definitely the entire surrounding area was already saturated by a lot of abusive constructions, the so-called
“tourist” villages, realized during the building "boom" of the '70s and '80s. The excavations have reported an
archeological complex of great value due to the rarity of the temporal dating and of the completeness of the
settlement that, even if small, contains all the key elements: the small church, the "emporium", the public
space, the stores, the houses, the dock buildings [5].
The peculiarity of being in a recent building fabric, asphyxiated and of poor architectural quality, together with
being located in the historic palimpsest of late antiquity and the period of vandals raids, turned it into a main
resource/good cultural archaeological and landscape. As a matter of fact, it represents a resource on which
it is possible to found the process of requalification of the entire area, which is also enhanced by a beautiful
beach recently nourished by the Regional Province of Ragusa.
Nowadays the archaeological park of Kaukana is one of the strategic and focal points of the community of Santa
Croce Camerina, that considers it as belonging to his own territory and uses it for the best cultural events of the
summer season. Thanks to the conjugation of the protection of archaeological goods together with the landscape
one, the common notion of “public green" has been replaced by the specific meaning of identity of places.
The area of the archaeological park belongs to the regional Sicilian state property and it is managed by the
Department of Cultural Heritage of Ragusa who has handled in these years the management, the fruition
and the maintenance.
Over the last few years, in this area several excavations promoted by the university of Vancouver has been
done: the team headed by prof Robert Wilson has excavated some parts highlighting rooms, furnishings and
human remains that have confirmed both the dating and the religious cults celebrated in the village, even
after it was abandoned [6].
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Due to the strategic importance of the park of Kaukana the Department of Cultural Heritage has drawn up a
project for enhancing the state-owned area that was financed on the chapter "freed-up Resources" of the
previous POR 2000-2006 program.
The project forecasts a series of operations aimed at giving back the area to the fruition according to a clear
didactic path that should give to visitors the reading key to interpret the archaeological ruins. This way it is
possible to identify the ruins in a wider historic vision reconstructed according to rigorous Scientifics criteria
and combined with the comprehension of the place, the contest and the naturalistic park.
The park completes its natural vocation of public space of the community through the realization of: a small
but essential parking at the entrance; wood paths that drive visitors along the archaeological excavations; a
space equipped for public open air shows; a restructured roof of the little church. This last offered the
opportunity for an architectural reconfiguration that might give back to the public fruition the typological and
spatial qualities of the church together with the new lights that emphasize its key role inside the whole
complex. Furthermore, the new fence in fiberglass gives a vegetal boundary that partially hides the new roof.
Moreover the vegetal component has been deepened too: the dangerous or sick plants have been cut and
removed; autochthonous species such as carobs, almonds, wild olives have been re-planted. This way the
allochthonous species could be gradually restructured and, during the time, the floristic-vegetal component
will get closer and closer to the native one. The scope is to re-construct a piece of the historic landscape,
which is of great value and unfortunately now it is readable only in few fragments. Moreover, in the didactic
indications large emphasis will be given to the archaeological and historic components as well as to
naturalistic and vegetal the ones.
Fig. 4-5: The renewed roof of the little church merged with the vegetation (pictures by G. Manganello).
3. Less waste/more research for the knowledge and documentation: the project of the
archaeological park of Kaukana between perception and dimension.
Mariateresa Galizia
The enhancement project of the state-owned area of the park of Kaukana is part of a regenerative policy
focused on investments in local cultural heritage.
The planning intervention drawn up by the Department of Cultural Heritage of Ragusa is mainly founded on a
plan that counts “less waste/more quality of life and places”; a plan where culture is the driving force for
places development, saving them from devastating speculative projects.
The scope is to have “less environmental impact/more environment requalification” in order to improve
economic, social, environmental and cultural forces that could give back this area to local inhabitants and to
tourists.
The careful and accurate action of the Department of Cultural Heritage required a rigorous survey of the site
aimed at “more knowledge and documentation/less imprecision” into planning choices.
The characteristics of the site – based on the indissoluble relation between landscape and archaeology –
required a kind of survey aimed at the project of reuse of the park. This survey should be able to catch and
represent, in their shape and measure, the late-roman settlement together with the natural features that
during the centuries have modified the state of the places.
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The main goal of the planning intervention is to give back to the community a proper interpretation of a piece
of history told through the archaeological ruins as well as through the traces of an historic landscape with a
peculiar floristic-vegetation component.
As a matter of fact, the archaeological park represents a wide and diversified presence of the human
intervention and it’s the memory of the changes undergone on this characteristic area of the “hyblean”
territory. Therefore, there is the need to analyze and interpret the hierarchy of the elements which
characterize the place – terrain morphology, autochthonous and allochthonous vegetation, the constructive
tools – in an unique model of representation through which it is possible to properly identify the
paradigms/models, natural and not, of the hyblean archaeological area. The study has been an applicative
experience aimed at the creation of a possible “extended museum” according to a settlement connotation on
which it could be possible to develop significant disciplinary elaborations (archaeology, architecture, history,
conservation, geology, economics, agriculturalist).
The Department of Cultural Heritage of Ragusa required a cognitive survey which would combine and
support the planning choices focusing both on the recovery of the preexistences and on the new project of
fruition of the park as resource/cultural assets, archaeological and landscape. This process of requalification
has economic and cultural effects on the whole ragusan area.
We choose to use 3D laser scanning methodology in order to obtain an integrate representation made of
analysis and measurements, survey and representation. Thus, a survey appropriate to understand and
document the object in its completeness: from the morphology (territory/altimetry) to the geometry of the
archaeological complex, to the topology of elements, to the state of conservation of the stones of the
settlement.
The 3d laser scanner survey provided a product/model of the surveyed reality through which it is possible to
carry out a diachronic and synchronic reading and to convey an analytic and synthetic evaluation already
during the survey phase. A 3D model objective – inspected in the virtual space of the computer where it is
possible to intervene and operate with subjective evaluations - has itself the fundamentals of the project.
Fig. 6-7: Views of the cloud of points near to the remains of a house (on the left) and of the little church (on the right).
As a model of representation, it is a media of exchange of visual feelings and spatial descriptions and it
allows to be observed according to the “perspicere” of the tradition. The coexistence of the perceptive feature
and the metric-objective one represents the innovative component of the digital survey that allows, thanks to
data correlation, the integration and the interaction of the specific disciplinary expertise.
This way the role of the traditional graphic representation - seen as interpretative media of the different
languages and specialist expertise involved in the planning activity – is placed side by side to the model of
digital synthesis. Through the model the following ideational phases of the planning process, the new shapes
and the new volumes are inserted into the virtual scene of places, embodying the 3D digital space.
The visualization of the model – that for its intrinsic potentialities enriches the process of scientific discovery
because it improves the hidden interiorities of the place – allowed us to transfer all the planning reasoning
into digital form [7].
The elaborated product is not only a simple prefiguration that relates drawing and design but also a
manipulable system that simulates the reality simultaneously to the work of the designer.
This model embody a hierarchic structure which allows, in the planning phase, a dynamic approach which
goes from the critical analysis to the visual impact of the intervention, to the simulation of alternative
hypothesis for restoring the materials and the vegetation. Moreover, the representation by means of 3D
digital models gives the opportunity to create a “virtual museum” which has its dimension and which is able
to host the whole archaeological site according to an efficient and attractive interdisciplinary didactic path.
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The use of 3D scanning in the field of cultural heritage contributes to the elaboration of a new communicative
and visual grammar which allows to combine the cognitive rigor of the metric investigation with the need to
be an effective tool for understanding values, as well as to convey the meanings of the site making easier the
integration among culture and economics, tourism and territory development [8].
Thanks to the processed model it has been possible to activate the project of requalification of the park that
– preserving the memory of the past and the respect of the nature – would develop more growth and, at the
same time, “less impact on the historic/cultural, floristic/faunistic, socio/economic environment”.
Fig. 8-9: Suggestive representations of the model among shape, measure and perception.
4. Less waste/more knowledge of Hyblean archaeological landscape: survey and
representation of the archaeological park of Kaukana
Cettina Santagati
The archaeological park of Kaukana stretches for about 3 hectares and half into the construction fabric built
during the economic boom of the 70s and 80s.
The ruins of the late-roman settlement are plunged into a thick woody density (about 1170 trees among
autochthonous and allochthonous species) in an indissoluble union between nature and archaeology
generating a cultural landscape of remarkable historic-naturalistic value.
The knowledge process of this archaeological area – nowadays fragmented by the littoral road into three
adjoining areas, one of them along the coast – required a selective methodological approach, alternative to
the traditional investigation methods. As a matter of fact, the survey of the site has taken into account the
archaeological emergencies issues together with the naturalistic element in order to develop a requalification
project of the park aimed at “less wastes/more knowledge” by planning fruition and enhancement paths
along the ruins and the green.
It has been investigated on the field the 3d laser scanning technology which is, until now, the most suitable
for measuring and documenting the reality in terms of acquisition speed, quantity and accuracy of measured
data and capacity of providing, in real time, the 3D representation of the surveyed object [9,10,11].
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The Time of Flight 3d laser scanner HDS 3000 by Leica Geosystem, belonging to the laboratory of
Architectural Photogrammetry and Survey, has been used.
Through a conscious pre-knowledge of places, some innovative operative protocols have been tested on the
field. That was essential to fully understand the complex and multiple issues of the cultural asset we were
about to study and of the whole environment, anthropic and natural, to which it belongs.
The procedural logic, experimented and adopted during the data acquisition steps, supplies to the
peculiarities of the site, to the need to document the trees, to integrate and to geo-reference the surveys of
future excavations. It has been conceived and arranged an almost regular grid of station points (34),
arranged at about 30-50 mt one from each other, so that each station is connected to the previous and the
next one. This way, besides a good overlapping between the scans, a better error compensation in the
following phase of the model alignment is granted.
In the absence of well recognizable reference points, the chain between each station and the following is
assigned to a set of 3D targets (69 polystyrene spheres with 12 cm in diameter) univocally identifiable and
well visible. The targets are uniformly arranged in relation to the station points so that from each station point
it is possible to acquire at least 4 targets in common with the direct adjacent stations.
The choice to use polystyrene spheres instead of pre-calibrate 3D targets (more expensive) has been based
on some tests performed in our laboratory. These tests gave good results about the alignment of adjacent
stations. The only condition is that a redundant number of spheres should be used so that it is possible to
balance the error due to their un-calibration [12].
HDS 3000
Target
Fig. 10: Experimentation on the field with 3D spherical target.
Target
Particular attention has been paid to the visual connection between the passage stations from one area to
another one and - even if adjoining – they are cut by the littoral road and the surrounding buildings: thus,
intermediate stations have been planned when the points were too far.
The in situ survey for each station provided: a fully 360° scan with a density of 1 cm to 15 mt; a thickening in
presence of the archaeological ruins and the 3D targets (4 mm). In total, 34 scans have been performed and
185 millions of points have been acquired.
Before merging the overall model, raw data have been cleaned and spherical targets have been recognized
and identified by creating, in the embedded software, the corresponding spheres (through proper fitting
algorithm) and by assigning them an ID label.
The assemblage of the 34 scans into a unique reference system – in order to have a close mesh of
connected scans – has generated 77 chains (cloudmesh).
The alignment error has been reduced to 1,5 cm by optimizing the computation parameters. This result can
be considered more than acceptable because of the wind which introduced a strong disturbing element in
the survey of trees leaves (essential for an accurate documentation of the foliage overall dimension).
Moreover, considering the required scales of representation (1:200; 1:500) this value fits the graphical error.
The obtained 3D model is a digital document that holds the morphological, geometric, natural, environmental
and perceptive characteristics of the homologous real model but only with a later manipulation-interpretation
it might become an intelligible space.
The overall model constituted the base for the following elaborations aimed at obtaining a full documentation
of the condition of things. Thus, they have been represented: plani-altimetric relief of terrain (by contour lines
at each 25 cm), the ruins of the settlement, the arboreal species (localization, foliage overall dimension and
denomination), the walls, the fences and all the elements useful for the comprehension of the spatial and
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environmental contest of the archaeological park and very important for the enhancement project of the
state-owned area.
Finally, to document the plani-altimetric relations between nature and built area –essential for the project of
fruition of the park – they have been performed some sections of the model aimed at the elaboration of
representations which give the perception of the state of places.
The digital survey of the park has constituted a valid analysis tool for the comprehension of the cultural,
natural and landscape worthiness of places, allowing a “less static/more dynamic methodological approach”
to the regeneration project of the Hyblean territory.
Indeed, the possibility to be able to extract at any time new information, to compare with the planning
solution being formulated, allowed a better control of the project through “less wastes/more quality choices”.
“Less randomness/more ideas” would contribute towards the development of a sustainable project based on
the strategies of enhancement of the archaeology and of the related landscape.
Fig. 11: Plan graphical restitution of the archaeological park where is highlighted the project of survey.
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Fig. 12-13: The archaeological landscape between natural and built environment.
Fig. 14-15: The remains of Kaukana settlement in the environmental contest of the park.
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References
[1] MANCUSO, Stefania , Archeologia e paesaggio culturale. Espacio, Tiempo y Forma, 2008, pp. 13-22.
[2] DI STEFANO, Giovanni. L'ancoraggio di Caucana e il problema dei Vandali. Roma: Editore Carocci,
2006.
[3] MICCICHÈ, Giuseppe. Santa Croce Camerina - dalle origini ai nostri giorni. Ragusa: Leggio e
Diquattro, 1968.
[4] DI STEFANO, Giovanni, PELAGATTI, Paola. Kaukana. Il chorion bizantino. Palermo: Sellerio, 1999.
[5] DI STEFANO, Giovanni. Il villaggio bizantino di Kaukana. In: AA.VV. Atti del I° Congresso Internazionale
di Archeologia della Sicilia bizantina, in Bizantino-Sicula IV, 2002, Istituto di studi Bizantini e Neoellenici,
Quaderni 15. pp. 173-190.
[6] WILSON, JA Roger. Il sito bizantino di Kaukana. In: Kalos XXIII, n. 1 (January–March 2011). pp 38–42.
[7] MIGLIARI, Riccardo. I fondamenti geometrici della progettazione. In Gli spazi e le arti, quarto volume
dell'appendice XXI Secolo della Enciclopedia. vol. 4, pp.299-306. Istituto della Eciclopedia Italiana Fondata
da Giovanni Treccani, 2010.
[8] GAIANI, Marco, BENEDETTI, Benedetto, REMONDINO, Fabio. (a cura di) Modelli digitali 3D in
archeologia: il caso di Pompei. Pisa: Edizioni della Normale, 2009.
[9] FORTE Maurizio (a cura di). Cyber Archaeology. BAR International Series 2177, 2010.
[10] FORTE, Maurizio (a cura di), The reconstruction of Archaeological Landscapes through Digital
Technologies, Proceedings of the 2nd Italy-United States Workshop, Rome, Italy, November 3-5, 2003.
Berkeley, USA, May, 2005, BAR International series, 1379.
[11] CAMPANA Stefano, FRANCOVICH, Riccardo (a cura di). Laser scanner e GPS. Paesaggi archeologici
e tecnologie digitali. Firenze: All'Insegna del Giglio, 2006
[12] GALIZIA, Mariateresa, SANTAGATI, Cettina. Sperimentazione della tecnica laser scanner 3D per la
conoscenza valorizzazione e fruizione del parco archeologico di Caucana. In: AA.VV. Atti 13° Conferenza
Nazionale Asita, Bari, 1-4 Dicembre 2009. pag 1089-1094.
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Industrial heritage, collective identity and eco-museums: the case-study
of Floristella-Grottacalda mining site
Antonella VERSACI 1 , Alessio CARDACI 2
(1)
Faculty of Engineering, Architecture and Motor Sciences, University of Enna “KORE”, Italy
E-mail: antonella.versaci@unikore.it
(2)
Faculty of Engineering, University of Bergamo, Italy
E-mail: alessio.cardaci@unibg.it
Abstract
Lack of values and sloppiness characterize our territories, even if they are full of cultural resources, as in
Enna. A spread heritage often left to itself, no longer or only few integrated into the active life of places.
However, dispersed in a landscape of rare beauty, significant examples of an important chapter in the
Sicilian history, connected to the historical exploitation of its large sulfurous deposits, rise. Among these, the
Floristella and Grottacalda mining site, located not far from the UNESCO World Heritage site of the Villa
Romana del Casale, is one of the most expressive examples of industrial archeology in Southern Italy. In this
area, still visible and dramatically evocative are the signs of several ages as well as the systems and
methods of mining and sulfur melting. Only partially located within protected enclosures and managed by a
park governing body that should take care of its safeguarding, this place appears quite “distant” from people
who do not ”recognize themselves” in it. Nevertheless, if properly protected and promoted - i.e. in the
framework of an eco-museum structure - and connected to the territory; when studied for scientific and
educational reasons, in close collaboration with the community and in synergy with the Institutions, such
heritage would be a very useful tool for the reinforcement of identities among the population. It will also help
to increase cultural and environmental heritage awareness, collaborating for its preservation.
Parole chiave: cultural heritage – industrial heritage - eco-museums - Sicily
1. Introduction
Looking towards the existing city - in general, fully built, dense and chaotic - the gradual fade of those values
that give meaning to a physical location, allowing its transmission to future generation, is becoming
increasingly evident. This loss of identity can be seen in many historic cities, often characterized by atopic
landscapes in which stand contemporary edifices built according to homologating processes, unrelated to
the morphological and/or constructive relationships with the environment and the permanence of memory.
Moving away from the old town, the sense of disorientation is even more understandable: plunged in the
urban sprawl, extraordinary signs of the past remain silent and solitary. Used also in relatively recent times
for productive purposes and finally forced to abandon the old tasks and the original functions - they are
looking for new opportunities to transform and adapt to contemporary needs. These industrial areas, now
neglected, deserve to be rediscovered, restored and reconnected to the real world, because they are
expression and reflection of those technological, economic and social values that have characterized the socalled
"machine age"; of that culture of work that has deeply influenced the course of the 20 th century,
providing a substantial contribution to the development of human civilization.
Nowadays, they represent the promise and the challenge of intervention possibilities to be undertaken for the
sake of future generations [1]. They can also be considered a response to the needs of adaptability and
flexibility, increasingly rare in highly structured cities, often degraded, crystallized and congested.
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Considered as "empty" spaces because lacking their primary function, they are instead usually "full" of
architectural artifacts of a certain local historical significance; rich in symbolic values, meanings, traditional
practices and informal uses [2]. These marginal realities actually possess a heritage of great interest: they
are a vital resource as their recovery would allow to not use more open areas; in addition, usually already
equipped with urbanization works, they are easily accessible and well connected to existing infrastructure
system. The return of these spaces to the city may therefore constitute an important opportunity to reshape
the urban fabric in which they are located, helping to mend the fragmented peripheral tissues, partly
compromised in recent decades by an uncontrolled urbanization [3].
In Sicily, currently in a state of "almost resigned standby" the landscape of sulfur mines, after having fed both
the economy of the region and the inspiration of its poets and writers is waiting - as most of the submerged
assets of this land - to be unearthed and, above all, valorized as a place of extraordinary individual and
collective memory.
2. The important role of mining industry in Sicily
The provinces of Enna, Agrigento and Caltanissetta are the most important and largest areas concerned by
the ancient production of sulfur in Sicily. If between the 19 th and 20 th centuries the parable of the practice of
sulfur extraction begins and ends, its history, however, has ancient origins and an evolution strongly linked to
the succession of rulers and the resulting political control in the island. Since the Bronze Age (2500 B.C.) an
intense activity in the field is, in fact, documented. It reaches its climax at the end of 18 th century when the
Sicilian sulfur cycle became fully part of the chemical European industry. The consequent need to recover
the sulfur in large quantities led, in 1808, under British protection, to the decision of government to give
Sicilian aristocracy, the permission for the subsoil exploitation. The opening of mines, begun at the time of
British occupation during the Napoleonic wars, then gave life in Sicily to a particular industrial revolution that
progressed in parallel to the contemporary English and French experiences [4]. The sulfur produced will be
requested from the European market, especially by those nations, as the basic element of the transformation
processes in the emerging chemical industry. Because of this, between 1830 and 1835, the number of
cantari (tons) exported, doubled rising from 380,000 to over 660,000. In 1835, the most of exported sulfur will
be directed in Great Britain (325,793) and France (262,774); the remaining amount will join other northern
European countries and the United States of America.
However, Sicilian mining was characterized by a high labor exploitation, especially among children: the socalled
carusi (as recorded in Pirandello's literature, for example, in Ciàula scopre la luna). Boys aged
between six and fourteen years for a few handfuls of money, were handed over by their parents to the
picconieri (pick-axe workers) to be used by them to bring to the surface the sulfur ere extracted. Numerous
were the laborers who preferred to leave the camps to work in the mines, even in inhuman conditions; the
exodus from agriculture was important and greatly influenced the fall in cereal production of large landed
estates. Although the establishment of a great "industrial proletariat" for those times (the first statistics, dating
back to 1860, show the presence of a job working in the mines of approximately 16,000 units) the
"exploitation" of sulfur was a mechanism in colonial style. The whole raw product was destined for foreign
market and mainly sold by foreign operators, mostly British, who also took care of credit aspects ensuring a
prepayment on delivery.
Such a race to low-cost production often led to overproduction crises which the Bourbon government, in
1835, tried to stem, by entering into a contract with the French company owned by the industrial Aycard and
Taix. Thus opening the way for the foreign capital to obtain concessions for the purchase and sale of
sulfurous Sicilians deposits. This agreement committed for ten years the company to purchase all sulfur
produced in Sicily at a set price. The production had to be contained within certain limits, but they ensured
the immediate payment of half of the sulfur delivered. In addition, the Taix & Aycard C. had promised to build
a local industry for the preparation of caustic soda and sulfuric acid, and to build sixteen miles of roads per
year [5]. In 1840, following the English dealers protests who accused the government of Naples having
specifically guaranteed a corner for France, the contract was terminated and with it the ambitious project of
creating a Sicilian chemical industry vanished.
In 1850, the discovery of oidium tuckeri, a fungus that causes powdery mildew of grape, the demand for
mineral increased, making Sicily a leader in the mining sector. A role that it held until the early 20 th century
and that was closely linked to the strong atmosphere of renewal that concerned Sicily after the unification of
Italy until the end of World War I and again between the 1920s and 1930s, especially in the transport and
development of regional rail [6]. Depending on the needs of the sulfur, the major mining centers of the island
were connected to the main Sicilian ports, then creating the so-called "sulfur-ways".
The crisis in the Sicilian sulfur industry began in the late 19 th century with the introduction of the Frasch
process, a method of mining deep-lying sulfur named after its inventor - used in U.S. mines with consequent
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vertical reduction of market prices. In 1896, in an attempt to reverse the negative trend, Sicilian producers
decided to form the Anglo-Sicilian Sulfur Company, promoted by British entrepreneurs and Ignazio Florio,
the heir of one of the largest Italian business dynasties of the time [7]. This allowed to stabilize the prices of
sulfur and large mines improved facilities and increased the equipment, thanks to the arrival of technical and
entrepreneurial middle class from northern Italy. The attempt, however laudable and delivering good results,
failed after only ten years: the pressure of American competition meant that the price of sulfur drastically
lowered.
Later, the beginning of World War I made it increasingly difficult to supply the mineral causing that sulfur
American grabbed much of the world market. The ensuing crisis period affecting Sicilian industry became
serious in the 30s, when the global economic crisis strongly penalized the sulfur mines in Sicily until the total
collapse of output during the second conflict. The Sicilian sulfur production recovered slightly after 1943,
when the war ended and only until the early 1950s, a period in which America, engaged in the Korean War,
channeled into the war industry, all its resources.
However, the subsequent revival in U.S. industrial production raked again, all the markets; the competition
by then too strong, led to the final decline of the Sicilian sulfur industry and to the gradual closure of the
mines.
Since the mid-80s, these places, whose importance for Sicily, the associate territories and people is
unquestionable, set off for tragic destinies, made of abandonment and desolation. The economic
speculation, the forced removals of these important expressions of the economy and culture of this land,
caused the subsequent deletion of expressive traits of its cultural identity that only much later, people will try
to reconstruct.
With the Sicilian Regional Law n. 34 of 1988 finally closed, in Sicily, sulfur mining production. In the aim of
preserving the memory of the mining industry and culture in the region and to preserve and protect, at least
in part, the unique environmental heritage and industrial archeology of sulfur, personages from culture, trade
unions and other representative sectors of the society and politics, worked in order to Sicilian legislature
approves another law, the n. 17 of 1991, who identified some mines and mining sites to be transformed into
mining parks, regional museums of the mines and mine-museums.
In the three major sulfur provinces were chosen for this purpose, the following mines: Gessolungo, Trabia-
Tallarita and La Grasta in Caltanissetta; Ciavolotta and Cozzo Disi in Agrigento and, finally, Grottacalda and
Floristella in Enna, one of the most expressive settlements of industrial archeology in southern Italy.
3. The history of place
The Floristella and Grottacalda mining site is located in a large area on the outskirts of the town of Enna.
Surrounded by a remarkable landscape, it forms an equilateral triangle with two other important polarities:
the Pergusa Lake and the Nature Reserve of the Ronza (Fig. 1). The mining site is also located in a basin
where cultural and environmental heritage of international interest seat, such as the Villa Romana del Casale
in Piazza Armerina and the excavations and the archaeological museum of Aidone, where the famous Venus
of Morgantina, returned in 2011 from the Paul Getty Museum in Malibu is hosted. Until 1971, the mines
areas were crossed by the disused railway Dittaino-Piazza Armerina-Caltagirone which stopped for the traffic
of goods and workers in Mulinello, Floristella, and Grottacalda Valguanera (Fig. 2). Next to the now disused
Grottacalda station, 647 meters above sea level, there is a forest green that extends over 1.5 km.
The complex brings together two abandoned sulfur mines with a total surface of 400 acres: of these, one
half, the core of Grottacalda is a private property and the other, the nucleus of Floristella, is owned by the
Sicily's Regional administration (fig. 3).
As documented by the archives of the Royal Corps of Mines of Caltanissetta, Grottacalda started its mining
activities in 1815, even if the sulfur research in this area is thought to date from a period between 1700 and
1750 [8]. Sebastian Mottura, creator and first director of the first Mining School of Italy, founded in 1862 in
Caltanissetta, traveling between 1868 and 1875 to design the first official geological map of Italy
commissioned by the Government, when surveyed areas in central Sicily, wrote that the solfara (sulfur mine)
Galati in Grottacalda was one of the oldest in Sicily. The land belonged to Romualdo Trigona, Prince of St.
Elias, who in 1886 granted the right to carry out extraction activities to Trevella & C company maintaining it
for several years. In 1919 the Società Solfifera Siciliana acquired the concession for extraction and,
subsequently, after its fusion with the Montecatini - Società Generale per l'Industria Mineraria e Chimica
(later Montedison), a perpetual license was required and granted in 1943. The events immediately following
the war caused serious problems in the ordinary development of activities. Due to the lack of electric current,
it was impossible to perform the mine drainage water procedures. A few years later, the Montecatini decided
to abandon the industry and to convert it in an agriculture business, dividing the area into several farms, of
which still remains some witnesses on the façade statements of certain buildings.
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Fig. 1: The area of Grottacalda and Floristella mining site.
Fig. 2: Railway system in Sicily at the beginning of 20 th century and in the 1950s (courtesy by Alessandro Ensabella).
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Fig. 3: The mining site of Grottacalda and Floristella and its cultural heritage (courtesy by Alessandro Ensabella).
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In accordance with an agreement established between the company and the Grottacalda's miners to exploit
the high areas of the mine, activities continued until 1963, the year of expiration of the concession. Of this
important mining activity (among the largest in Sicily) now remains a vast as degraded heritage: castles in
masonry, concrete drop structures located near the extraordinary Mezzena Well (Fig. 4 and 5), the so called
Pozzo Grande built in 1868, the calcaroni (masonry furnaces), several buildings, formerly used as housing
for the miners and the administrative staff, the former power station, a cinema, the buildings of the former
railway station. Recently, some of these buildings have been converted to farm holidays structure by the
current owners [9].
On the other hands, with regard to the mine Floristella, the permission opening was granted on April 11,
1825 although the extraction of sulfur happened even earlier, after the discovery, in 1791, of the method of
manufacture of soda obtained by treating with sulfuric acid, the common salt. This field was one of the most
important mining district of Caltanissetta, not only for its productivity but also for the quality of the sulfur that
was extracted: so high as to constitute a standard of excellence in the market.
The mining area of Floristella preserves the typical landscape of the Sicilian zolfiera. Like a great open-air
museum, the huge mining complex provides a true "stratigraphy" of different eras and related systems and
techniques of sulfur mining and smelting. Inside, in fact, are present and clearly visible countless galleries
and about 180 discenderie (shafts) from where the sulfur was knocked down by the traditional pick to be
then transported to the so-called calcarelle (a sort of circular ditches with a 1.50-2 meters diameter with an
inclined plain so to allow the casting of the molten sulfur towards an opening called a morte - death - where it
solidified) that are still preserved in good condition, near wells and galleries. It can also be seen what
remains of industrially masonry furnaces, several examples of the so-called Gill furnaces (invented in 1880
by Robert Gill), of castles complete with winch (the oldest dating back to 1868), in addition to the ruins of
service buildings arisen in the vicinity of the wells (nursing, accommodation for the miners, including the
room used as a recreational club for workers).
On a hill stands the imposing Palazzo Pennisi, former residence of the owner family, which dominates the
entire mining area of Floristella of which it represent the real heart (Fig. 6). Built between 1870 and 1885,
initially only until the ground floor by Baron Pennisi, nobleman from Acireale, it was intended as a summer
residence for the family. The Palazzo was later raised to two other plans to meet the need for
accommodation of the mine manager and employees, and for setting up office facilities. It was designed to
be an impregnable fortress: unable to be taken by the miners in the event of strikes and riots. For this
reason, the numerous openings were equipped with louvers and inside - in addition to housing, offices,
chambers of operation, an octagonal chapel, the coal cellar, barns, cellars - there are some secret safety
exits that, through the cellars and two small galleries, allowed to escape from the Palace in the ridge below.
The magnificence of the building and its architectural value, generate a kind of contrast with the austerity of
the place, providing an immediate and exciting image of what should be the extreme social gap of that time.
Fig. 4: The Pozzo Mezzena.
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Fig. 5: Laser scan 3D of the Pozzo Mezzena.
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Over the years, and with the exponential growth of mining industry, the building became the headquarters of
the mine until its definitive closure. Following its sale, the building has long been abandoned. Because of its
poor conditions, urgent consolidation works have been recently carried out, looking forward to finally be
restored to one day be transformed in a museum of industrial archeology. Worth mentioning are also water
catchment system structures situated therein, the millstone of the Pennisi's family and the so-called via del
mosto: a trail, originally built for the purpose of enabling a quick connection between the winery and the
Palace, flanked by an ancient gutter made by Sicilian tiles who brought the must to fall directly into the
cellars.
4. Prospects for the future
Floristella was one of the last Sicilian mines to close the door in the late 1980s. The abandonment of
structures, however suddenly happened, led to a period of great destruction, vandalism and theft that have
largely compromised an unique heritage, consisting of buildings, equipments, warehouse stock, often
irreversibly damaged or disappeared. To overcome these problems, unfortunately common to all Sicilian
sulfur mines, regional government promulgated on May 15, 1991 the law n. 17 that established in this area,
the Ente Parco Minerario (Park Mining Authority) in order to defend and protect the natural and human
landscape. By taking appropriate safeguard measures, this tool would be able to stop the degradation of this
rich set of cultural assets. Nevertheless, despite the commitment of its administrators, it has not allowed to
completely prevent the rapid destruction and decay processes that characterize today a large part of the
former mining site. If a number of "recovery, protection and restoration" actions were executed in the Park,
and as much are foreseen (waiting for funding), an objective data is source of concern: the almost total
indifference of the local population who do not know, do not understand it and/or it does not recognize itself
in this place. In part, privately owned and difficult to reach due to the absence of practicable roads and to the
presence of fences, the goods of this important industrial heritage, now fragmented, seem to move towards
the complete annihilation and with them the memory of the place and people who have populated it. Not
taking advantage of special attention from architectural critics or the interest of younger generations, this site
lies unexplored and isolated, although it deserve to be recovered.
In recent years there has however been an increasing interest in the requalification and valorization of the
Sicilian dismissed sulfur mines, which occurred mainly at the institutional level. This renewed attention is now
accompanied by the possibility of developing reasoned and concrete actions of protection and promotion.
They would certainly be helped by the presence of the Parco nazionale geominerario delle Zolfare di Sicilia
that a regional bill proposes to establish. This initiative aims at strengthening the provisions ensuring the
defense of the extraordinary industrial heritage of Sicily and to implement that "subsidiarity" principle that
appears necessary to allow the enhancement of the specific cultural, economic, historical and natural values
of the social and territorial realities involved.
In Italy, the experience of Geoparks has now reached a good level of maturity, in particular, with the creation
of the Geo-mining Historical Environmental Park of Sardinia and the implementation of other important
initiatives that merit to be studied and investigated. The meaning and the cultural contents of these realities
are by now concrete matters of record which a proper management policy of the historico-morphological
resources of the territory would necessarily refer to. They reflect an interest no longer being limited to the
respect and recognition of the natural values but that is part of the broader concept of "cultural heritage". To
the deep meaning of nature to be preserved is thus added the need to also consider the value of human
presence and that of all the signs of working activities and land transformation connected to it. In this
context, the concept of cultural heritage has gradually freed from the aesthetic values to include today the
social aspects, even the intangible or virtual ones, once considered exclusively the subject of specific and
exclusive studies [10; 11]. This should not be understood as a new complication, but, on the contrary, the
testimony of a broader and generalized awareness of the meaning of human presence, of the role of the
work, which could become a powerful catalyst capable of triggering processes of growth and improvement of
the quality of life in the concerned places.
The establishment of the Parco nazionale geominerario delle Zolfare di Sicilia is part of this worship process
and is focused on the idea to create a museo diffuso, a kind of extended museum at regional scale, really
considering the whole island as such, seeking at improving natural and ethno-anthropological qualities.
Will this project (clearly top-down based) achieve the results aimed by Politics? Will it succeed in facilitating
the rediscovery of that authentic local culture that is needed in order to preserve and affirm people's identity
and to highlight the differences for the purposes of an overall socio-economic development?
Probably not, unless of first rebuild the "reasons" of such settlements, giving them a "sense", at present lost.
This, in the conviction that only what is understood and of what are known the true motives and
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Fig. 6: Palazzo Pennisi.
meanings, can be properly maintained: "in a few words, the history that is deposited in them that, through the
memory of each of us can be passed on to others because they make appropriate use" [12].
Only by implementing forms of coordination referring to the complex system of natural, cultural and
landscape values of the individual local entities, based on a specific relationship with the existing institutional
protection instruments and in close connection with local people and research entities located in the area,
such as universities, these places will become very important resources for the territory and its community.
In this context, it may be useful to have recourse to the concept of eco-museum, actually a pretty well
established reality at international level but that only in recent years has come into common usage in the
Italian context [13]. On the basis of the eco-museum approach, the territory should not be considered as the
physical place where monumental isolated elements are located, but as a complex system of goods and
people that interact to compose the whole structure. The desire for innovation, born from the belief that
museums should not just collect, display and tell the story of objects in them stored but talking about people
and ideas, has contributed to the design of new organizational systems aiming at retracing and describing
the history of physical contexts, places and landscapes of the spirit, facts, atmospheres, works, legible forms,
all also signs of a past history. The eco-museum can be seen as the possibility that the museum's idea could
be extended over an entire area, involving in the process the population, finding a new sense to old
settlements, obsolete objects and methods, reusing them for new productive and cultural purposes: "It is, in
particular, for the local population that the eco-museum should be established. So that they would recover
lost traditions and, simultaneously, preserve cultural heritage - tangible and intangible - and the environment,
promote sustainable social, recreational, touristic development and through it, valorize resources and create
new or more skilled jobs [Boriani]. The success of these initiatives, however, highly depends not only on
economic factors, will and management abilities, but also on the quality of the restoration, reuse and
enhancement activities carried out on the goods involved in the projects or thereto related. To this end, it is
essential to focus on the issue of conservation of anthropological, natural, environmental, landscape,
historical and architectural characters in the area, starting from (finally!) implementing those basic processes
of direct knowledge (metric, material and environmental) directed not only to the buildings of major
importance but also to the so-called "minor" heritage often, still, incorrectly underestimated.
5. Conclusions
These are the principles that should motivate the material and spiritual rebirth of the Floristella Grottacalda
mining site and with it the whole territory. In an era dominated by changes brought on globalization
processes and on the increasing risk of homogenization, the only possibility of distinction and self-affirmation
of different places should be entrusted into the recovery of their identity. Only by the endogenous
strengthening of these characters it is possible to find the reasons of a desirable self-healing.
Since some time on, the presence of many urban and peri-urban "empties" characterizes most Sicilian big
cities. Areas mainly resulting from industrial decommissioning processes, remained largely ignored by the
urban development strategies that, at least until the mid-90s of the last century have preferred new forms of
expansion, mainly directed to the residential sector [14]. These pieces of land, made unproductive for purely
economic reasons and now emptied of meaning, can become, if properly rehabilitated, the ideal places
where osmotic processes between past and present, human activities and nature; between the man and the
city where he lives and in which he should be able to identify and find himself, would be reactivated. These
1100

sites could serve as a stimulus for a re-evaluation of the city as a whole, reconsidering years of segregation
and zoning policies, reactivating virtuous processes of local governance aimed at rehabilitating the many
wounds inflicted on the landscape, places and people's identity.
It seems clear that the economic and cultural recovery has now become necessary and urgent in order to
allow the reuse of these areas for productive and social purposes, allowing their re-appropriation by the local
population which has the legitimate right of consumption.
References
[1] LYNCH, Kevin. Deperire. Rifiuti e spreco nella vita di uomini e città. Napoli: CUEN,1992. ISBN:
978-88-7146-177-9.
[2] DANSERO, Egidio, GIAIMO, Carolina, SPAZIANTE, Agata (eds). Se i vuoti si riempiono. Aree
industriali dismesse: temi e ricerche. Firenze: Alinea, 2001. ISBN: 978-88-8125-389-0.
[3] GRIMELLINI, Claudio, FRANCO, Manuela. Aree industriali dismesse e parchi periurbani. In
VALENTE, Renata (ed). La riqualificazione delle aree dismesse. Conversazioni sull'ecosistema urbano.
Napoli: Liguori editore, 2006, pp.19-28. ISBN 978-88-207-3979.
[4] BIANCHINI, Lodovico. Della storia economico-civile di Sicilia. Napoli: Stamperia Reale, 1841.
[5] ADDAMO, Sebastiano. Zolfare di Sicilia. Palermo: Sellerio, Sellerio,1989. ISBN: 8876810382.
[6] LIMA, Antonietta Iolanda. Dalla nazionalizzazione agli anni trenta. Ampliamenti e nuove
realizzazioni in Sicilia. In GODOLI, Ezio & LIMA, Antonietta Iolanda (eds). Architettura ferroviaria in Italia.
Novecento. Palermo: Flaccovio, 2005, pp. 139-168. ISBN 978-88-7758-597-4.
[7] CANCILA, Orazio. I Florio. Storia di una dinastia imprenditoriale siciliana. Milano: Bompiani,
2008. ISBN: 97888-452-6179-4.
[8] ARCHIVIO DI STATO DI CALTANISSETTA. Il corpo delle miniere e l'area dello zolfo in Sicilia.
Sec. XIX-XX. Caltanissetta: Edizioni Lussografica, 2000. ISBN 88-8243-039-1.
[9] PIRRUCCELLO, Carmelina. Riuso e conservazione delle aree minerarie dismesse: esempi
europei e proposte per le zolfare siciliane. Reggio Calabria: Jason Editrice srl, 1999. ISBN:8881570688.
[10] MAGGI, Maurizio. Ecomusei, musei del territorio, musei di identità. In “Nuova Museologia”, n. 4,
giugno 2001.
[11] DE VARINE, Hugues. Patrimonio e formazione sociale. In Ciências e Letras”, Revista de
Faculdade Porto-Alegrense de Educação, Ciências e Letras, Porto Alegre, 2002, n. 31.
[12] BORIANI, Maurizio. Ambiente, paesaggio, patrimonio: il ruolo degli ecomusei per la conoscenza,
la salvaguardia della cultura di un territorio e per il mantenimento della sua identità. In GRASSENI, Cristina.
Ecomuseologia. Interpretare il patrimonio locale. Rimini: Guaraldi, 2002, pp. 61-82. ISBN: 9788880494102.
[13] MAGGI, Maurizio. Ecomusei. Guida europea. Torino: Umberto Allemandi & C., 2002. ISBN: 88-
422-1116-8.
[14] TRIMARCHI, Rosario. Territorio e de-industrializzazione in Sicilia. un contributo alla rilettura del
paesaggio industriale nelle aree dismesse. In Annali della Facoltà di Scienze della Formazione, 2004, vol. 3,
pp. 391-410.
1101

Le tanneries di Barjols: uno spazio costruito da reinventare
Laura BLOTTO
Dipartimento Architettura e Design, Politecnico di Torino, Italia
E-mail: laura.blotto@polito.it
Abstract ID034 The tanneries of Barjols: a space built by reinventing
The spectacle of abandoned factories is a fairly common phenomenon, the old factories reduced
to empty containers become places of memory, evidence of intense and sheer hard work, which for
centuries has involved generations, distorted and modified through the initiatives of individuals, the
environment and the territory. Although apparently they all look alike, on closer inspection they
reveal different realities starting in the places in which they live, their winds along the water supply
sources and their planimetric and typological development and who do not respond to the
same quantitative and qualitative parameters.
Certainly these buildings define and confer, with their silhouettes, the identity of a territory.
The case examined has focused attention on the reality of a post-industrial town in the central
Provence where the activities of Tanneries have influenced over a long period of time the life and
choices of a population. Faced with this scenario, composed of disturbing manufacts abandoned, but
still present and very close to the heart of the local people, one wonders what will be their future,
we will investigate the measures taken and what the intentions are planned with a view
to sustainability global.
Parole chiave: Barjols, fabbriche, riconversione, ambiente
Lo spettacolo delle fabbriche abbandonate è un fenomeno piuttosto frequente, le antiche fabbriche
ridotte a vuoti contenitori diventano luoghi della memoria, testimonianze di intenso ed alacre lavoro
che per secoli ha coinvolto generazioni di famiglie, stravolto e modificato attraverso le iniziative dei
singoli, l’ambiente e il territorio. Anche se all’apparenza sembrano tutte eguali, a ben vedere esse
rivelano realtà diverse a cominciare dai luoghi in cui sono inserite, il loro snodarsi lungo le fonti di
approvvigionamento idrico ed il loro sviluppo planimetrico e tipologico che appare diverso nei
parametri quantitativi e qualitativi. Certamente questi fabbricati conferiscono e definiscono, con la loro
silhouette, l’identità di un territorio.
Il caso preso in esame ha focalizzato l’attenzione sulla realtà post-industriale di un paese della
Provenza centrale dove l’attività delle tanneries ha influenzato per un lungo lasso di tempo la vita e le
scelte di una popolazione. Di fronte a questo scenario composto da inquietanti manufatti abbandonati,
ma pur sempre molto presenti e vicini al cuore della gente del luogo, ci si domanda quale sarà il loro
futuro, si indagherà sui provvedimenti adottati e quali intendimenti sono previsti nell’ottica di una
sostenibilità globale.
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Fig. 1 - Immagine d'insieme delle tanneries di Barjols (foto di L. Blotto)
Situato alle porte dell’Haut Provence, nell’alto Var, il comune di Barjols è l’epicentro di un cerchio di
interesse i cui estremi si identificano nei poli di attrazione di Marsiglia, Tolone, la Costa Azzurra e il
Parco Naturale Regionale del Verdon. Esso si trova all’incrocio dei grandi assi di comunicazione di
Aix-en-Provence – Nizza e Marsiglia – Sisteron. Si presenta come un villaggio tipico della Francia del
Sud, con un centro storico attraversato da ripide viuzze che sfociano in piazzette ombreggiate da
platani centenari e le sue fontane disseminate sul territorio che costituiscono motivo di interesse
turistico.
Barjols deve la sua notorietà alle concerie già presenti dall’inizio del XVI Secolo, le quali hanno
costituito l’unica risorsa economica del paese fino alla seconda metà del Novecento.
Esse sono ubicate in un vallone all’ingresso del paese e si snodano lungo il corso del torrente
Fauvery, il loro stato di abbandono offre ai visitatori un’immagine del luogo molto negativa pur
essendo inserite in un contesto ambientale naturale rimarchevole.
Lo sviluppo planimetrico del paese è orientato da est a ovest, nel quartiere delle concerie si osserva
una dilatazione della scala delle particelle catastali. In pianta è ben visibile il contrasto tra i due spazi
urbani: il centro storico e la zona delle tanneries sono addossate l’una all’altra, semplicemente
separate da un muraglione di sostegno.
La questione della riconversione di queste strutture è complessa ma essenziale per lo sviluppo di
Barjols. Si rende necessario, anche in funzione dell’estensione del sito un progetto globale dell’intera
area che la ridinamizzi e la restituisca agli abitanti.
Passando quindi ad un’attenta analisi della situazione attuale, emerge che il quartiere è composto da
quattro fabbriche principali che appartengono alle famiglie Vaillant e Plauchud, con una superficie
variabile dagli ottomila ai diecimila metri quadrati ciascuna. Per via delle differenti date di costruzione,
aggiunte e riadattamenti, si osserva una disomogeneità architettonica che fa pensare ad una
mancanza di logica costruttiva. La difficoltà di lettura dell’intero complesso industriale è accentuata
dalla forte pendenza del terreno.
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Fig. 2 - Piano del quartiere delle concerie redatto dall'Arch. Nicolas Coquillas
Provenendo da sud sulla strada dipartimentale di Brignoles ed oltrepassato il tunnel all’imbocco di
Barjols, ci si ritrova su uno strapiombo dominante le tanneries, che si rivelano come un intreccio di
volumi incastrati gli uni agli altri con una tessitura estremamente eterogenea.
Le tanneries Vaillant sono di proprietà privata e fanno parte del Patrimonio industriale nazionale. Il
fabbricato si sviluppa su più piani in verticale con ampi spazi atti ad accogliere il voluminoso apparato
della lavorazione. Come per tutte le altre concerie questo sistema costruttivo è in funzione alla
successione dei trattamenti che dovevano subire le pesanti e voluminose pelli. Il tipo di lavorazione si
basa esclusivamente sull’acqua per le diverse operazioni. In mancanza di spazio si è dovuto ampliare
e ricostruire sulle preesistenze, così le nuove trame di pilastri in cemento armato si sono sovrapposte
ai vecchi muri tradizionali.
Le nuove concerie Plauchud & fils sono ubicate nella parte bassa di Barjols, si presentano in buono
stato e non necessitano di misure conservative. Per contro le dimensioni e l’impatto visivo male si
integrano nel contesto paesaggistico. Costruite dopo la II guerra mondiale, all’incirca nel 1950,
dovevano contenere tutte le fasi di lavorazione, per cui ne risulta un edificio di gigantesche dimensioni
che domina l’intera zona. Il vecchio complesso Plauchud è situato lungo il torrente Fauvery ed
attualmente è in parte occupato da artisti ed artigiani. La sua divisione in lotti operata
dall’amministrazione comunale nel 1980, ha determinato numerose modifiche plani-volumetriche e di
distribuzione interna, conferendo ulteriore eterogeneità alla costruzione. Addossato al muro di
sostegno orientale del centro storico ha subito durante il XX secolo numerosi rimaneggiamenti
effettuati su una pianta settecentesca.
Attualmente, in gran parte, queste fabbriche si presentano in grave stato di degrado e abbandono e ci
si domanda quali possano essere le strategie di recupero, rifunzionalizzazione e riconversione di
quest’area dismessa, ma con enormi potenzialità soprattutto in termini di spazio e valori intrinseci di
memoria storica, territoriale e culturale. Alla voce “manufatto storico” che qui ci interessa il vocabolario
parla “un oggetto fatto dall’uomo e realizzato in altri tempi spesso con altra destinazione e finalità,
appartenente ad una realtà oggettivamente accertata e alla storia quale seguito di avvenimenti” sul
territorio antropizzato.
Il monumento storico rappresentato dalle tanneries di Barjols può e deve essere esaminato secondo i
parametri della sua storia delle vicende pregresse, della spazialità originaria, della collocazione sul
1104

territorio, della durata temporale delle sue funzioni primordiali e di quelle diverse assunte nei secoli. Di
fronte alla necessità di recuperare alla piena funzione un concreto manufatto storico, per lo più –
come già si è detto – in condizioni di degrado per la perdita della propria funzione originaria -, occorre
un indispensabile processo di riplasmazione della infinita offerta di spazi interconnessi dei quali non
debbono venire alterati i rapporti, se non con la massima cautela e in misura tale da non sconvolgere
assolutamente l’effetto della spazialità globale.
Le vestigia, le fabbriche, macchine, archivi ed attrezzi sono testimoni insostituibili delle condizioni di
lavoro e del modo di vivere di un’epoca e rappresentano un valore patrimoniale nonché didattico. In
ragione del loro passato prestigioso, del loro carattere estetico e del loro valore simbolico un certo
numero di edifici meriterebbero di essere valorizzati. E’ proprio attraverso lo studio dei valori intrinseci
ed un approccio rigoroso che si potrà intervenire sulle antiche concerie di Barjols.
In merito al tema della riconversione constatiamo come spesso magazzini, mercati coperti, caserme,
fabbriche edificate ai fini della produzione industriale o commerciale si siano trasformati ed adibiti a
nuovi usi anche mediante l’intervento di un determinato movimento artistico e cittadino, nato
dall’incontro tra gli spazi abbandonati e l’impegno di artisti.
Nel paesaggio urbano in Europa dalla fine del XX secolo molti dei luoghi simbolo di un’era industriale
hanno cessato la loro ragione d’essere e si sono trasformati in vuoti contenitori. Attraverso la creatività
artistica e culturale, la popolazione locale, mettendo in opera le proprie competenze, ha riqualificato
queste aree di memoria trasformandole in spazi di lavoro orientati a tutte le discipline artistiche,
ateliers, luoghi di incontro e svago. Si è resa possibile una formidabile inversione di marcia nell’utilizzo
di questi fabbricati, altrimenti destinati ad un inesorabile declino, avviandoli ad un futuro di
rinnovamento. Questi nuovi centri di cultura rappresentano i simboli di un’evoluzione positiva e
costruttiva del territorio, questi luoghi fortemente intrisi della storia di un mondo in movimento sono
diventati “i nuovi territori dell’arte”, le “artfactories” del legame tra creatività artistica e creatività
sociale, essi sono il fulcro delle riflessioni sul ruolo dell’arte nel contesto della nostra società.
Fig. 3 – Le tanneries Plauchud sul torrente Faubery (Foto di L. Blotto)
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Fig. 4 – Sviluppo verticale anni cinquanta – sessanta (foto di L. Blotto)
Il caso esaminato di Barjols si inserisce nel contesto, ormai piuttosto frequente a livello europeo ed
extraeuropeo, di riconversioni di manufatti dismessi. Tra gli innumerevoli esempi di riconversione
ricordiamo la UfaFabrik di Berlino, dove negli antichi locali della Compagnia cinematografica UFA, su
un’area di 18.500 mq. ha preso vita un’associazione a scopo non lucrativo che si occupa di musica,
danza, teatro, circo, comunicazione e percezione visiva, cinema, formazione artistica, e progetti
ecologici.
Ed ancora l’Èchangeur a Fère-en-tardenois in Francia (ex magazzini di cereali), l’Hangar di Barcellona
(ex depositi), il Centro K@2 Liepaja in Lettonia (ex quartiere militare), le Fonderie Darling di Montreal
(Canada) ed infine la Friche de la Belle de Mai a Marsiglia, antica manifattura dei tabacchi dove su
una superficie di 45.000 mq. la struttura polivalente e pluridisciplinare ospita tre sale di spettacolo,
uffici, cybercafè, gallerie d’arte, scuole di danza, 18 ateliers, bar e spazi modulabili.
Se però confrontiamo la struttura di Marsiglia a quella di Barjols, si constata che non ci sono
similitudini sia per quanto riguarda la forma architettonica che per quanto riguarda il contenuto del
progetto, oltre che la differenza di scala a livello urbano e della popolazione residente. Inoltre, a
Barjols le vecchie concerie presentano la particolarità di offrire più fabbricati contrariamente a la Belle
de Mai, ed agli esempi citati che si concentrano in un solo blocco. Inoltre queste concerie
appartengono per lo più a diverse famiglie di imprenditori, da qui la difficoltà di portare avanti un
progetto sostenibile condiviso da tutti. Soltanto le fabbriche Vaillant, dopo la cessata attività, hanno
cercato di inserire nell’area degli artigiani, soppiantati verso la fine degli anni ottanta da un gruppo
composto da una trentina di artisti che pian piano hanno organizzato i loro ateliers riabilitando
l’immagine del luogo. Gli abitanti, d’altro canto, sono grati a loro per aver conservato il patrimonio
architettonico e di non averlo snaturato nell’opera di restauro, inoltre grazie al loro lavoro e ai contatti
esterni si è inserito Barjols in un reticolo più vasto di immagine culturale del paese, supportato il tutto
da una attenta divulgazione tramite internet.
La loro presenza ed attività di recupero culturale e formale si è focalizzata con successo solo su una
parte dell’intero complesso. Dopo questo primo lotto di interventi si guarda con entusiasmo e
determinazione, non priva di cautela, verso il futuro delle tanneries.
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Fig. 5 – 6 L’alimentazione idrica delle tanneries e le cascate del Fauvery (foto di L: Blotto)
Osservando da vicino, passeggiando tra questi vuoti contenitori, sbirciando all’interno, ci si accorge
che c’è sempre qualcosa da scoprire, soluzioni architettoniche che non mostrano mai lo stesso
aspetto, ma cambiano ad ogni passo, uno spazio dinamico che suggerisce idee e progetti.
Tra gli studi presentati ritengo di particolare interesse quello degli architetti Elise Michel e Nicolas
Coquillas relativo alle concerie Plauchud. Il tema affrontato è quello museografico e si esplica
nell’Ecomuseo delle tanneries e la Maison de l’Eau che investono due settori differenti ma
complementari tra di essi. Il progetto per utilizzare al meglio le qualità dell’edificio si organizza in tre
comparti di cui due dedicati ai musei ed il terzo è costituito dai servizi destinati al pubblico e agli spazi
di circolazione e parcheggio.
L’elemento acqua è il filo conduttore che ha caratterizzato e accompagnato tutta l’evoluzione storica di
quest’area sin dai tempi remoti del Medioevo quando lungo il torrente Fauvery, su impianto monastico,
si stabilirono le concerie le quali, a loro volta, si moltiplicarono fino alla saturazione degli spazi
esistenti. La sua presenza costituisce un valore aggiunto in positivo nella lettura di questo paesaggio:
sgorgando a nord di Barjols, il corso d’acqua forma delle rumorose cascate che si immergono in un
piccolo laghetto dall’aspetto un po’ selvaggio per poi dileguarsi a valle dopo aver lambito i fabbricati
oggi abbandonati. Valorizzare questo elemento così vivo in un contesto ridotto al silenzio, con
l’istituzione di una Maison de l’Eau significa non solo sottolineare il valore della sua utilità e impiego,
ma soprattutto dare nuova immagine sia al sito industriale che al contesto generale.
Molto lavoro è stato fatto ed il percorso è ancora lungo, ma appare evidente che esigenze ed interessi
dovrebbero convergere verso una ricerca nei confronti del “patrimonio”, sia esso contenuto che
contenitore, ambientale paesaggistico. Le metodiche di gestione è necessario che siano coerenti nel
raggiungimento di un rapporto sia pure dinamico per la mutazione del contesto culturale ma sempre
protese all’istanza di conservazione. Diventa importante dunque saper cogliere in ogni fase del
processo intrapreso quelle che possiamo definire duttilità prestazionali dei singoli elementi, vagliando
presenza e valori delle potenzialità ancora latenti o appena timidamente emergenti: le più difficili da
definire con esattezza ma forse le più delicate e importanti.
Possiamo dire infine che ogni ricerca ricostruttiva, dalla più libera e possibilmente alla più rigorosa
deve tendere a creare un sentimento emozionale tale che le orme e la memoria di un passato ritornino
in tutta la loro complessità ed estensione con vitalità quasi virtuale.
1107

Riferimenti bibliografici
[1] AA.VV. Les entre peaux: Barjoles des tanneurs aux artistes. Barjols: Edition Plain Page, 2010.
ISBN 9-782910-775438.
[2] ANDRIEX, Jean Yves. Patrimoine industriel. Paris: Edition PUF, 1992.
[3] ASENSIO, Cerver Francisco. La culture des friches industrielles. Barcelone: Edition ARCO, 1997.
[4] BOYRIVENT, Marie Caroline. Réaménagement du site d’une ancienne tannerie. Lyon: Edition
TPFE, 1994
[5] GRAVARI–BARBAS, Maria. Habiter le patrimoine. Rennes: Edition PUR, 2005. ISBN 2-7535-0001-
0.
[6] LAZZAROTTI, Olivier. VIOLIER, Philippe. Tourisme & Patrimoine: un moment du monde. Angers:
Edition PUA, 2007. ISBN 978-2-915571-16-1
[7] LIEUTIER, Antoine. Artisanat: une tradition d’avenir dans le Haut-Var. Marseille: TPFE, 1998.
[8] PINARD, Jaques. L’archeologie industriel. Paris: Edition PUF, 1985.
[9] RIEGL, Aloïs. Le cult modern des monuments. Paris: Edition du Seuil, 1984. ISBN 2-02-006821-4.
[10] TOULIER, Bernard. Architecture et patri moine du XX e en France. Paris: Edition du patrimoine,
1999.
1108

The design of the urban centers of the Amalfi Coast
Maria Archetta RUSSO
Dipartimento di Restauro e costruzione dell’architettura e dell’ambiente, Facoltà di Architettura “L.
Vanvitelli”, Seconda Università degli Studi di Napoli, Aversa (CE), Italia
e-mail: mariaarchetta.russo@unina2.it
Abstract
The Amalfi Coast is made up of towns having different organisation, more or less in contact with the sea.
While to the west of Amalfi agglomerations consist of centers located at different altitudes, often on top of
coastal cliffs, the city and the east side are arranged at the mouth of streams, on sandy shores, and take
advantage of the same side of the valleys, with houses on the hillsides, served by flights of steps, sometimes
extremely steep. The main elements are represented by small villages, gathered around a church and
connected by pedestrian streets, almost always stepped in to bridge the existing soil, arranged in terraces.
Centers in the east, the narrowness of the implant site has produced the initial welding sets, resulting in a
compact urban structure, however, in the western and interior areas, the different terrain and the absence of
constraints have allowed the preservation of isolated small centers.
The conservation of this unique environment, recognized World Heritage Site, cannot ignore the preservation
of the ancient urban structure of the Amalfi Coast.
Parole chiave: Amalfi Coast, village, road.
1. Environmental features
The territory of the Amalfi Coast is marked by high, jagged mountain peaks, interspersed with deep valleys in
which flow streams to torrential regime. It overlooks the sea with breathtaking cliffs, here and there
interrupted by short sandy coasts.
Through painstaking work, between X and XIII century, the soil, originally much steeper, was tilled and
terraced, obtaining narrow strips of land, contained by stone walls, which allowed agricultural development.
The work led to the transformation of the environment in a hospitable context, creating at the same time, a
system for the control of irrigation water. A dense network of roads, mainly tiers, was drawn, providing the
overarching framework for urban settlements, in the full merger of the natural landscape with buildings [1].
The same principle of the terraces was adopted for buildings that, resting on a lower level, develop in height,
becoming thicker as that the withdrawal of the slope allows the expansion of the sub-base.
The different villages, of medieval origins roughly contemporary with the aforementioned large territorial
transformation, are placed both on the coast, and inland areas, at different altitudes between them.
Celebrated for their beauty and panoramic views, and especially for the valuable historical and artistic
heritage preserved, they are the result of ingenious adaptations to tectonic conditions often prohibitive and of
maximum use of scarce resources available. Each one is a unique example that, although in different
combinations, modulates a common matrix. Originally a small group, formed around a church and attested
on a road that provides internal communications and, prolonged, as with other centers more or less close.
By examining the different areas it can be seen that, as far as the coastal areas, agglomerations west of
Amalfi - Positano, Praiano, Furore and Conca dei Marini - are located at the top, above the cliffs that plunge
into the sea. Instead, the cities the eastern side - Atrani, Maiori, Minori, Cetara, Vietri - are at the mouth of
streams, beaches and looked forward to using the system the same sides of the valley where the waters
flow. The narrowness of the sites has resulted in the progressive welding of primitive aggregates, giving rise
1109

to compact settlements, in which the housing, distributed over the strokes made smooth and attached to the
heights, overlap one another. Instead, if there are no constraints to the expansion, there are different
villages, more or less apart, as in the villages of Amalfi, in the municipalities of the western slope and in
those mountains of Scala, Ravello and Tramonti.
As we anticipated, the connective element of this complex system is the road texture, developed together
with the redefinition of the territory operated in the Middle Ages. The routes, remained almost unscathed
through the first half of the nineteenth century, assured communications within the Coast and outward, to the
area of Naples and Sorrento, the Agro Nocerino-Sarnese and at Salerno. In the rough paths, passable only
on foot or by mule, to recognize a hierarchical role: the main, delineated using the lowest possible lines of
lesser steepness, welcome secondary steep slope, almost always steps, which extend up to furthest reaches
of the settlements.
Despite the many alterations of the original topography, produced over time by natural events such as
landslides and floods, or the construction of roads suitable for vehicles started in the early nineteenth
century, you can still read the old distribution which overlapped and joined by the modern stage. The new
routes are cleared, interrupting and overlapping in many of the earlier, and have completely subverted the
traditional approach to the territory with their pace on the edge of the coast, galleries, winding roads and
bridges to overcome mountains, hills and valleys frequently [2, 3].
The area is served by the national road of the Amalfi Coast n. 163 and n. 366 of Agerola, whose trace has a
major influence on the original urban design, with deep and irreversible upheaval in some of the countries
traversed. The first, which runs from east to west along the coast, joined in the first half of the nineteenth
century, Amalfi and Vietri, last quarter, with Meta di Sorrento and Positano, in the same section was begun
the latter 'other, direct from Amalfi agerolino plateau and from there to Castellammare, only ended in 1930.
The economy of this discussion only allows a rapid excursus on the organization of individual centers, each
of which deserves a long and detailed examination impossible here. Therefore we will focus especially on
the common characteristics and distinctive features present in each of them.
Fig. 1: Amalfi.
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2. Amalfi and the eastern side
The image of Amalfi is emblematic of the towns eastern side of the sea, which summarizes all the features,
interpreting them in the most noble and complete. The view from the sea shows the similarity of their system,
strongly influenced by the size of the valley in which are situated: very close to that outlined by Dragone
Atrani, wide to Maiori, where Reginna expands increasingly in descending Tramonti [4].
The former capital of the Duchy stands in a majestic setting, surrounded by high jagged peaks: Mount Aureo
east, crowned by the Tower of Ziro and ending at the sea in Cape Atrani said, improperly fitted the tower
called "Saracen", to impassable west and rugged peaks, steep, which seems to cling to the complex of the
Capuchins, now a hotel. Behind the beach, separated from the mouth of Canneto, stood the village, located
inside the gorge for the full depth of the stream and collected on the side slopes, the East dominated by the
long colonnade of cemetery monuments - the largest nineteenth-century architectural creation of the Coast -
culminating in the opposite quarter Vagliendola, who closed the city from this side. The shape of the blocks
is determined mainly by the need to adapt as best as to the orography of the land and enjoy the most
advantageous exposure. The narrowness of the site generates an aggregate very concentrated - at first
sight, chaotic - in which the volumes are superimposed along the slopes that line the main road, creating
small neighborhoods interspersed with forest and terraced by sharp jumps and natural. In a well articulated
together play a vital role connections, trust in the way hierarchical connotation. The central axis, which
crosses the city from the ancient north gate to the cathedral, was obtained between the thirteenth and
fourteenth century with the coverage of the stream, defining the main director of commercial expansion, the
new route roughly parallels that replaced the old, satisfying the lines of lesser slope, running toward the
north, at higher levels. Dark, winding stairs climb up the sides cross the hills, often becoming galleries
underpassing buildings, reaching the highest areas, even reaching to the neighboring centers.
This network, which includes monuments of great importance - on which this is not the place to linger - and
small buildings, is dotted with Medieval, Baroque, nineteenth and early twentieth century and even more
qualified by the recent discovery of structures traced back to Classical times.
In the dense urban network remains the original appearance of Amalfi, on which we have settled the next
steps, to this day. Unlike most of the common neighbors, thankfully, modern infrastructure was affected only
on the band immediately behind the coast, leaving almost unchanged the back, though seriously disturbed
by tampering or by altering and incongruous growths contemporaries.
Eastern centers reproduce on more or less reduced scale the same structure. Atrani, which follows, enters
the valley of the Dragon, which, extending to the north, separated from Ravello Scala. The agglomeration,
enriched by important artistic and architectural emergencies, draws further suggestion by the presence in the
field of higher rock chapels and large natural cavities. Unfortunately, it is irreparably altered the sight
overboard with multiple spans of the viaduct on which the carriage passes, erected on the beach, in the first
half of the nineteenth century, to connect the logs of road from Amalfi and Minori.
Continuing his journey, the artery bursts in Minori, cutting through the western area and proceeding parallel
to the beach, up to the altitude of which stands the tower Mezzacapo ledge that marks the border with
Maiori. The original village stood on slopes, almost perpendicular to the west. Behind the coast lies the
Figg. 2-3: Atrani.
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Fig. 4: Maiori, plan 1848.
Fig. 5: Maiori, plan today.
important archaeological site of Roman villa, not far from the basilica of St. Trofimena point of convergence
of the old pedestrian from small villages, to the high position and the rugged terrain and convoluted, retain
most of their plant. Instead, in the valley, the national road has driven following settlements, encouraging,
especially in the second half of the twentieth century, a mainly speculative housing.
The contiguous Maiori, second city of the area after Amalfi, extends over a wide area facing a long sandy
beach, enclosed by headlands, each with a tower - the western transformed into the castle Mezzacapo, the
East called 'Normanna'. In the middle of the beach leads to the Reginna, who, descending from Tramonti,
divided the territory for the full depth, drawing on the sides of a flat band, which expands more and more, as
it approaches its mouth, until, in last sector, roughly the width of the beach.
The first settlements were on the banks of the river - around which, in the northern areas there were
numerous factories - and on the steps that wound along the side slopes, the West topped by medieval
Church St. Maria a Mare. Large architectural complexes are still present, both religious and civil, facing the
last stretch of the river, whose coverage generates a kind of long square, condition almost unique to the
Coast. The interior and the sea areas now saturated with buildings, most of which show recognizable
interventions of the last half century, which concluded the work of urbanization of fertile arable land between
the houses and the coast, started to mid-nineteenth century, together with the stock, with a workforce
program by architect Pietro Valente. The idea, a real town redevelopment project the image in order to
demonstrate the economic Influence experience, led to the revision of the western sector, drifting the mother
church and reversing the orientation, opening the entrance to the valley, above an imposing staircase that
emulates that of the cathedral of Amalfi. Being into the valley, the village becomes more and more scarce,
giving way to numerous plants, both served by modern provincial road Maiori-Chiunzi, which runs on the
eastern edge, is the stretch that goes on the opposite shore, coinciding with the way driveway of age
Bourbon, Tramonti direct and Sarno Valley, then abandoned, opting for the route along the coast to Vietri. At
the high, you will find the villages of Vecite and Ponteprimario, perched in the foothills overlooking the gorge,
on the border with Tramonti.
The small fishing village of Cetara, distorted by today's port facilities, forward sinuously into the gorge
defined by the stream, covered in the urban section, which ends on the beach, dominated to the east by the
Angevin tower, increased age viceroy. On both sides of the river, there are the most ancient areas, between
the eastern and defensive garrison church of S. Peter, from the western plot thinned, gathered around the
former convent of the Friars Minor, now Town Hall. The road runs behind, above the main road with a bridge
and creating a striking effect to almost touch the majolica dome of the church adjacent to the communal
house; but unfortunately not as pleasing buildings are decidedly out of scale, which rise on its margin.
Vietri sul Mare, which marks the edge of the Coast, lives a unique condition, related to the proximity to the
1112

Fig. 6: Cetara.
Salerno, the large number of these industries and, especially, its position central to road, rail and sea
networks. It is placed in a spectacular location on a sort of plateau, contained by high walls that plunge into
the sea and Molina in the river - which flows to the west - to the mouth of which lies the village Marina, on
long beach, protected by towers of Albori, of Marina and of Crestarella. While treating the common
characteristics of the countries considered so far, starting with the picturesque, perched in the most high and
dotted with domes, bell tower and buildings with facades ornamented with elaborate baroque plaster, has
expanded wildly downstream, resulting in an aggregate compact that covers the entire slope.
3. The western side
Starting again from Amalfi Coast to the west of the section, we can easily see the complete change in the
topography. Beyond the valley of the Blind - the deep depression that closes the city from this side -
extending the five fractions, Pastena, Lone Vettica Minor, located atop high cliffs overlooking the sea, and
Tovere and Pogerola, in the mountains. Except the latter, which is accessible from the trail that climbs the
gully or directly from the city center, the villages have a plant in a line on road Maestra dei Villaggi, the most
Fig. 7: Vietri.
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Fig. 8: Furore,Conca dei Marini and Tovere (Amalfi), plan.
important medieval road this side, on which stand the greatest architectural episodes religious and civil [5].
The road winds with ramps, curbs and rare flat sections, complying as much as possible the lines of lower
slope and, after crossing the maritime towns, shall be directed to Tovere and from there to Agerola. It brings
together on steep routes, which cut perpendicular to contour lines, from the mountain and the coast,
stretching up to the furthest reaches of the settlement. Even here, the plot is still legible traditional road,
despite multiple impairments introduced by vehicular arteries, first of all, the Amalfi-Agerola, which
penetrates Vettica Minor with straight line segments and curves.
Those villages have mainly concentrated on the main road blocks and lower transverse or parallel in some
cases, denoting the linear form is typical of this area.
The first one, Conca dei Marini, repeats the same orography. Arranged according to an ancient chronicler,
"on the face of a steep mountain", is bolted to the north by high cliffs, steep cliffs to the south and from east
and west by deep valleys. The conformation fostered the creation of small groups scattered in the most
hospitable (m 180-280 above sea level) and a tiny nucleus of the sea, where he was a natural harbor, until
the mid nineteenth century among the few sheltered harbors near Amalfi [6].
The town assumed an elongated configuration on the edges of the road - now almost entirely made carriage
- which, by accounting for the slope, through the whole municipal area from east to west, receiving from the
upstream and downstream laborious steps, called "petigni" and touching around which the three parishes in
the Middle Ages settled urban cores: St. Maria of Grado - be abolished and incorporated at the end of the
seventeenth century in the conservatory of St. Rosa - St. Antonio and St. Michele Arcangelo. The walk,
starting from the far east of Grado, placed in the highest, was heading west to Penna, bordering Furore.
About half of the course, met the square of the Elm, the only open space land, from which started the link
with the largest settlement, extended on the promontory called "Vreca" and relating to the fourth parish, St.
Pancrazio. From there, it branched off to the Cape, where later was erected the tower, Viceroy, and from the
Navy. Fortunately, the Amalfi-Agerola interferes little with the villages, and remained almost as high,
however, has made the village Grado, once the most isolated and inaccessible, accessible directly by car.
Furore extends west, beyond the deep ravine where the stream flows Schiatro, which flows into the famous
fiord, on which, in the late nineteenth century, was built the bold single-span bridge of today's SS. 163. The
soil, which rises from the sea to share about 600 meters of the plateau of Agerola, is characterized by an
exceptional southern exposure and a strong steepness, which makes it extremely difficult journey [7].
Despite the deep changes brought about by the Agerola-Amalfi, you can still recognize the old distribution
scattered in small sets, which is associated with that of last century, set along the road and in the immediate
vicinity, as far as possible in order to facilitate the approach [2]. From the few houses at the mouth, the steep
staircase climbs the ridge to about 300 meters, after which it divides into two branches. The first goes north
and then west to the houses surrounding the church of St. Elijah (about m 250 above sea level), continuing
to the north with steep straight lines and zig zags, orthogonally facing the ascent to below Agerola. The
second was the same way the slope, leading to the three villages belonging to the churches of St. James, St.
Michael and St. Maria of Pieta, linked by narrow longitudinal parallel and continues up to the plateau.
1114

Fig. 9: Praiano, plan.
The following villages, Praiano and Positano, fall into a different type, being distributed on the slope next to
vertical relationships, without reaching the compactness of the East.
The first consists of Praiano and Vettica Maggiore, which are arranged on both sides of the promontory
which ends at the sea with the Capo Sottile, and are therefore directed to the east and west. Praiano,
situated at higher levels (between m 70 - 220 approx.), lapping just downstream from the highway 163, along
which line the more recent expansions. The country, through the whole extension of a road that leads to the
square in front of the parish of St. Luke, is divided into two groups belonging to the church just mentioned
and in S. John, to the south-east.
Following the slope, the town is spread across multiple arrays, which make up a very compact, but highly
organized and served as a link to terraces, which cut a 90° contour lines. Similar organization is found in
Vettica Maggiore, which is between 70 and 170 meters, coming from the leading edge of the coastal
cliffs.The village, whose center is the parish of St. Gennaro, is penetrated by the SS. 163 for its entire length.
Roads that take advantage of the lower slope, connected by straight perpendicular uncomfortable stairs,
connect the buildings, located at different altitudes.
Positano, however, extends along the gully, which acts as the main road. The eastern side, which goes on
the beach called "great", is more gentle and welcomes homes nearly 100 since the height occupies; the
opposite sides of the small hill that rises between the beach and the center of Fornillo, extending to the
summit (222 m approx.).
The primitive set-up, even if it is not disturbed by the state road, that the perimeter upstream with a sinuous
path, however, appears varied by transformation into carriage of some old tracks. Nevertheless it is still
identifiable the ancient road pattern, which sees the main longitudinal streets, connected by perpendicular
secondary ridges that climb up to the summit, to serve the residences, the bedrock upon himself, constantly
changing direction.
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Fig. 10: Positano.
4. The mountain towns
The inland villages are covered by other types, being composed of scattered groups of very large territories,
for different altitudes.
From the northern area of Amalfi a winding ascent to the top of the ridge overlooking the valley of the
Dragon, on which stood Scale, consisting of an aggregate principal and several villages, which are arranged
longitudinally from north to south, on roads which follow as much as possible the level curves, with buildings
upstream and downstream. The first group has met Pontone, whose soil, markedly steeper, a plant uses to
wrap around the ridge, on whose southern limit emerge from the impressive and spectacular ruins of St.
Eustace to 275 m s.l.m. The laborious steps continues northward, passing the 100 meters that accompany
the tiny village of Minuta, gathered around the Church of the Annunciation.
From here continue up to the largest center (m 400 approx.), aligned along the fairly flat - now made
passable to cars - that leads to the Cathedral of St. Lorenzo, one of the major emergencies of the Amalfi
coast. The trail continues up to hamlets S. Peter and S. Catherine, gaining about 450 meters, after which,
back toward the south, with trends roughly parallel to the center, reaching Campidoglio to over 500 meters,
and meet at the junction of Minuta.
The environment is highly suggestive of the presence of churches and medieval buildings, some still
adorned with traces of inlaid stone decoration and Arab baths. Among them stand the palaces Mansid'Amelio,
Verone, Romano, D’Afflitto, the Bishop's House and other anonymous remarkable episodes of
Pontone [8].
Ravello, overlooking the other side of the valley, reflecting a different condition, with nuclei aligned along the
direct routes from north to south and east to the sea and to Minori. The largest town is situated on a plateau
about 350 meters tapering on top of a massive rocky outcrop rising from the valleys of the Sambuco and the
Dragone, in which almost vertical walls there are interesting phenomena that give rise to numerous karst
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Fig. 11: Amalfi, Atrani, Scala, Ravello, plan.
Fig. 12: Tramonti, area Pucara-Polvica, plan.
caves. Gathered around the cathedral, is famous for the presence of emergencies religious art - churches
and convents - and palaces of the Middle Ages, the most important of the Coast - as the known Villa Rufolo -
that stand out with their wheels in town. Still retains its original shape from elongated oval, with only
pedestrian streets, ending on the sheer cliff on which stands Villa Cimbrone. The context is qualified by the
widespread presence of ancient structures in which are preserved, even more than in Scala, inlays,
elements of plunder, Arab baths, etc.. Long flights of steps, perpendicular to the contour lines branch off to
the north or down to the sea, embracing the different fractions on their edges.
The natural continuation of Maiori, in the basin Reginna, consists of Tramonti, the country from the
analogous ancient origin but characterized by a consistent picture late Renaissance. The municipality covers
a vast territory, with alternating steep share with others of moderate steepness, with a complex and unusual
combination, being composed of thirteen villages more or less similar, arranged in extremely varied, almost
in opposition to those seamen, neighboring Maiori, others that go to 800 meters of altitude crossing Chiunzi.
Smaller agglomerates, usually modest in size, ranging from south to north on both sides of the valley through
which flows the river and its tributaries, forming small villages organized around a church, using roughly flat
areas and connected by a dense network of streets, largely increased in the late nineteenth century, today,
made almost entirely vehicular, evening the modest inclination [9].
The position on the heights overlooking the gorge creates amazing effects in some places, green for nature -
the forests, which take over as you go up - the waterfalls that are followed and the remains of old factories,
1117

which the driving force derived from the water, finally abandoned after the flood of 1954, or converted to new
uses. The lack of territorial constraints has allowed the persistence of the initial isolation of the villages,
although the provincial road Chiunzi-Maiori - remake of half a century ago, the stock drawn at the end of the
nineteenth century - is abnormal, the last director of expansion [10]. Numerous episodes of strong
suggestion, is religious in nature - such as the Cave Chapel of St. Angel of Gete and the church of St. Elia of
Paterno - that civil presenting buildings among the most qualified of the Coast to the Late Renaissance,
which is noted between the houses of Conte and Pisacane in Pucara and Cardamone to Gete. The centers
of the western slope wind along the primitive road that traced after 1811 it was abandoned about twenty
years later, continuing from Maiori along the coast to Vietri.
As it can be seen from these brief notes, the preservation of the ancient urban structure of the Amalfi Coast
was largely ensured by the almost total isolation in which the area lived until the mid nineteenth century.
Since then, a series of modernization initiatives, increasingly linked to tourism and increasingly compelling,
has put a strain on survival of the original urban structure. The conservation of this unique environment,
recognized World Heritage Site, cannot ignore the value of all its components, first of all the design of towns
that populate it, which merges inseparably with the celebrated natural features and landscapes. It is hoped
that this reflection may be the input to operate in this regard.
Riferimenti bibliografici
[1] CAMERA, Matteo. Memorie storico-diplomatiche dell’antica città e Ducato di Amalfi. Salerno: 1876 (rist.
an., Amalf: Centro di Cultura e Storia Amalfitana (CCSA), 1999.
[2] RUSSO, Maria. L’avvento delle strade rotabili ed il loro impatto con il paesaggio. In AA.VV. Atti del
convegno “La costa di Amalfi nel secolo XIX. Metamorfosi ambientali. Tutela e restauro del patrimonio
architettonico”, Amalfi 22, 23 giugno 2001. Amalfi: CCSA, 2005, vol. II, pp. 15-64. ISBN 88-88283-33-1.
[3] RUSSO, Maria. Nuove infrastrutture e metamorfosi dei centri litoranei: il caso della Costiera Amalfitana.
In AA.VV. Atti del Terzo simposio “Il monitoraggio costiero mediterraneo. Problematiche e tecniche di
misura”, Livorno 15-17 giugno 2010. Firenze: CNR-IBIMET, 2010, pp. 234-241. ISBN 978-88-902210-4-0.
[4] JINNAI, Hidenobu – RUSSO, Maria. Amalfi. Caratteri dell’edilizia residenziale nel contesto urbanistico
dei centri marittimi mediterranei. Amalfi: CCSA, 2011. ISBN 88-88283-22-7.
[5] FIENGO, Giuseppe – ABBATE, Gianni. Case a volta della costa di Amalfi. Amalfi: CCSA, 2001. ISBN 88-
88283-09-9.
[6] RUSSO, Maria, La trasformazione barocca del patrimonio religioso medievale di Conca dei Marini e le
fondazioni secentesche della famiglia Pandolfo. In AA.VV. Atti del convegno “La Costa di Amalfi nel secolo
XVII”, Amalfi 1-4 aprile 1998. Amalfi: CCSA, 2003, vol. II, pp. 81-142.
[7] RICCI, Giacomo. Amalfi, Furore, Ravello. Architettura del paesaggio costiero. Napoli: Giannini, 2007,
ISBN 88-7431-365-9.
[8] RUSSO, Maria. La permanenza del patrimonio edilizio residenziale medioevale di Pontone. In Atti del
Convegno “Scala nel Medioevo”, Scala 27-28 ottobre 1995. Amalfi: CCSA, 1996, pp. 199-229.
[9] RUSSO, Maria. Progetti ottocenteschi di potenziamento della rete carrabile della Costiera Amalfitana. In
AA.VV. Atti del 3° Convegno nazionale di Storia dell’Ingegneria, Napoli 19-21 aprile 2010. Napoli: Cuzzolin,
2010, vol. I, pp. 483-492. ISBN 88-87479-11-9.
[10] RUSSO, Maria. Note sul patrimonio edilizio civile. In DE MARTINO, Crescenzo – SORRENTINO, M.
Carla (a cura di). Tramonti la terra operosa. Casali, pievi, uomini e poderi: le matrici della vita rurale in costa
d’Amalfi. Amalfi: CCSA, 2008, pp. 443-495. ISBN 88-88283-30-2.
1118

Cuma Archaelogical Park: a communication strategies to improve public
enjoyment
Mara CAPONE
DICATA, Archiecture, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy
mara.capone@unina.it
Abstract
The ancient city of Cuma is one of the most important of the Phlegrean Fields. It was the first settlement of
the area chosen for its strategic position. Today, the appearance of the area is very different from what it
looked like in ancient times, in fact natural and anthropic actions have modified landscape over the centuries.
The objective of the communication project is to promote knowledge of Cuma Archaeological Park and to
define a new way to enjoy Archaeological Heritage for a large audience.
The archaeological finds are generally only a "piece of matter" and to reduce the communication gap we can
reconstruct what is missing.
The use of digital media and 3D modelling opens new perspectives in archaeological research, it let us to
document the passage of the history, but it raises new questions about the way of representing the
archaeological heritage.
The branch of representation is called into question, especially for issues related to visualization of 3D
models and design of the structures of knowledge. Animation is always been the best way to show the
evolution over the time of monumental buildings and landscape but it is lack interactivity.
We think that 3D PDF could be an user friendly interface to access additional information. So we are testing
the possibility to use 3D PDF to improve the access to cultural resources to all users, and to improve the
exploration of 3D model.
Keywords: Virtual Archaeology, 3D PDF, 3D modelling, Representation, Archaeological landscape
1. Cuma and the ports system in the Greek and Roman age.
The ancient city of Cuma is one of the most important of the Phlegrean Fields. It was the first settlement of
the area chosen for its strategic position.
Cuma is the oldest archaeological sites and it is the oldest Greek colony in Italy, today, the appearance of
the area is very different from what it looked like in ancient times and it is very difficult to understand the
meaning of archaeological finds from different eras.
The first Greek colony of Kyme took place on the hill, where the Acropolis had the role of stronghold and
sacred place of the polis.
During the Archaic Age the Acropolis takes on a monumental look, in fact, the two known temples, one in the
lower terrace (dedicated to Apollo) and the other in upper terrace (known as Jupiter's temple) are dated to
the end of VI century. B.C. The construction of the wall fortifications of the acropolis dates back to the
ambitious political projects of Aristodemus. In this period the city borders reached the maximum extension
and this is proved by the discovery of some remains of fortifications still existent.
According to the theory of archaeologists the wall fortifications encircled the Acropolis, the hills on the west
side and the area of Monte Grillo on the east side. The southern wall fortifications followed a line on the
southern side of Monte Grillo and on the north side they separated the city by low marshy plain of Licola.
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The urban development of the lower city, the center of city life, begins in the Samnite Age (IV-III century.
BC). In this period are certainly built the temple which will be the Capitol (III sec.) and other buildings, not a
sacred character, such as the so-called Central Termal Baths (III-II century BC.) [1].
During this period, the Samnites put in place a plan of adjustment of defensive fortifications to meet the
demands caused by to the difficult coexistence of Samnites and Romans.
In the Augustan age, Cuma lived its heyday. Cuma played a major role in the troubled events that
accompanied the transition from Republic age to the Empire, the aspect of the ancient city, that looks like to
the modern visitor, is determined to the massive works built in this period: here, in the period of civil wars,
Octavian, the future emperor Augustus, had its base.
In Greek and Roman times the importance of Cuma related to the strategic role assumed by the Port.
In ancient times, the Phlegraean area, characterized by volcanic craters and a coastline with deep bays, was
considered a safe harbor. Both in Greek and in Roman times, the port of Cuma was located in a natural bay,
near the center of the city, in an area morphologically perfect.
The analysis of the sources shows that the Greek port was located on the north side of the Lake of Fusaro,
where it was in direct communication with the sea .
The Greek port was gradually disappeared for the silting up and the bradisism phenomenon that modified
the coastline over the centuries. Today, the ancient coastline is covered by vegetation, and from the top of
the Acropolis it's possible to see the sign of the ancient bay.
On the north side the coastline is characterized from a long and straight beach, which separated the sea
from the lagoons and lakes there were inside of territory, as we can still observe.
Today, there is the Lake of Fusaro within this natural dam, the ancient swamp Acherusia, formed after the
movements and pressures related to the arrangement of the Mediterranean basin during the third geological
era.
Piaget [2] hypothesized that there were two ports in Cuma in Greek time, one was located in the bay on the
north side of the lake of Fusaro and the other one was under the acropolis (Fig.1). This place was used from
Agrippa, admiral of the Roman fleet, to built the roman port.
In fact, in 36 d. C. the admiral Agrippa took charge of operation against Sextus and so he needed a naval
base in the Phlegrean area.
At first he placed the naval base in the Lake of Lucrino, that was very different from what appears now,
because it was more extended than now, but the lake was not deep enough for Roman ships and so
Agrippa used it for military training only (fig. 2).
Moreover, unlike the Lake of Fusaro, the Lake of Lucrino was separated from the sea by sand dunes
exposed to sea currents and to winds. For this reasons, Agrippa decided to place his naval base in the Lake
of Averno, called Porto Giulio, and he built a canal to connect it with the Lake of Lucrino.
Porto Giulio and the Lake of Lucrino were entirely occupied by the shipyard and training military activities
and so it was necessary to find another place near to Porto Giulio, for these reasons Agrippa decided to use
the ancient Greek port of Cuma [2].
He built a connecting tunnel between the Lake of Avernus and the city of Cumae, called Cocceus Cave, and
a tunnel under the Acropolis, the Roman crypt, to create a link from the acropolis to the beach.
Agrippa addressed the problem of the silting up of the Cumae ancient port and he dug what it was covered
over the time. Later he built a connection canal with the lake of Fusaro and closed the original entrance of
the sea with a pier (Fig. 3).
At the end of the war against Sextus the port had no more reason to exist. In fact, in the Gothic period of
Justinian, Cuma was only a well-fortified place. The Roman naval bases were reorganized in others places
and the port of Cumae was completely destroyed: the sand transported by the wind into the area and the
phenomenon of bradisism were the reasons of the total destruction of the two ports. The agricultural
settlements have erased the traces of its existence over the time.
The choice of the study case allowed us to address a number of unusual issues especially related to
reconstruct of archaeolgical landscape, very different from what we can see now, to develop a strategy to
communicate the story of the place and to define a different level of enjoyment of archaeolgical heritage.
Our work is to translate into images, an iconic language, what is traditionally communicated using written
language to improve the public enjoyment.
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Fig. 1: Greek time, a. satellite image, b. the reconstruction hypothesis by Paget, b. overlap Paget hypothesis\present
2. A communication strategy to improve public enjoyment
The translation of scientific data into popular data is one of the problem that we have to address to correctly
define a communication project. The aim is to understand the meaning of the archaeological finds, to
reconstruct the archaeological landscape and the relationship with the existing landscape.
The spread of archaeological knowledge is very important for citizens, first users of cultural heritage. To have
awareness of the role, that citizens can play in conservation and valorisation of the territory where they live, it
can be more powerful than any law to preserve the archaeological heritage.
From a methodological point of view the stages that characterize a communication project designed to
increase the value of archaeological heritage are: analysis of the sources, data acquisition in archaeological
sites with different technology, data processing and the definition of the communication project.
We are more interested in the theoretical framework for defining the communication project than to the
problem related to the acquisition methods and data processing.
Message can generally be decomposed into two components content and media and to develop an effective
communication project it is very important to know the information you have to send (content); only in this
way you are able to operate the simplification necessary to provide an accurate information and to select the
appropriate media (form of communication).
In our case the content to transmit is the story of a place, Cumae, transformed over the time from nature and
human actions. The selected media to transmit information is digital media an the recipient of a
communication project is a non-specialist audience, so it is necessary to submit all disclosures to help them
to decode the "sign" are still present.
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Fig. 2: Roman time, overlap Paget hypothesis to present look
We think the "virtual rebuilding" can help to understand the meaning of archaeological finds and the most
important problem is to define what to rebuilt, how to represent the reconstruction and what technology to
use.
The archaeological finds are generally only a "piece of matter" and to reduce the communication gap we can
reconstruct what is missing.
The use of digital media and 3D modelling opens new perspectives in archaeological research, it let us to
document the passage of the history, but it raises new questions about the ways of representing the
archaeological heritage[3].
The use of 3D models to represent hypotheses of reconstruction is a powerful tool that promotes
communication and dissemination of cultural content to a wide audience.
The 3D models allow us:
- to access to monuments at risk of damage, and therefore closed to the public;
- to document what the history has erased;
- to create new way of enjoyment of archaeological heritage without boundaries, in a virtual space;
- to obtain a dynamic view, from different points of view in space and time;
- to build an information system where we can access to data collected;
- to organize a database linked to the models and to territory[4].
In this field there are some different issues to deal and some needs to fulfil:
- we have to solve the problem of the credibility and validity of reconstruction models of object, monuments,
sites or landscapes partially o totally modified or destroyed, and virtually reconstructed based on
archaeological interpretation;
- we have to define a communication code to show the traces of philological work in 3D model to show
elements corresponding to reality from hypothesis;
- we have to chose what kind of representation to use: structural or hyperrealistic
- we have to design the interface for an interactive use of the models.
A problem often overlooked is the difficulty that the end user meets by using technological tools.
Sometimes, we used very complex systems and the interface isn't user friendly and it is very difficult to
understand for those who are not familiar with technology. In fact, we aren't willing to spend our own time to
learn how to use a tool that is only a means to acquire further knowledge. Moreover, a user, who feels
inferior, backward or inadequate respect to the proposed product, irritates and he renounces to use cultural
product.
Therefore, the interfaces must be designed with particular regard to the users, by ensuring their intuitiveness
and limiting as possible the technology interference.
3. The rule of representation
To define a communication strategy for enjoyment of Archaeological Heritage it's very important to work in a
multi-field team of experts made up of architects, archaeologists, computer specialists and communication.
experts.
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Fig. 3: Roman time, a. satellite image, b. the reconstruction hypothesis by Paget, b. overlap Paget hypothesis\present
The reconstruction does not represent the unique final result but the aim is to define an open system which
can be further developed or improved.
The area of representation can play a key role especially in matters relating to the visualization of 3D models
and the design of communication systems.
We have to address two fundamental issues: the first is related to the definition of a communication code
appropriate to the receiver and the second, no less important question, is how to make clear in visualization
of the 3D model the reconstruction hypothesis.
The concept of communication requires the transfer of information from a transmitter to a receiver, to do that
we have to use a code an a medium.
We mean for code all the signs that make possible a communication and it is important to use signs that are
able to send the meaning correctly.
The communication must respect the cognitive process which occurs by incorporating the sign with the
knowledge previously acquired or deemed necessary. In the case of Archaeology the sign is always an
iconic one, and additional information needed to understand this sign has traditionally been transmitted using
a verbal language into written form (pannel) or oral (audio guides or guides) [5]. In the first case we obtain a
communicative stress because we have to decode either the iconic sing and the verbal one, and so we force
the viewer to "read" or to "look". In fact the viewer has to switch between modes based on a cognitive
analytic process to another one of gestalt kind. The result is that the viewer has to leave one of the two
cognitive system. Of course, the conflict is less if verbal information are transmitted orally in a conversational
way. This conflict can be eliminated by using a visual language an minimizing the verbal comment that
"separetes" us from the sign.
So, an efficient communication system for archaeological heritage is based on using of an iconic code.
Regard on this question we are involved in discussion about the kind of representation, when we have to use
a realistic image and when we have to use a conceptual one.
In fact a lot of communication projects are based on the simulation of reality but we think that the main aim is
not only Virtual Reality, rather than the representation of knowledge and the Reality is just a part of it.
So, we think that is very important to define a code to communicate "uncertainty", to emphasize the
difference between real finds or landscape and the hypothesis of reconstruction and so full range of 3D
visualizations options must be considered, photo-realism or structural visualizations.
In any case, a winning strategy is to simplify: to give a clear message, and then universally readable, it
doesn't mean to make obvious what is complex but it means to remove everything is not necessary to give
accurate information rather than complicating with adding information.
The use of 3D digital models is one of the best way to show the reconstruction hypothesis.
We can use 3D models to produce:
- images
- animations
- 3D PDF
- 3D database
- virtual reality
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Fig. 4: 3D model, a. Greek time, b. Roman time.
Static images can be used to make photomontages whose aim is never to achieve a photorealistic
simulation of reconstructive hypothesis but rather to contextualize it in the real landscape.
The contextualization represents a key element that allows to spread the cultural content in an adequate
way.
One of the main innovations offered by digital technology is the possibility to interact with 3D models
independently from software used to produce them .
It is possible to generate a 3D PDF from a 3D modelling program and interact with it using Adobe Acrobat
Reader, put it in a presentation in Power Point or in a PDF text [6]..
The aim is to explore the communicative potential arising from the possibility to interactively explore the 3D
model. Interactivity gives the user a level of knowledge certainly different from the video or the images that
show the object The experimentation in this field is to produce models where it is always possible to
recognize the datum from the hypothesis by using different forms of visualizations.
3D models can become a user friendly interface to access other information related to it, through the threedimensional
display system is it possible to visualize different views of the model, you can link them to text
or some others information, such as images photos and so on.
It is possible to generate a 3D PDF establishing different types of visualizations (opaque, transparent,
wireframe ...) that can be easily viewed by the user using Acrobat Reader. 3D PDF isn't a photorealistic
model but it allows the user to acquire a greater awareness through the interaction with the 3D model.
4. A dynamic representations.
The possibility of representing motion images is one of the most important innovations linked to the use of
digital media. The animation is a very powerful narrative tool that allows us, through the conscious use of
different visualizations options of the 3D model, to explore the 3D model visible characteristics and to go
beyond what is visible in a dynamic way, revealing the structural characteristics of buildings and landscape.
Video is the media best suited to communicate Archaeological Heritage because it offers the possibility to
combine, thanks to technological development, real elements with virtual reconstructions and contextualize
the findings in space and time.
To produce the video we can mix static images with animations appropriately designed, to transmit the
cultural significance of archaeological finds.
In a video we can hybridize different systems of representation, static images in filmed sequence to make
clear the relationship with the current landscape, animations to represent the dynamic transformations of the
site over the time.
Communicate the cultural significance of the place and not just represent it, to relate the reconstructive
hypotheses with sources to make explicit the path and assess its reliability.
5. Case study: Archaeological Park of Cuma
The Archaeological Park of Cuma is characterized by the presence of finds from Greek and Roman times,
the layering makes reading very complex and understanding of finds very difficult, now panels placed along
the tour show the meaning of them.
First of all we analyzed the documentary sources, the studies of archaeologists and reconstructive
hypotheses, so we defined the content of communication project.
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Fig. 5: A dynamic representation of landscape to show evolution over the time. a. zoom on the Lake of Fusaro in Greek
time, b. zoom on the Lake of Fusaro in Roman time, c. landscape in Roman time, d. current landscape.
We identified three key issues: the representation of territorial transformations, the representation of urban
transformations and the representation of the monumental buildings transformations.
In the first part of the work we dealt with issue of the Cumae's ports and the transformation of the territorial
system. The hypothetical reconstruction is mainly based on the interpretation of Piaget, he summarized his
hypothesis about the configuration of the Greek port and the transformations in Roman times in a series of
sketches.
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Fig. 6: Acropolis of Cuma
Overlapping the Piaget's schemes to the aerial photo we can reconstruct the main territorial changes and
compare them to the present look (figg. 1, 2,3).
Based on this information we built a 3D model of the territory during Greek and Roman times and the 3D
model of the territory how it looks today.
The comparison between three models allows us to show the spatial transformations of the area study.
One of the problem to solve is the exploration of the model of a large part of territory, static images aren't
enough to show the transformation of landscape because it is too large and too complex.
Animation is the best way to solve this problem, in fact video allow us to visualize the 3D model from different
point of view, in different ages in a dynamic way and it is possible to use static images mixed to some others
sources such as photo, iconographic sources, but in a video luck interactivity (fig. 5).
A new way to explore 3D models is the possibility to interact with the 3D model, to do that it is possible to
use a 3D PDF files
3D PDF is very convenient when the object is too large or too complex, when we want to show evolution
over long period of time of cities or landscape. If we reconstruct landscape the amount of 3D data that we'd
like to visualize exceeds by far the capabilities of the complex user.
So, we can cover all 3D visualization using 3D PDF and video files. The use of 3D PDF let us to link to 3D
model some others data.
There are some other providers that use other technology based upon WebGL supported by Chrome Firefox
and Safary but we are interesting in 3D PDF because it is supported by Internet Explorer.
In fact, 3D PDF file is [7].:
- avaible on every computer platform system;
- easy to use;
- readable on all computer by Acrobat Reader.
Now 3D PDF can't be used on mobile device but it will possible in the next.
We are testing the possibility to use 3D PDF files to public on web 3D resource linked to the Archaeological
park of Cuma and its use in cultural heritage application. The new communication strategy will let us to
spread the results of our research on web to improve public enjoyment and to show the landscape and
monumental buildings evolution of Cuma over the time.
From a methodological point of view the most important steps of our workflow are:
- to convert 3D model in a 3D PDF file;
- to define a visualization code by texturing and mapping;
- to link information to 3D model by layering, named views, action and so on[7].
First of all we are testing different methods for texturing [8].:a 3D object to define a visualization code and to
choose the best way to spread cultural content for a wide audience. To link information to 3D model using a
3D PDF file we are testing layering options [7]. In the conversion process from 3D model to 3D PDF file it is
to improve to show landscape's transformations by turning on and off the part of 3D model that represent
landscape in different ages. We are going to use this method to compare 3D model of archaeological finds of
monumental buildings with their virtual reconstruction hypothesis. To do that we had to structure the 3D
model in layers related to the transformation process from Greek and Roman time to current time.
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Fig. : Antro della Sibilla, Cripta Romana
Another important possibility it is to guide the user and to link, for example to a text, some particular views to
visualize the object in a certain way to emphasize some property of it. We created special named view such
as top, front, left right in perspective or in orthogonal mode, to improve the public enjoyment of 3D model by
interactivity. We decided to show the model not only in a render mode, where the hidden lines are invisible,
but we chose to visualize the model showing its structure.
We carefully planed the named views that we considered more useful for visualization and interaction.
We are testing the best way to link to 3D PDF file some other information to compare the original look of
Cuma's monumental buildings and landscape with they look today.
We have done this by using action options, they let us to create a conceptual link between 3D model and
some other information. We think this is an useful alternative to classic animation. However, this kind of
representation is a dynamic one, in fact, when we change from one named view to another, the 3D PDF
visualization mode automatically creates an animation[7].
There are a lots of benefits to use actions, first of all we can update and expanded the database linked to 3D
model in an easy way and we improve the access to 3D exploration of the model for people who no
experience of 3D.
So, one of the most important target of our research is to test a new strategy to improve public enjoyment
using 3D PDF files.
Another problem to solve is to simplify the 3D model to create 3D PDF file. We have to reduce the
complexity of the 3D model choosing details, texture in an adequate way.. The target is to have a 3D model
file not too large without losing its communication characteristic. In this case it means that less could be
more.
6. Conclusions
The videos represent one of the most powerful tools to communicate the story of an archaeological site.
Animation are always an alternative for visualization of 3D model but lack interactivity.
The availability of platform such as the iPad and iPhone has improved the way we deal with digital data.
1127

We think that 3D PDF could be an user friendly interface to access additional information such as text,
photos, iconography and so on. So we are testing the possibility to use 3D PDF to improve the access to
cultural resources to all users., and to improve the exploration of 3D model and linked sources.
7. Acknowledgements
I'd like to tank Daniel Pletinckx, Euopeana CARARE, Visual Dimension bvb, Belgium, who brought 3D pdf
and its use to my attention.
References
[1] AA. VV., Cuma, nuove forme di intervento per lo studio del sito antico. Napoli:Dipartimento Studi Mondo
Classico e Mediterraneo Antico, Quaderno IRIS/21, 2003. ISBN 88-7329-033-7
[2] PAGET, Fernand R. Gli antichi porti di Cuma. Napoli: Adriano Gallina Editore, 1983.
[3] FATTA, Francesca. La rappresentazione dell'Africa romana. In Oltre l'architettura la Ra-Presentazione.
Napoli: Giannini Editore, 2011, pp. 61-66. ISBN 978 8874315284.
[4] GAIANI, Marco, BENEDETTI, Benedetto, APOLLONIO, Fabrizio Ivan, Teorie per rappresentare e
comunicare i siti archeologici attraverso modelli critici, in SCIRES-IT SCIentific RESearch and Information
Technology. Vol 1, Issue 2 (2011), 33-70. © CASPUR-CIBER Publishing, http://caspur-ciberpublishing.it.
ISSN 2239-4303
[5] ANTINUCCI, Francesco. Comunicare nel museo. Bari: Laterza, 2004. ISBN 8842072230
[6] .EUROPEANA AND 3D, Daniel Pletinckx, http://www.isprs.org/proceedings/XXXVIII/5-
W16/pdf/pletinckx.pdf
[7] Deliverable, Connecting ARchaeology and ARchitecture in Europeana. D5.4 - 3D/VR Training materials.
http://www.carare.eu/.../D5%204_3D%20training%2.
[8] http://www.archibase.net/articles/2587.html/
[9] http://carare.eu/eng/Resources/3D-Virtual-Reality
[10] Pletinckx, 2008. Interactive Landscapes, How to read and understand historical landscapes,
EPOCH Know How book, http://media.digitalheritage.se/2010/07/Interactive_Landscapes_TII.pdf
1128

Road Infrastructures: methodological approach for the research of
value added.
Michele CULATTI
Phd at Department of Structure Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Trento, Italy
michele_culatti@fastwebnet.it
Abstract
Even though the treatment of road infrastructures (bridges and roads) assumes the subject of quality as a
goal, it is rarely developed in a propositive way. Among numerous forms of quality, there should exist a
technical performance quality level which infrastructural promoters and supporters aim for, there is also a
perceived quality which is hard to detect because of, in some instances, its intangible value. When
comparing road infrastructures that are typologically homogeneous, one realises that during the planning,
the dominance of the technical performance quality leads one to think about a value subtracted from the
territory, determining an overshadowing of the perceived quality. Nevertheless, when observing the best
planning results, it turns out that the perceived quality can assume different forms amongst which is
“conceptual quality”. Should this latter one be defined as a whole of value added deduced from the
connection of components within the plan and the territorial context, it enables the project to satisfy a series
of requirements not directly requested by the performance goal but essential for the function of the
infrastructure. A methodological approach can take place in order to define this value added approach which
provides the appraisal of already existing road infrastructures according to its fruition, thus the form-function
perception and its meaning (or importance or significance). All of the subjects arising from the perceptive
reading of the projects, can provide a sort of checklist which is useful to support the improvement phases of
new infrastructural plans, determining the composition of value added and place renovation.
Key words: infrastructure quality, value added.
1. Quality forms of infrastructures
In times of restricted financial resources and in vulnerable territories which arise because of objections to a
planning proposal, the growing quality required of linear road infrastructures (urban and extra-urban roads)
and all types of bridges and their relationship with the immediate environment, focuses the attention on the
evolution of the meaning of road infrastructure quality. There has been an evolution in the road infrastructural
plan, from a quality addressed only to the plan which has as technical-performance goals, to a quality
relating to the environment where qualitative criteria refer to the environmental protection, specifically
environmental impacts and more recently or landscape ones. Yet, what is lacking is a quality external to the
plan, concerning its relationship to an urban and territorial context used by the community. This is due to
many factors: on the one hand a cultural “emptiness” which has its roots in the history of Italian
infrastructures during the post second world war period. On the other hand, a normative “emptiness” which
will be analysed later. In addition, the determination, measurement, and evaluation of the road infrastructure
quality during its many phases, such as planning, getting into operation, maintenance, and their relationship
with the environment , can be detected through complex quality-quantitative indicators. Then again, the
quality of the work which complies with the function in the context and its interaction with the fruition, is too
often without a far-reaching concept that leads to the discussion about the meaning for the community of
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having an infrastructure in a certain territory. To state it more exactly, the expression “conceptual quality”
appears in the Italian regulation for public works (D. P.R. 544/99 and further modification – Art. 46
Verification of the preliminary plan [...] 2 . The verification aims to ascertain the conceptual quality, as well as
the social, ecological, environmental and economic quality of the chosen plan solution and its conformity to
the specific functional, performing, technical dispositions enclosed in the preliminary plan document, and it
aims to optimise the chosen plan solution). However, because the expression “conceptual quality” is never
defined, its plan application has always turned out to be generic and of little meaning. Recently, the D.P.R.
05/10/2010, n. 207, regulation of enforcement and actuation of DLgs 12/04/2006, n. 163, about public works,
under “verification of the plan”, the expression “conceptual quality” has disappeared and has never been
substituted by any other parameters referring to the external quality. This situation has determined a
normative “emptiness” which limits a documented consideration and represented in genius loci with the risk
of increasing the existence of infrastructures lacking in a intangible as well as indispensible quality.
Thus, the intention to grasp this “conceptual quality” as a way to reflect about its meaning, becomes concrete
in order not to lose the comprehensive awareness which is able to improve the harmony in the infrastructurehuman
being connection.
2. The appraisal of the projects: a survey
To better understand how added values existes in a road infrastructure, it is necessary to dwell upon the
features which are part of the complex connection between the plan and the territorial context. The main
features of such correlation are: the user, who perceives the road infrastructure work and its context
according to a specific cognitive process, the work (roads and bridges) and the territorial context (the plan
area). To start with the first feature, the human aspect is included in those environmental factors both biotic
and abiotic though with an interpretation addressed to the protection. Should we consider the human aspect
from an anthropocentric point of view, which has to do with people’s everyday life, this aspect assumes many
different connotations depending on who uses those road infrastructures, through its perceptive and
interpretative faculties, becoming thus the user. According to this point of view, the user becomes the most
important for both using road infrastructures and for living with them. From a cognitive point of view, the user
stimulates a perceptive as well as a representative process which produces an evaluation – positive,
negative, indifferent - regarding all that activates our attention. Briefly, “the perception is always part of
valuation criteria, - more or less self conscious, intuitive or automatic – which becomes the appreciation
about the shape, meaning and function of something”[1]. Even though the shape, function, meaning and
features of the object refer to the cognitive activity of the user and according psychologists they are
interrelated, in this survey they are separately analysed and seen as an interpretation key for infrastructures.
As far as the perceived shape is concerned, there are two main categories: the first one belongs to the
context, be it territorial, peri-urban or urban. The second one regards the road plan as a linear system of
roads and bridges. The growing awareness about safety measures and acoustic impact meant to reduce
road accidents as well as human and biotic impacts, leads both the designer and the buyer to incorporate
safety measures such as increasingly higher guard-rails and sound proofing barriers which make the
infrastructure looks like a enclosed lane. Consequently, it happens that the technological structures of roads
and bridges dominate over the road and bridge shapes. From the point of view of perception, when the work
is finished, its shape can either be lost in its context or become more prominent but it is always inescapable
within all that surrounds it. The perception of the work shape is always incorporated with its context. The
second feature, the function, is also to be considered in a different way. As far as the work is concerned, the
function is the reason of a road infrastructure’s existence which allows the transport of people and animals or
the clearing of a obstruction in the case of bridges. Culturally and strategically speaking, the large quantity of
infrastructures in our country is due to the maximization of the means of transport and to safety measures.
There is also the function relevant to the area, such as the rural or urban one, with different ways of
connection with the road infrastructure. The third feature, the meaning, described as “the content of any
means of communication as it is translatable into concepts, notions, references”, or as “importance of a fact,
in consideration of the reasons which have motivated it and their possible consequences”, leads one to
understand that both a territorial context and a road infrastructure can have many meanings. A bridge, with
its formal and chromatic features, can be the main symbol of a town, for instance the fourth bridge in the
Canal Grande, Venice, by Santiago Calatrava or the highway access in East Padua where the former is a
outright monument, the latter an access to the town. In the same way, agricultural land means not only the
production of bounties of the earth but also the representation of cultivation techniques, an urban context can
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Pic. 1 and 2 Fourth bridge on the “Canal Grande” in Venice (2008) and new junction in Padua near the motorway exit
“Padova Est” (2008)
be the place where you live, eat, sleep, work, that is the place where different human relationships happen.
(It is necessary to point out that the subject of the place has been examined by the anthropologist Marc Augé
who talked about the Non-Places, giving a representation of many infrastructures; though this is not part of
this essay, it is important for the consideration of the meaning of the context). So far said, when the road
infrastructure is in its context, shows itself through its shape, it becomes the carrier of a function (means of
transport) and of a meaning (the way to reach a place or clear an obstruction either natural or artificial). At
the same time, it can give the opportunity to enjoy a view or to go across, probably with some distaste, a
degrading urban site. The working of the function, shapes, and the meaning of the road infrastructure plan
means to interact with the shapes, functions, and meanings of the area. Should such plan be properly done,
it can create added value, emphasizing the conceptual quality. The infrastructures are usually associated to
their use (means of transport) though the “shape” and “meaning” are often left aside, with the consequence
of a degrading of the urban site. Thus the conceptual quality, seen as a value added, is characterised by the
increasing of the function and the meaning. According to this opinion, it stands to reason that relational,
identical and symbolic factors come into play and even though they seem intangible, they are necessary in
order to have a planning awareness. In terms of shape, function, and meaning, it can be affirmed that the
added value occurs when one or more of these factors are deepened and go beyond the plan’s main
purpose, which is generally connected with the utility idea. In other words, each time a road infrastructure
shape doesn’t follow only functional needs, but also the meaning of the plan in a territory, then you can find
the perfect circumstances to have a value added. At the same time, the creation of added value happens
when, besides the function of the plan, there are other factors which add more levels of functions to the plan,
such as the way to use it. If the purpose of the road infrastructure is a technical-performing one, it is when
the shape, the utility and the meaning both of the plan and the context are taken into consideration that we
can have a double level of added value: the interpretation of solving a transport problem and the
interpretation of an urban site lived by the users.
2. An example of reading according to shape, function and meaning: the bridge on Taglio
channel in Mira (Venice)
1) Description of the intervention reason
The “Passante of Mestre” is an infrastructural work which totals app. 32 Km and has seen the realisation of
numerous bridges, overpasses and underpasses. One of the necessary bridges to guarantee the road
continuity is the crossing of Taglio Channel.
1131

Cana
le
Pic. 3 Territorial context of the intervention area – aerophotogrammetric view
Tr
a
cc
Pic 4 Left: positioning of the bridge in respect of the built-up area. The purple color shows an area which will become a
park and is connected to a green area in the centre of Mirano through the passage under the new bridge. Right: section,
planimetry and prospects.
2) Description of the territorial context.
Shape: the context is a level district mainly agricultural where some industrial areas stand out. The bridge is
near the banks of Taglio Channel, which connects Mirano and Marano.
Function: Taglio Channel is an old good transport infrastructure waterway: a channel that, because of
functional needs and due to the flatness of the district (Pianura Padana) crosses the territory with a linearity
that is the most constant and recognizable feature in such context. On one of its banks there is the road
which connects Mirano and Mira, on the other there is a cycle-pedestrian way which is used to the utmost by
the local people to go for walks.
Meaning: the historical value of the channel, besides the fact that it has turned into a place where people
spend lot of time at, has assumed a collective identity which will be surely menaced by the impact the visitors
will produce in such context.
3)Description of the work and possible alternative solutions
Shape: the bridge is 80m length. It has three bays, two side ones of 30m. and a central one of 40m., it is
35m. wide , with two carriageways, each of three lanes. It has an almost entirely steel structure, with glass
sound proofing barriers and its characteristic is the built on the Taglio banks, making it not too high. In
addition, the road continuity of Left Taglio and the cycle-way of Right Taglio have been kept, making them
pass along the banks to go under the bridge. The bridge fabricated in metal, with the front made by a series
of inclined bars with the function of hardening the core of the longitudinal girder.
Function: the bridge has a double function. The main one is the continuity of the “Passante di Mestre” with
the crossing of Taglio Channel; the second one is the continuity of the road which goes along the Taglio
1132

Channel under the bridge. The bridge is also situated near a redevelopment area which will become a park
and is connected, through a cycle-pedestrian way, up to the Park “XXV Aprile” sited in the centre of Mirano.
Meaning: the bridge, meant as a crossing of the channel by the road, has been interpreted as an element of
the landscape with its own role and identity but at the same time it is part of it through the connection
between the elements present in the context. To find out the role that the bridge should have in this context,
we have analysed the landscape, isolating some elements in order to discover the mechanisms which
regulate their connections. We have imagined what impact the structure could have and from which point of
view it was better to view it. The result of these studies has led to the insertion of the bridge between the
banks, where there are already existing strips of green (poplars, small woods) near the bank, so that the
sight of it from far away makes its dimensions appropriate to the context. As one approaches the bridge,
gradually descending the banks, exactly when the bridge is showing its real and unavoidable dimensions,
one’s attention is drawn towards a green area near the motorway which works both as a mitigation of the
motorway itself and as a facilities area for rest and leisure. It also includes a small refuse which will be
renovate. The bridge is also inserted in its context according to the following consideration: there is a daylight
landscape which we are used to taking into account according to our cultural dimension, however there is
also a night landscape to which little attention has been drawn especially those structures which are a
reference point for the community, such as bridges. In a certain context, the visibility of the bridge at night
contributes to create an extended landscape portion which can be coherent with the daylight view,
depending on the artificial lightning. During daylight, the movement of the metallic bars, perceptible as an
alternation of recess and protrusion, creates a play of light and shadow that gives depth to the front, reducing
the visual impact. Even from the very first planning phases, the depth effect was kept also in the night-time
view. Just like in the negative of a picture, during the night the play of light and shadow has been achieved
bringing out recesses and protrusions through lights put inside the many inclined bars which make the front
of the bridge. The artificial light emphasizes the presence of the bridge in the dark background of the night,
creating a recognizable reference point in the same way as it happens during the day.
Results:
a) Interpretation of the means of transport solution:
Clearing of the barrier given by the Taglio Channel, so as to have a transportation continuity thanks to the
new infrastructure “Passante of Mestre”.
b) Interpretation of the territorial context
The features of the bridge are connected to its functions which is both the crossing of the Taglio Channel
and a reference point for the continuity of the road network. It has been thought that the perception of
motorway drivers, given their speed and consequently lack of attention to the landscape, should have been
of a more abstract sort: the crossing between the roads of the Passante and the Channel is a clear sign
perceptible even at speed, thanks to the curves of the extrados of the girders. The plan has also taken into
account the night landscape through the artificial light.
c) Added value
i) The lightning of the bridge has been taken into consideration as a form of night landscape continuity.
ii) Keeping of the road continuity under the bridge and connection of two homogenous functional areas.
iii) Concealing of the traffic in relation to the visibility of the bridge.
iv) Bridge visibility due to its proximity to the park, whereas the traffic will be hidden by the structure’s height.
v) Arrangement of the residual areas due to the achievement of the new road and of the conditions for the
creation of a park.
3. An indicator list of conceptual quality
From the reading of the relationship between the work and the context which are applied to a wide number of
road infrastructures, it is possible to take out those themes which have contributed to the creation of added
value and make a list of some indicators of general validity.
In the same way as in the procedure for the writing of the SIA (Study of Environmental Impact) where there
are some checklists proposed as questions, here it is a checklist with the transposition of added values into
arguments which can be treated also in other planning cases. The indicators have then been grouped
together taking away the repetitions, in terms of shape, function and meaning. Of course, the checklist below
does not exhaust all the possibilities for the creation of added value, however it can be considered as a
reference point for the checking of the plan external quality.
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Shape:
1. Bridge dimensions and shape: Either in the overpasses and in the bridges, is it necessary to keep a
reduced deck dimension in order to minimize the visual impacts? Has the bridge typology been studied
together with construction techniques which allows a drawing able to keep a reduced deck dimension?
2. Context shapes: Does the bridge/road take into account the functions and shapes of its surroundings? Is
it in connection with them?
3. Visibility of the infrastructure and by the infrastructure: Have the various alternatives been evaluated
about the bridge/street positioning in relation to its view from the bridge/street and of the bridge/street? Can
the bridge/street offer optical cones towards worthy landscapes and at the same time conceal the view of the
traffic?
4. Formal coherence between the product and the context: Is it necessary that the bridge/street drawing
follow a formal coherence with the other elements of the territory?
5. Lighting: How does the bridge/street work at night? Is there any lighting which shows its presence,
enhancing its shapes? Does the night lighting give a formal result which is coherent with the day-time view?
6. Vehicular traffic view: Is it necessary to conceal the traffic view of a bridge/street?
Function
1. Flexibility: In the future, can the bridge/street be enlarged in order to achieve new traffic needs?
2. Economical contest: Does the bridge/street take into account the economic development of its
surroundings?
3. Interchange: In the network nearness, is it possible to exchange the various transport ways?
4. General economy: Is the working of a road infrastructure compatible with the structural needs of the
population budget?
5. Interdisciplinary program: Do the program documents grasp the potential and vulnerability of the territory
functions, shapes and meaning both on a great extent and on a local rank?
6. Traffic category: Does the bridge/street take into account the different traffic categories?
7. Functional intersections: Which functions do the bridge/street seize? For instance, if in the nearness of
the bridge there is the possibility to create a park, can the bridge have functional relations?
Meaning
1. Characterization: can the succession of overpasses with similar features be the expression of the
stereotyping of a road?
2. Identity: Which images of the territory are possible after the infrastructural intervention? Which territory’s
identity is possible after the infrastructural intervention?
3. The symbol: Does the bridge/road have a symbolic value?
4. Renovation: can a bridge/street renovate places?
5. Doorway/access/transit: can a bridge/street express, where it is necessary, the access to a town? Or as
the crossing of a place?
6. Limit: can a bridge/street be a geographic reference point which marks the crossing from a territory to
another?
7. Grades: Are there any recognizable functions in which the bridge/street is in connection with? Which
grade of function is recognizable?
8. The old and the new: in case of a functional adaptation of an old bridge/street, are there any rules which
regulate the old and modern relations? Will the intervention be on both sides or on only one? Will a
reversible technology be used? Will there be a hierarchy to highlight?
4. Results
The infrastructural road plan can be the chance to create a conceptual quality which is able to establish a
relationship between the functions, shapes, and meaning of the road/bridge and the functions of the context.
Supposing to define the “conceptual quality of the infrastructural roads as a whole of value added deduced
from the connection of components within the plan and the territorial context that enables the project to
satisfy a series of requirements not directly requested by the performance goal” [2], it stands to reason that
the conceptual quality can differ in many ways and can be expressed through a multiplicity of meanings. The
followings are to be underlined.
The determination of a conceptual quality is a cultural fact.
The conceptual quality of a road infrastructure is the result of the communication between the client and the
designer; it is territory knowledge; it is multidisciplinary or better trans-disciplinary, as it follows a process of
mutual exchange and of mutual enrichment between the designer and the client as well as it tries to catch
the population requests. The infrastructure, characterized by a higher grade of conceptual quality, will be
1134

able to synthesize coherence between the functions of the road and of the work and the functions of the
territorial context through an architectural plan which is able to interpret the meaning of the places. The
conceptual quality of a road infrastructure is the organization of the place density variation and the
competence to use it; it is the chance to handle the threshold between road infrastructure and context, where
identities are attested and differences are reinforced, at times belonging to the world of the street, at times to
the world of nature (it is necessary to think about the noise barriers obtained through the insertion of
greenery or to the technological barriers through sound proofing panels).
The conceptual quality is the chance to re-organize the space where the plan documents haven’t been able
to grasp the value of the places.
The conceptual quality consists also in foreseeing the variation of the territory functions and of the
infrastructural network which can happen within time.
The conceptual quality is the approval of several points of view which are able to outline the complexity of
the relationship between the infrastructures and the territory; it is the analysis of the depth of time and the
depth of field which allows one to perceive both the street and the landscape with a reduction of the
contradictions, where not only the travel acquires a meaning, but also the parking and the stopping off.
The conceptual quality also consists in the power to detect the area where an economic development is
possible, through the connection of the road infrastructure to the territory’s functions; thus, the road
infrastructure can be seen not only as a centre of attraction of the traffic, but also as o centre of attraction of
tourism and economy. Last but not least, the road infrastructure can be the place where new landscape
plans materialize.
The conceptual quality needs to be examined, studied, explored and represented. It deals with the close
examination which can be found in other disciplines amongst which there is psychology, landscape,
geography, representative, anthropology, sociology, urbanity and of course structural and architectural ones.
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ISBN: 8842061751
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ISBN: 9788831772679.
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infrastrutture viaria, tesi di Dottorato presso il Dipartimento di Urbanistica e Pianificazione del Territorio,
Università degli Studi di Firenze, Italia, 2004.
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8842043532
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REGIONE DEL VENETO, Valutazione d’impatto ambientale, Hyper, Venezia, Italia, 2001.
REGIONE DEL VENETO, Piano Regionale dei Trasporti del Veneto, Venezia, Italia, 2007.
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Milano, Italia, 1994. ISBN: 8825100965.
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1136

Productive Landscape Design, a case study in southern part of Tehran
Maryam SADEGHI 1 , Zahra SADEGHI 2
(1)
Department of Architecture and Built Environment, School Of Landscape Architecture, University Of Putra
Malaysia,serdang, Malaysia
E-mail: maryamsadeghi1362@gmail.com
(2)
Department of Architecture, School Of Landscape Architecture, University Of Shahid Beheshty, Tehran,
Iran
E-mail: zahrasadeghi38@yahoo.com
Abstract
Urban productive landscape is a process of production in urban green space, which involves production of
vegetables, herbs, ornamental flowers and fruit trees .The production process begins from small units in
private yards, to the larger scale in the farm lands. Productive landscape is beneficial to the society and
people.
Agricultural lands in southern Tehran have been selected as case study, in order to be reorganised hence,
part of these agricultural land is selected to be designed, in local scale. The selected site is considerable
from two main aspects, firstly, the residential fabric which is penetrated in to the agricultural land, caused
various types of pollution in the environment, and secondly, its establishment in the southern edge of
Tehran.
Increasing conversion of agricultural lands to residential and industrial construction occurred, while the
importance of productive landscape has been ignored in the selected site. productive landscape’s
restoration, will empower various changes in residential fabric, it improves social interactions and it will
restore and enhance environmental quality.
Urban productive landscape is capable to empower and improve the environmental, economical and social
aspects of the city. It will revitalize natural and cultural landscape and it will improve the interaction in
between man and nature, as well. Preservation of productive landscape as an urban land use is periphery
requirements to create a sustainable landscape. Thus, productive landscape describe as a conversion, from
an entire consuming green space to a productive green space.
Therefore, the paper will discuss productive landscape design as solution to work out issues within this
particular site.
Keywords: productive, landscape, agriculture, southern Tehran, design
1. Definition of urban productive landscape
Urban productive landscape is the process of producing agricultural goods such as vegetables, legumes,
mushrooms, even meat and dairy products, within the city or its suburbs. These products may also include
medical plants, shrubs and ornamental plants [1].
Urban productive landscape is defined by the specific requirement and necessities in different urban regions.
The main purpose of urban agriculture is to plant and produce food through simple procedures despite
limited facilities [7].
According to the above definition urban green productive landscape can be regarded as specific urban
land use which in turn may include private territory such as one’s backyard or it can consist of larger scale
functions namely parks, urban green spaces, travel and recreational spaces. Urban policies regarding
1137

productive landscape design restrict urban fabric transformation, yet it will restore urban open spaces
through multifunctional landscape [1].
In order to change urban landscape, Urbanites’ life style and the urban policies need to be reconsidered, that
could be achieved through different interaction with urban green space. For example, residents will begin to
cultivate fruit trees, variety of vegetables and ornamental flowers by working on the fields.
2. Urban productive landscape significance
Landscape is not only a field for human activity but it is a field of visual perception and it associated with all
human senses. Aesthetical, perceptional and emotional characteristic of landscape could be experienced by
all man’s senses [2]. Various plant species, in the adjacent parcels, with different textures, colors, sizes and
fragrances during different seasons, will stimulate human senses and it will create a different experience for
the residence in the urban landscape. Different plant species with diverse rate of productivity causes urban
landscape to continuously change, hence, urbanite’s life quality and their contact with the urban environment
will be affected by these alternations.
Breeding agricultural crops in local scale urban green space is a creative opportunity, in that unique ideas of
design and management are practiced within the city, while, any two productive lands are not adorned
similarly. People central urban productive landscape provides a different method of design and management
which includes various individual reactions, and is not achievable through static comprehensive plan.
The urban productive landscape is able to gather people, revitalize missing sense of society, act as a
source of education, and it provides opportunity for the public participation, which in turn leads to local
economic development. People will be bounded to their environment through agriculture; they will become
sensitive and curious about environmental pollution and consumption of their local resources. Moreover by
educating urbanites with necessary skills, they will be able to manage their own local environment [1].
Urban productive landscape is a conversion of the urban landscape which is significant not only due to its
physical characteristic, but also due to concepts of productivity and memorable experiences. What has been
manifested in urban landscape is a sense of place, which is achieved by means of public involvement.
Productive landscape inspires memorable mental images through Public participation in the process of
breeding crops in different season and various days of the year.
Urban productive landscape distinguishes local differences in each region, which could be seen as distinct
types of planting as a result of different cultural choices. Different plants grow in different climate, therefore
the planting season is important and need to be considered in productive landscape [4].
Another significance of urban productive landscape is moving towards sustainable environment .Due to the
lack of resources, landscape designers are required to reconsider their consumptive perception in order to
design urban green spaces [3].Urban green space could be designed based on productivity rather than
energy consumption. Since it supplies urbanite’s required products within the city or in the suburbs without
the need of transportation, it will provide job opportunities as well [1].
3. Urban Productive landscape planning, a case study of Tehran Southern agricultural lands
Tehran’s nature is vast territory in between Alborz Mountain and central desert; it is limited to Alborz height
in the north. Mountain located in the east and the sought east edge defines its territory in the east. And the
residential cores and the cultivated lands occupied west’s and south west’s lands (Fig.1).
Mountain in North
Fig.1: Tehran natural structure
Agricultural Land in south
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3.1. A brief history of Iranian productive landscape
Throughout different periods of time gardens have been deemed as sacred places, where techniques of
farming and gardening had been practiced. Survival of ancient Iranian cities depended on the presence of
gardens, at the city’s entry [6].In ancient times cities were regarded as garden-city in that farming and
agriculture were an inseparable feature of those cities.
The city was surrounded by large scale farmlands that reduced into private courtyard when entering into the
city core. Farming is part of Iran’s economical and production system, which promotes self –sufficiency.
Iranian cities have lost their identity during years and they sought to imitate western culture ,hence farm
land had been replaced by parks during centuries.
Tehran is surrounded by agricultural lands and gardens (Fig.2). The city’s wall was removed in 1270 for the
first time and it was expanded in four directions. As the city developed a remarkable part of it remained in the
form of gardens, farmlands and green spaces. And the new developed city spreaded out to fertile fields in
the outskirts [5]. The Gardens gradually transformed into roads and buildings without any visual and
conceptual harmony (Fig.3).
3.2. Site inventory and analysis
Tehran’s agricultural land, is both located within the city and in the city’s outer range .productive landscape
in the outer range considered as rural area and were designed according to a specific structural
plan(Fig.4).The inner lands are located in three different regions and they have been structured according to
their specific regional policy plan(Fig.5). Hence, there is not a coherent and unified approach regarding
agricultural land design in Tehran.
Although an urban freeway acts as a border in between the metropolitan and the rural area, there is not any
hierarchical process to segregate the rural and urban area. Due to Lack of integrated approach to
agricultural land design and planning, agriculture as an important urban function is neglected. This leads to
unauthorized construction, destructions of agricultural land and exploiting agricultural lands for other uses.
3.3 Proposed productive landscape’s arrangement pattern in the selected site (regional scale)
Converting agricultural lands and gardens into urban and industrial land use, leads to environmental and
economical consequences, which is threatening to the productive landscape’s preservation. Therefore the
Importance of productive landscape development and preservation are as fallowing:
Tehran’s southern agricultural lands perform as a visual land mark on entrance to the city.
Urban gardening and agriculture revitalized the native landscape and is considered as Tehran’s
valuable heritage.
Sustainable approach, accentuate productive landscape preservation and development.
Productive landscapes are urban ecological zones, and their preservation ,will strengthen
biodiversity and the life cycle
Fig. 2, 3: Tehran map in 300 years ago, Tehran map in 200 years ago
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Tehran’s outskirt
Fig.4, 5: Agricultural lands located in Tehran’s outskirt, agricultural land located within the city
Due to the importance of natural and productive landscape within the city and in the suburbs, various
solutions have been presented, in order to integrate the urban development and the surrounding nature
to protect and preserve green spaces and productive landscape.
A key objective of Tehran’s productive landscape design and planning is to create a unified environment
which is coherent internally and it conducts a seamless transition from natural environment to the urban
environment. Through implementing this method productive landscape penetrated in to the urban context
through a hierarchical process.
The specific characteristic of this design is to concern the economical, cultural and environmental importance
of productive landscape. Moreover agricultural activities will be implemented as part of urban life and
unauthorized construction prohibited in the agricultural lands (Fig.6), as result:
Existing agricultural landscape at the city edge provides the opportunity to revitalized productive
landscapes in the city. The agricultural land and gardens are territories where developed rural
landscape penetrates in to the urban context.
The agricultural lands located at the terminal point of the three (south to north) axis and the
productive landscape enters through these channels into the city.
Three agricultural zones linked together through development of green productive network that
generates green productive zone in southern Tehran.
In this respect, to achieve this goal, long-term planning is required in order to improve environmental
conditions to change the polluted land use.
Fig.6: Proposed agricultural landscape development pattern
Tehran
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4. Productive landscape design in neighbourhood scale
As stated above, based on landscape preservation’s significance, agricultural lands and gardens in southern
Tehran have been selected for the present case study. The main aim is to design and reorganizing the
selected site which is surrounded by urban freeways both in the south and in the north. It should be
mentioned that the site area is 140 hectares.
The selected site is located in the southern edge of Tehran, and it acts as a medium between the residential
fabric and agricultural land in the south. The social and cultural factors and the visual characteristics are
inappropriate, in this area (Fig.7).
This study intends to implement, productive landscape design as the proposed solution in order to work out
issues within this particular site. The discussed issues consist of two aspects. Firstly, the internal aspects
include” solving productive landscape problems that are associated with the residential context ,appropriate
quality and integrity of the landscape ,appropriate accessibility and establishment of infrastructure facilities.
Secondly, the external aspects include” creating strong linkage between productive landscape and the whole
perception of Tehran and improving its functional role (Fig.8, 9, 10). Therefore, the fallowing objectives are
suggested:
To define the site’s functionality in both North and south
To create an appropriate interaction between the two sections
To design northern sectors in local scale and in relation to residential context
To design southern sectors in regional scale, and to meet the needs and requirements of tourists
and visitors
Fig.7: Inappropriate social condition in the site
Fig.8, 9, 10: Design approach (external and internal aspect), residential context penetrate into agricultural land,
agricultural land in south west entrance
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Appropriate interaction among urbanites and designed productive landscape, improves the quality in
residential sectors and it encourages, urban landscape’s revival in the district. Productive landscape’s
preservation is a process of quality reproduction, which integrates old and new values. And it protects natural
relations among man and his environment; also it is an attempt to achieve local identity. Additionally, the
productive landscape is capable to provide job opportunities and is a solution to social and economical
challenges.
The overall population of the designated area is 8524 people, where 75% are the employed population and
16% are unemployed, hence 1022 people are active job seekers. Each hectares of productive landscape, is
able to provide required vegetable needs of 200 people [8]. Since 60 hectares is under cultivation, the
required veritable amount, for 1200 people is already provided, despite the fact that this amount is greater
than demand (Fig.11).
Based on the calculations, 246 people could work on the areas under cultivation, although other occupations
such as greenhouse transplanting, nursery maintenance, agricultural education, local recycling
management, sales production management and monitoring livestock, are also available.
Considering the fact that 4.1 people can work on one hectare of land, 2500 m 2 can be cultivated by one
farmer. Farming on an agricultural land with the area of 2500m 2 is profitable and could be regarded as their
main job [8]. In smaller scale; agriculture activity is a part time job which supplies family food necessities.
4. Proposed productive landscape’s land use, in neighbourhood scale
Based on the site’s potentials, proposed land use has been designed (Fig.12). The entire site is a garden
city; the northern part is designed in a local scale, and moving towards the southern edge, urban functions
are implemented. Therefore, parcel size is becoming greater from north to the sought and the land use will
gradually meet local needs to greater urban requirements (Fig.13). The General approach is to design and
plan based on productive landscape which distinguishes the designed site from other urban communities.
1hectares
Fig.11: Excess of product over demand in the site
2
1
3
4
200
People
Fig.12: Proposed function related to the site potentials
1
2
3
4
Residential context
Agricultural land with
Polluted soil
Dynamic agricultural
land
Vacant lands
60 hectares
11200
People
Improve the quality of residential
fabric, and access routes which
are linked to the agricultural
activities within the context
Offering services and recreational
land use
Agricultural land’s reorganization
and design through assigning
functions
Enabling the agricultural lands,
by defining functions such as
flower farm, play ground and
agricultural lands
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To achieve the concept of garden-city design, urbanites and municipalities should be educated to become
aware of the importance of productive landscape’s revival and to to motivate public involvement. Site’s
Implemented plans, are applicable models in other part of the city based on their required specific
characteristic. By implementing the concept of garden city in productive landscape, preservation of energy
resources, environmental sustainability and environmental management will be achieved through public
participation.
Due to the site’s potentials, fallowing land uses are proposed:
Family farm : low density residential complex will be built in the site’s west-east axis, and it will hold
population of almost 1200 people in the area. According to published statistics, family size is 3 to 5 person
in this area (4person in average). Each hectare of land can supply the required vegetables for 200 people;
therefore to accommodate the needs of 600 people three hectares of agricultural lands should be allocated.
Consequently a family of four will need 200 square meters of land surface to supply their own required
fresh vegetables and to become self-sufficient .As a result 10% of food expenses will be saved in the
family.
The proposed plan is, to maintain agricultural land adjacent to residential complex functional. The Agriculture
land will become as garden for the residential units and the residents will farm in private space surrounding
the residential areas (Fig.14).
Fig.13: Scale conversion and landscape diversity from urban farm to private garden
Each family farm 200m 2
Scale reduce
Fig.14: Proposed designed area for the family garden
Landscape
variety
increase
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Allotment garden: is designed for the purpose of providing job opportunities and also as a source of income
for the residents. Due to land limitations, it is estimated that 35 persons will be employed in the community.
Allotments farms evolve among the residential blocks (Fig.15). The remaining agricultural lands located in
between residential complexes would be allotted to the residents. Allotment farm land is a manifestation of
private garden in the public area. This will incorporate resident’s individual characteristics so that residence
will become designers of their own green spaces. Thus Landscape features are constantly changing while
different owners will change field structure each year (Fig.18).
Neighbourhood farm: includes child play ground, places where residence spends their leisure time, sport
fields and green productive fields. 2/5 hectares is devoted to play grounds and sport field, with the intention
of employing 20 people, agricultural lands with the area of 1 hectare is provided (Fig.16). Hence,
neighbouring farm is a public garden for everyone, where agricultural landscape and recreational spaces are
integrated (Fig.19).
Farm-institution: includes educational, religious and health care centers in the selected site. These
institutions have the ability to interact effectively with the productive landscape. Agricultural education could
be considered as part of school’s curriculum. As a result adjacent agricultural parcels become part of school
yards where teachers and farmers guide students to cultivate crops, in action. Similarly religious institution,
perform training courses to educate volunteers urbanites. Such approach is the agricultural landscape’s
management through public and private sectors’ participations, while it increases sense of responsibility
toward surrounding green space (Fig.17).
1 person 2500m 35 people
2 8 hectares
Fig.15: Proposed design area for allotment garden
4/1 person
Fig.16: Proposed design area for neighborhood farm
1people
1 hectares
2500m 2
Fig.17: Proposed design area for farm-institution
20people
5people
5 hectares
1hectares
8 hectares
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Urban farm: it is located at the site’s southern edge, the urban farm contain agricultural lands, which includes
agricultural facilities (storage) and resting areas for the urbanites. Total areas of the southern part is 60
hectars,8 hectares of which is not appropriate for the cultivation due to soil pollution ,and its estimated to
provide job for approximately 190 peoples in the urban farm (Fig.22). Urban farm is designed in regional and
urban scale, is located adjacent to urban freeway with the intention of providing the required needs of
transits visitors, Such as tourist or travelers. It’s preferable for the urban farms to be managed by the local
residents so that they would be able to host the travellers and tourists (Fig.20).
Bazaar garden: is supplying Direct, fresh healthy production. Bazaar gardens, will offer the farmers the
potential of directly selling their products in local market (Fig.21).
Fig18, 19: Allotment garden, neighborhood farm
Fig.20, 21: Urban farm, bazaar garden
4.1 people 1 hectares 190 people 60 hectares
Fig.22: Proposed design area for urban farm
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5. Conclusion
Restoration of biodiversity is an important benefit ,which is derived from productive landscape As result,
various species of plants entered to the urban green space, various form of life cycle has been formed.
Urban productive landscape encourages people to learn new life style in the hope of increseasing their self
confidents, in addition to food production. Crops production in the urban context encourages community
members to work and to produce collaboratively for achieving a unique and common goal ,without any
discrimination. Furthermore, public health will be enhanced by working on the farm lands.
It is worth mentioning that if the cost effectiveness of productive landscape can be demonstrated the
restoration of which is more likely. For this reason a remarkable percent of the population will consist of
farmers who will produce urbanites’ agricultural needs resulting in the self sufficiency of the city.
In the selected site, agricultural lands and community landscape are integrated. This involves a hierarchical
process of development from private space to public areas in the city .Agricultural landscape offers various
land use and identity in form of urban farm, neighbouring farm, allotment gardens, family farm, and
productive landscape will become part of urbanites lives.
Bibliographical References
[1] Vilijoen, Anrdre. Continuous Productive Landscape.1ª ed.London: Elsevier, 2005. 1-100 p. ISBN
0750655437.
[2] Simon, Bell. Landscape, Pattern, Perception and process. (Translated by Aminzadeh, Behnaz). 3ª ed.
Tehran: University of Tehran, 2004. 122 p. ISBN 0419203400.
[3] Hough, Michael. City form and nature process.2ª ed. London: Routledge, 1989. P218. ISBN 0-415-
04390-5.
[4] Kuster, Hansjorg. Landscape Architecture eroupe- fieldwok.1ª ed. Berlin: Birkhauser, 2004. 45-51 p.
[5] Habibi, Mohsen. City to village. 6ª ed.Tehran: University of Tehran, 2010. 75 p.
[6] Haft Shahr. Mirfenderesky, Mohammad Amin. 3. Tehran: ministry of road and urban development,
fall2000– winter2012.
[7] Dneshpour, Abdolhadi. Sustainable urban agriculture, necessities and policies. New concept in urban
management. Tehran: Jahad daneshgahi, 2009, p. 86.
[8] Grimm, Jason. Food urbanism a sustainable design option for urban communities. IA 50010. Ames: Lowa
state university, 2009, p. 63.
1146

LANDSCAPE OF NEW ENERGY
Alessandra PAGLIANO,
Dipartimento di Configurazione e Attuazione dell’Architettura, Facoltà di Architettura, Università degli Studi di
Napoli “ Federico II “, Italia
pagliano@unina.it
Abstract
The domain of technical knowledge has led to a deconsecration of the beauty that traditional cultures
associated for centuries to the landscape, so allowing selfish and indiscriminately use of it, and therefore
abuses: contemporary landscape is covered with all sorts of infrastructures, arbitrary in shape, location and
size, without any reference to the image of those places.
Barely tolerated by virtue of their necessary function, mobile repeaters, antennas and iron pylons of the
power lines are domineering presences, unable to interact with the landscape.
In the same way, it was shown that, although in general there is a substantial support to renewable energies,
local communities often perceive them negatively because the installation of such systems is greatly
impacting on the landscape. The strong perception of the solar panels is now the biggest problem.
This paper addresses the problem of a visual integration between infrastructures and landscape, based on
morphological elements, color and materials, with a particular attention towards new technologies for the
production and distribution of energy, both traditional and photovoltaic, focusing on contemporary research
of companies that base their philosophy on the desire to combine innovation, technology and design for
sustainable development of energy production and transmission networks, in respect of the landscape. In
particular, is here presented a new method, based on perspective studies, that allows to place the new
infrastructure in accord to the shape of landscape.
Parole chiave: landscape, perception, perspective, infrastructure
1. Infrastructures and landscape: a different point of view
The aspect of a place is determined by its consistency of expression, by the complex units of meaning, both
symbolic and aesthetic, that characterizes unequivocally that piece of land. A set of characteristics defining
the irreducible singularity, the specific physiognomy of the place, its recognizable expression, are signs not
reducible to pure aesthetic appearance. Do not forget, in fact, that same area, same as in morphology,
climate data, vegetation, geological structure, etc.., can be interpreted in diverse ways by different cultures:
the objective data of the geographic lands set only the conditions of a possibility that can come, within
certain limits, emphasized differently, depending on the culture of the society that takes that land as its own
landscape.
The multidisciplinary considerations of recent years about such issues have led at last to distinguish, and
specifically characterize, terms and concepts such as "territory", “land”, "environment" and "landscape",
which are not synonyms: in particular, the definition of landscape provided by the European Convention
(2000) clearly specifies that landscape is always a cultural construct, related to the sensitivity of the
perceiver, while the term "environment" thus define an objective natural and ecological condition.
In particular, the Convention of the European Council extends the concept of landscape to all places, thus
overcoming the traditional aesthetic sense, certainly reductive, and so defining it as the place and the
1147

irrepressible expression of a cultural identity. Every landscape, both natural and cultural, both excellent and
degraded, represents a life framework for the affected population, which has a profound effect on the quality
of live.
In this perspective we emphasize the importance of the coherence that every territorializing act must have to
not potentially dissolve the unity of expression of the place. When a series of inappropriate interventions, and
dissonant transformations takes place on a land, the image of the landscape related to these places end up
to be gradually unreadable, with the consequent failure of recognition by the community. This produces
consequent effects of further deterioration, such as vandalism but also disintegration and social distress.
Much of the responsibility of the irreversible destruction or degradation products on our contemporary
landscapes is a consequence of the indisputable primacy of economy, ideology conceived as an immediate
profitability, regardless of intangible meanings like beauty or preservation of memory, and myopic in respect
of long-term effects of today's actions.
The domain of technical knowledge has led to a desecration of centuries-old aesthetics culture of nature and
landscape, allowing self-centered and indiscriminate uses of it, and therefore abuses: our contemporary
lands are covered with all sorts of infrastructure, settled with arbitrary shape, size and location, without any
relation to the image of those places, stratified for centuries.
Heroic symbols of modernity in the first half of the XX century, the infrastructure has today become the
mainstream support for a process of technical and technological upgrading of the territory to the needs of our
contemporary society.
Barely tolerated by virtue of the essential function performed, the mobile repeaters, antennas and pylons of
power lines, is an arrogant presence, unable to communicate with the landscape.
In a similar way, it was demonstrated that, although in general there is considerable support for the
dissemination of renewable sources of energy, at the local communities often perceived negatively the
installation because of their strong impact on landscape.
Like everything related to the physical modification of a territory by man, the infrastructure must necessarily
go back to be a topic of architecture.
An urgent and necessary discussion can be carried out from understanding the progressive distance that is
currently emerging from the infrastructure projects, on one side, and the tradition of urban design on the
other. The principle of identity and recognizability of the infrastructure plan, that provides to prefigures the
degree of compatibility and transformability of a territory, must necessarily be acquired awareness by the
designer: what pertains to the perceived size of the landscape must plays a decisive role in the plan, like the
functionality, cost and safety of the works: the infrastructure design must adapt itself to different landscapes
traversed, as an essential prerequisite for assessing the quality of a plan.
2. Landscape of new energies
The research for a balance between energy needs, the landscape and the environmental safeguard, has
recently characterized a new line of experimentation for Terna S.p.A., company responsible in Italy for the
transmission and dispatching of electricity on the grid at high and highest voltage throughout the country, in
finding appropriate solutions to ensure the country the power it needs with optimal reliability, cost and
environmental sustainability.
They have adopted several methods of modern bioengineering, by exclusive use of native species of bushes
and trees, to mask the sites of power stations, especially of new edification, as well as the attempts to
camouflage the pylons of power lines. All these expedients, however, clearly indicate how much unrelated
the infrastructure is into the landscape. The reasons for the dissonance between landscape and
infrastructure are often structural and irreconcilable with the simple mitigation measures.
Terna S.p.A. has also recently cast an interesting competition for ideas, to conceive and to plan new pylons,
with low environmental impact, by combining innovation, technology and design for a sustainable
development of the transmission grid, in order to satisfy both the needs of the electrical system and the
respect of the landscape. In fact, the functionality may be declined in various forms through the aesthetic
research, such as happens with the new high-voltage pylons which are intended to renew progressively
kilometers of old high voltage power lines.
The high-voltage pylons are perhaps the most difficult objects to be reinvented in the name of creativity;
hardly tolerated according only to their utility as scars in the landscape, in this perspective are reinvented as
landmarks, proud signs of modern technology able to dialogue with the land forms, in order to contribute to
characterize the image of those places.
1148

Fig 1: Terna new proposals for electrical infrastructure, photographic simulation of mitigation for a new power
station construction, by the acts of congress: Environment, landscape and infrastructure,Rome,October 2009.
Fig 2: Terna new proposals for electrical infrastructure, solutions for pylons, by the acts of congress:
Environment, landscape and infrastructure,Rome,October 2009.
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The competition titled Pylons of the future, banished by Terna S.p.A. in 2007, was won by the Studio
Rosental, leader of the group composed by the architect Hugh Dutton with the
companies Cegelec Centre and Gozzo Equipment.
The new generation of support, after Monostelo (which has the pylon base of only five square
meters) and Foster (named after the architect Norman Foster, who designed them for the power line recently
built on the hills of Scandicci, near Florence), is intended to progressively renew miles of old high
voltage power lines from one side to the other of the peninsula.
Lightweight but resistant, flexible but stable the Rosental-Dutton pylons are inspired by the shapes of
trees, but using advanced materials and according their design to the attempt to reduce high contrasts, even
between light and shadows.
Fig. 3: Foster pylon Fig. 4: Monostelo pylon Fig. 5: Rosental-Dutton pylon
3. The landscape design as an instrument of analysis and prediction of the transformation
On the basis of the considerations so far reported on the contemporary landscape sensitivity in
the infrastructure design, the development of a scientific methodology for assessing landscape impact is the
product of a series of researches I have conducted experimentally during the last years, on a large
number of case studies, scattered throughout the country, whose aims is to provide Public
Administrations an important tool to read the landscape.
In fact, is important but not enough, to design new shapes for pylons if their disposition will finish to ignore
their strong relationship with the forms of the surrounding areas.
The objective was to formulate particular tables of visual impact, specific to each category of large
infrastructure, such as roads, grids for producing and distributing energy, telecommunications towers , etc…
The main purpose of these guidelines was to direct the designer in taking conscious choices in order to avoid
the major critical points in each individual category of works. In terms of approaches, our guidelines aim to
prepare active policies based on the correct identification of the those values that we must be preserve or
implement by the infrastructure, through the transformation induced.
We provided to create a sequence of images and tables, an iconographic repertory with operational
instructions, that offers an open path to multiple uses, not as an abstract methodological protocol but as a
tool to allow the designer to find the most suitable approach, leaving him the task of identifying the best
solution, with respect to a given problem in a particular area. They play an interpretation service of
landscape, identifying features of those recognizable signs which contribute to form the image of those
places, adaptable to different situations, so having a guidance function, especially during the preliminary
draft, because they facilitate the identification of problems and suggest new interpretations of landscapes.
In the images presented below, the first table intends to lead the designer in the analysis of the landscape
most recurrent forms, providing graphical examples of simple interpretation in order to correctly analyze the
condition ex ante, to be compared to the situation of the same place ex post.
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Fig. 6: An iconographic repertory of the most frequent and recognizable forms in the landscape, images of Fulvia Riccardi.
Figg. 7-8: Natural examples of REGOLARE - ORDINATO (regular - ordered) and CASUALE (accidental).
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Fig. 9: An iconographic repertory of the most frequent and recognizable scale of relationship between builted elements
and landscape forms.
Fig. 10-11: Real examples of EFFETTO RIPETIZIONE (Repetition effect) and FOCALIZZATO (focused).
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Figg. 12-13: In the first example is represented a infrastructure in a decentralized position respect to the point to which
the lines of the road focus the attention. In this case is possible to implement simple measures to mitigate the visual
impact, on the contrary of the second scenery in which the presence of a tall element is perceived as a strong presence,
whose impact cannot be mitigated with bushes and trees. The dominant position suggest the designer to adopt a suitable
shape for his pylon or tower, in order to create a new landmark, whose aesthetic aspect could implement the value of the
transformed landscape. Images of Fulvia Riccardi.
4. A question of point of view: landscape and perspective drawings
In order to analyze, evaluate and foresee the visual effect caused by the inclusion of a new
infrastructure perspective drawing must once again become the preferred method of
representation, due to its similarity with the visual Images physically perceptible by the human. You
cannot assess the forms of landscape analyzing a plan or orthophotos, however useful in the
organization of the territory, whose point of view is infinitely far away, and thus inaccessible.
Landscape is strongly characterized by its visual dimension that needs to find a correct
representation.
references
SCHAMA, Simon. Paesaggio e memoria, Milano 1997. ISBN 9788804388005.
RIZZI, Renato. La Pedemontana veneta. Il divino del paesaggio: economia della forma, Venezia 2007.ISBN
883179373X.
OTTONE, Carlotta. Letture visive del paesaggio in Spagna, in Leggere il Paesaggio – confronti
internazionali, a cura di L. Scazzosi, Gangemi Editore, Roma 2002. ISBN 8849202652.
1153

Camillo Sitte meets Robert Venturi at Berlin Südkreuz
Jorg SIEWEKE,
School of Architecture - Landscape Architecture Department, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, USA
sieweke@virginia.edu
Abstract
How can a peripheral high-speed transit hub be reconsidered as a collective public space. Sitte’s idea of
significant gathering places is scaled and accelerated in Venturi’s spirit of flows to contrast the romantic
replica of the European city with a contemporary dimension of trade and commerce. The proposal of a
hybrid space that, is on one hand based on the urban planning tradition of bracketing space by means of a
coherent geometry of place (Camillo Sittes’ European city) and, on the other hand, attempts to civilize the
neoliberal “space of flows” (Venturi’s Las Vegas): an open square measuring eighteen hectares bridges the
beltway and creates a pedestrian path from Berlin-Südkreuz train station to the adjoining residential and
commercial neighborhood. The center of the square creates a void measuring 800 by 225 meters,
dramatizing the surrounding traffic flows. The crucial idea is to update the place of exchange, of trading, of
action. The proposal suggests a market square for the twenty-first century that does not negate the
dimensions and speed of recent flows, but rather embraces and civilizes them. Südkreuz is dynamic; a
programmatic passé partout frames already existing as well as anticipated future uses.
Keywords: Public space, urban design, periphery, beltways, public infrastructure
How can the idea of public open space of an inner-city market square be translated to the world of
motorways and big box real estate? The paper critically discusses the recent development and offers an
alternative hybrid derived from both, Sittes’ and Venturis’ ideas.
Whereas in the center of Berlin the historical layout of the “European city of the flâneur” is being
reconstructed with great care, on its outskirts things are happening on a sizeable scale and at a different
speed. The rift is found just a few meters south of the compact neighborhood of James Hobrecht’s
Schöneberger Insel. Südkreuz is an essential rail-hub in Berlin with great potential for development. The ring
expressway, the beltway line of the commuter railway, and the new high-speed train connections form the
infrastructural backbone for this highly dynamic site. Due to the late insertion of the hub, the Südkreuz site is
spatially isolated from its immediate urban environment. Enormous corridors of infrastructural corridors slice
through isolated residential and commercial neighborhoods - typical for peripheral milieus. Ideological
antitheses of the urban condition are colliding here that can best be illustrated by comparing Camillo Sitte’s
and Robert Venturi’s concepts of the city.
Sitte can best be characterized by the concept of places, meaning sites of identity and living, framed spaces
with perhaps irregular structures but with recognizable boundaries marked by stability. These places are
suited to lingering; they are “gathering places under the open sky” with a “strong influence […] on the human
soul.”[1] By contrast, in his analysis of the Las Vegas Strip [2], Venturi stands for flow, for places of
1154

movement marked by symbols of passage. Venturi’s city is a neoliberal one; its symbolic architecture in the
“space of flows” [3] is primarily perceived from a moving car.
The predominant ideology of preserving the morphology of the nineteenth century city excludes its manifold
contemporary everyday aspects. Often the infrastructure of our time is neglected hidden or pushed to the
margins. The urban space should be protected from being drowned by the rush of automobile traffic. For
example, the delivery of goods to the “marketplace” on Potsdamer Platz was buried, at enormous expense,
in five underground levels, along with the Tiergarten-Tunnel. The proposal to connect the Südkreuz train
station discussed here 4 is an effort to update these two approaches; it suggests the ideological antithesis of
places and flow as an opportunity for hybridization. Until now each of these antagonistic concepts of space
negated the other, avoiding the negotiation of their boundaries—and hence any chance of finding the
symbiotic potential of its antithesis. The plan presented here, by contrast, strives for an innovative interface
that is sufficiently open to integrate the “space of flows” without neglecting the “sense of place” that living in
a neighborhood makes desirable in the first place. Sitte’s idea of the importance of places as architectural
gathering places is scaled and accelerated in Venturi’s spirit in order to contrast the romantic replica of the
European city with a contemporary alternative that today opens up onto the flows.
The proposal [4] of a hybrid structure that, is on one hand based on the urban planning tradition of
bracketing space by means of a coherent geometry of place and, on the other hand, attempts to civilize the
neoliberal “space of flows”: an open square measuring eighteen hectares that bridges the beltway and
creates a pedestrian path from Südkreuz train station to the adjoining residential and commercial
neighborhood. The center of the square creates a void measuring 800 by 225 meters, dramatizing the
surrounding traffic flows. The crucial idea is to update the place of exchange, of trading, of action. The idea
is to create a market square for the twenty-first century that does not negate the dimensions and speed of
recent flows but rather embraces and incorporates them. Südkreuz is dynamic; it is captured architecturally
in a programmatic passe-partout that serves to frame already existing with further anticipated patterns of
use.
Negotiation between these programs, provoking their confrontation, collision, rather than discretely avoiding
it, characterizes the principle of the urban condition. Imagine the people returning home from the southern
lots of the garden colony offering their fruit and vegetables on the parking lot of the Moebel Kraft furniture
store. IKEA customers cross the square as they bring their purchases home from the market hall on the
circle line of the commuter light rail. The residents of the Schöneberger Insel neighborhood fill the arches
under the railway with day-care centers and cafés à la Savignyplatz. LIDL can fit into this passe-partout; we
have already accommodated its need for space, including open parking spaces meant to suggest open cash
registers. The needs of the residents for their everyday living environment ensure the square will be lively.
The collective activities civilize the “space of flows”. The headstrong appropriation reacts to a wide variety of
speeds and dimensions and suggests Südkreuz to transform from a peripheral transfer hub to a lively urban
place in a metropolis. This reconfiguration allows connecting the seemingly incompatible. Rather than
discretely avoiding opposites, their encounter is seen as an enrichment. The inclusive approach avoids the
museum quality and stagnation of Sitte’s idea of the city and civilizes through daily negotiation Venturi’s
“space of flows” against its un-aesthetic neglect.
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Fig. 1: Berlin southern beltway at Südkreuz with recent big box retail development adjacent to historic core.
Fig. 2: disparate Scales: S vs. XL: Sitte’s historic market square and proposed Pass partout to accommodate space of
flow
Fig. 3: Diagrams suggesting us of space, flow and program along pass partout
1156

Fig. 4: Pass Partout accommodating “spaces of low” and “places” of neighborhood life. The void mediates between
allotment gardens and big box retail. Illustrations 2/3/4/ Competition design entry for Europan9, Berlin Südkreuz, 2007
Team: Anna Viader, Joachim Schultz, Jorg Sieweke; assistant: Ben Gutsche
Fig. 5: Lidl obeys to Amsterdam zoning code (photo by Author)
Bibliographical References
[1] SITTE, Camillo: Der Städtebau nach seinen künstlerischen Grundsätzen: Basel/Boston/Berlin 2001 (orig.
pub. 1889; reprint of 4th ed. of 1909), pp. 6 and 2; translated by George R. Collins and Christiane
Crasemann Collins as City Planning according to Artistic Principles, New York 1965, pp. 6 and 3.
[2] VENTURI, Robert / SCOTT BROWN, Denise / IZENOUR, Steven: Learning from Las Vegas. Cambridge,
MA 1972
[3] CASTELLS, Manuel: “The Space of Flows,” in: idem: The Rise of the Network Society. Malden, MA,
1996, pp. 407–459.This concept from Manuel Castells, who coined the phrase “space of flows,” is highly
abbreviated here to the material nodes of a global network in which transnational flows of capital and
information are the focus but which is also dependent on appropriate physical infrastructure. The distinction
between flows and spaces made in this essay is also taken from Castells, which the aforementioned
qualification.
[4] Competition design entry for Europan9, Berlin Südkreuz, 2007. Competition team: Anna Viader, Joachim
Schultz, Jorg Sieweke; assistant: Ben Gutsche
1157

The design of sustainability in relation to innovative modernity and
identity features of place
Giacinto TAIBI 1 , Rita VALENTI 1 , Mariangela LIUZZO 2
1 DARC, Facoltà di Architettura, sede di Siracusa, Università di Catania, Italia
2 Facoltà di Ingegneria Architettura e Scienze Motorie, Università di Enna “Kore”, Italia
E-mail: giacinto.taibi@gmail.com, ritam.valenti@gmail.com, mariangela.liuzzo@libero.it
Abstract
The lack of a deep sense of responsibility and respect for the distinctive features of place, to which the
production of practising architecture must make reference, very often produces designs of compositional
morphologies that are not fitting and inadequate to the geographic nature of the topos, with heavy
repercussions of environmental degradation on the sustainable ecosystems.
The entire apparatus of signs that the territory manages to express must be constructive and strongly
determining in the definition of the strategies that should guide and support the whole procedure of the
stages of creative thought.
In this sense, proceeding from the first intuitions that have come about through the accurate representative
transpositions on paper, the entire successive process revolves around the compatible ratio with the ecosustainability
of the place, that unites the planned intervention with the area of land.
The materialization of innovative modernity, through the volumetric control of the parts and in relation to a
framework of systemic congruence, is realized in a frettage of iterative relationships between what is full and
its contrary.
Accordingly, given the close bond between design and plan, precisely that we are today experiencing a
moment of profound instrumental changes, the complexities of the outcomes of innovative designs, seen
within the evolution of the creative processes, become qualities to investigate and understand, in a systemic
way, with an introspective eye.
Keywords: Environment, Topos, Morphology, Sign, Sustainability
1. The design-concept process and the signic imaginary as impulse of the creative act (M.
Liuzzo)
Today more than ever, the life of the human species is conditioned, besides by the course of natural
phenomena and impact of forces of a higher order, by consequences that are not always governed by
political-decisional logic, which, from the global to the local and individual scale, are unfortunately not always
accompanied by a conscious assumption of responsibility.
Inevitably, at the manifesting of needs and requirements, in the first instance Man resorts to instinct and
cultural resources, able to trigger that logical-ideational process taking place in the complexity of the
articulate functions of the brain.
Here, a fascinating and to a certain extent still mysterious, organizational structure is housed, made up of
different interacting reticular areas, heading up on one hand a logical mind, situated in the left hemisphere,
rational, sequential, mathematical, that organizes information and communications, and on the other, an
emotional mind, that occupies the right hemisphere, irrational, intuitive, creative and oneiric. [1]
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Fig. 1: Ideational accelerations of the creative process. Zaha Hadid, Parametricism Research.
Understanding such mechanisms of the cerebral apparatus allows interpreting the articulate creative path
that is triggered each time one intervenes on a topos in order to transform it according to a determined
framework of human aspirations.
Beginning from the primeval idea, it becomes necessary to define heuristic strategies toward the search for
equilibrium between markedly different elements that are ascribable to the identity features of the place, to
the fecundity of forms, to functional, cultural instances and to technological innovations.
It is a kind of journey without a definite route or pre-established destination and, perhaps, without any
effective conclusion, which is undertaken through stimulating all the systems and mechanisms of our
cerebral apparatus, also those of our unconscious, with implied and latent potential.
The inherent danger in this type of journey, each time new and different, is that it may trigger a certain
inhibition of creative capacities, almost a kind of ‘ideational apraxia’, due to various causes, among which
attitudes of passive adaptation to technological innovations, at times extreme, or a certain satisfaction in the
unconditional repetition, often unjustified, of recognizably autographic forms, seem to prevail in contemporary
production.
Fig. 2: Empirical logic and heuristic strategies. Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumaker, Parametric Urbanism.
1159

To safeguard fertile, dynamic and active creativity, it is therefore determining to use that part of the operating
memory that may access and critically elaborate the sensitive, perceptive and emotive factors linked to the
topos and previous experiences, to enrich the resources of the imaginary, abundant in signs at times merely
functional, at others prevalently poetic or utopian [2], which are translated, after a logic-evolutive pathway
into structured and coded project signs.
All the stages of design-concept thinking are characterized by alternating phases of releasing creative
energy, of comparison and rational verification and of production and reception of impulses and stimuli in the
sensorial parts of the brain. These are processes of design-concept acceleration, which beginning from the
recognition of the actual configurative state of the site and existing structures, interpreted through specific
orographic, territorial and cultural values, set off a continuous development of reasoning and possible
prefiguring, congruent with the givens of the problem, with the expectations of the system of the asset, with
the updated technological progress and with the contents of the apparatus of already experienced and thus
acquired knowledge.
This apparatus of signs cannot but be proactive and strongly determining in defining the lines of force that
must guide the entire procedure of an ideational thought that, with a deep sense of respect for the identity
characteristics of the place, feels responsibility to produce designs of composite morphologies that are not
only fitting to the geographic whole of the topos, but that can also positively affect the environmental quality
of sustainable ecosystems.
With this responsibility, the morphological complexities of the project interventions represent a magical
moment and a crucial workbench in which the process of manifesting the articulated systemic coherence of
ideas is put to the test.
Ideas that, from the action of the first manifesting as impulse of elaborating sensitive and perceptive factors,
to the fulfillment of a logical-evolutionary procedure that may clarify all the parameters of reference, remain
closely connected to the concepts of freedom and complexity.
All this leads to a profound consideration on the choice of procedures that have a fundamental and not
simply instrumental role, in the expression of the design-conception process in all its stages.
Suffice it to think, for instance, of the architectonic creations by Zaha Hadid who, with regard to the
importance of the choice of suitable tools to shape the idea, states: “From the start, I thought of architecture
in a different form. I knew what I wanted to make and what I wanted to design, but could not make it in the
conventional way, because with the traditional methods I didn’t manage to represent it. The traditional tools
of representation were of little aid. Thus, I began to search for a new way to design, in order to try to see
things from a different point of view. Then, with time, those designs, those perspectives and those paintings
have been transformed into my true instruments of representation”. [3]
So design creation defined by strongly characterizing signs, or by apparent morphologic epidermic simplicity,
combined with the complexity of inner lines of force, compel serious reflection on the innovative
methodologies of representation of the product of architecture at the service of the primeval idea.
Fig. 3: Strength lines drawn by the topos. Zaha Hadid, One North Masterplan, Singapore, 2001-2021.
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2. The sign of the place and its mathematical rationalization (R. Valenti)
Care for the environment, in a broad and articulate conception, comprises all those aspects of life that lead
towards respecting and safeguarding nature, seen in its fullest meaning, in which it is possible to include the
human component through its combining into communities.
The cognitive approach, preceding the project and its representation, is based on models that tend to
simplify the complexity of the interacting components that, in their arrangement in system, constitute the
problem to tackle and resolve. These initial considerations mean that there is a consequential effect between
architecture, place and thought; namely that every architectonic choice, that takes the complete and complex
panorama of a site into serious consideration, must, given the peculiarity of the task entrusted, start off from
intense thought and interconnect, unavoidably, with the problematics connected with the site’s sustainable
development.
Since it is known that a place conditions and influences the formation of man, and since man with his ideas
makes the project evolve, which its turn conditions the place, it follows that the preliminary reports and
researches that consider the site a complexity to be interpreted and used, are grounded in this continuous
cycle.
From the viewpoint of composition, the approach should tend towards a form of union and synthesis of the
contemporary with tradition, oriented towards research in which innovation is combined with the specificities
of the tangible and intangible signs found in the situation in which the intervention is being made. Rational
thought, of functional and constructive logic, is nurtured and supported by the intuition of the overall sense of
the environment. Overall, because a single idea may give resolute answers in different fields, from the
economic to technological, to the social and environmental.
Indeed, regarding stabilized urban contexts, the social structure, in a given temporal and geographic frame,
expresses, in the context of specific productive and economic conditions of the building process, the
requirements and the ways of life of a determined group.
In this context, with reference to design and project creation, it is important to ask what the spatial and
material limit is in which the process of growth and living world can coexist without coming into conflict.
It is a widely shared concept that architecture reflects and expresses civil and social life in which it operates,
in continuous evolution and heavily influenced by the digital revolution. This latter has produced determining
effects on the aspects of aggregation of daily life, among which one that is closely linked to design, namely
the dissolution of the concept of space, in its strictly physical sense, which also entails a model of
individualistic society, tending towards the globalization of expectations and desires.
The virtual dimension, wherein different cultures find a common denominator, on the other hand, implies the
risk of a composite approach that renders architecture a separate issue from the physical space with which it
interacts, with the consequent process of developing an a-topos that translates built realities into unknown
and non-characterizing elements, dissolving, from a social point of view, that fiduciary relationship between
the inhabitants of a place that in the societies preceding us and in the present small communities proves to
be a substantial component of human life.
Fig. 4: ODBC – Odile Decq, Benoȋt Cornette, Museum of Liaunig Collection, Neuhus, Austria, 2004.
1161

“The loss of place, asserts Christian Norberg-Schulz, proceeds at an equal pace with the loss of the basic
language, of building customs and styles. Having impact above all is the loss of the basic language that,
independently of the local language, renders an architecture as close to life as possible. [...] Since the formal
language is based on qualitative knowledge, the prevalence of the measurable cancels it out” [4]
It therefore follows that a qualitatively appropriate understanding of the place is the binding foundation for the
realization of architectures in concord with aesthetic, existential, social and also symbolic values; the design
of the topos with its continuous transformations, in turn, must allow expressing the senses and meanings, as
well as the essence of city and social living, with the store of knowledge and traditions, acquired and passed
on.
The fascination exercised by the possibilities offered by progress in the scientific-mathematical field, spilling
over into technique, contributes to giving form to an expressivity that makes the curved line evolved and fluid,
apparently free, the emblem of the possibilities of contemporaneity.
Graphic elaboration, through digital manipulation with the continuous transformation of flow lines, besides
achieving a captivating aesthetics of images, transfers and explicates content and meanings linked to the
essence of places, to their history, to their traditions. Topology is the geometric science that allows managing
the soft forms of contemporary expression with rigorous algorithms; it “is the discipline of the relationships
that occur in the place and the space surrounding the place and does not recognise metrics”. [5]
The digital, with all the tools deriving from it, also offers the opportunity to translate what we thought
exclusively conceptual in plastic models; three-dimensional printing, multi-axis milling machines, are
instruments that, thanks to appropriate software, are able to give tactility to any form.
Consequently the representation, having expanded its expressive capacity, from the traditional to digital,
whose software, founded on mathematical algorithms, enable an articulated dialog between thought, hand
and project design, has acquired a wealth of elaborative possibilities that are close to natural processes.
Non-Euclidean subtended geometries, in this way, explicate complex structural forms, above all in the
contents, and therefore their potential is still to be researched in configurative-qualitative aspects rather than
in quantitative ones.
The ensemble of all these aspects, acting together on the random order of the process of planning the future
and with which we are confronted in the moment of cognitive exploration and graphic elaboration, are
determining in devising the process of developing the idea. They are precisely those which, identifying the
signs of the specificity of a place, allow, through the project configuration, to maintain their complex and
chaotic identity.
This approach to the problem, allowing architectonic form to emerge from the understanding and reflection
on the surrounding environment, in turn, may take the aspects linked to building techniques, to materials
usage and the morpho-typological features of the basic residential building of a determined context into
serious consideration. The relationships that, in this composition pathway, are established between
technological specificity and architectonic thought, tend towards experimentation that transforms intuition into
innovation. The environment system breaks in irrepressibly, no longer in defining sinuous forms, as in nature,
or conceptual, in relationship to the expectations of the social-economic system, but in the careful and
respectful attitude of a heritage that may not easily be renewed.
Fig. 5: Zaha Hadid, Competition for museum of Nuragic and Contemporary, Cagliari, 2006.
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Therefore, the particular concern towards those materials whose reasoned employment, enhancing their
features of resistance, enables an unusual use for contemporaneity, even if strongly rooted in the past,
contributing to the realization of architectonic structures that are easily disposable and recyclable, and
therefore eco-sustainable.
The research work by Shigeru Ban is undertaken in this direction. Ban addresses his structural research
towards paper and cardboard, materials of the Japanese building tradition, re-evaluated not only for
obviously functional creations, but also authentically formal ones, based on a contemporary aesthetic that
counts on the rationality of geometry and that is grounded on the affirmation “all that is logical is possible,
and I can realize it if I manage to show it”. [6]
"The use of paper structures led to a very free system of thought about composition and methodological
research. Ban affirm: this freedom is what allows me to take so much pleasure in what I do, allowing me to
search for lightness in architecture through the study of structures, materials and all can be reduced and
diminished in quantity.
This demonstrates a great deal of trust in man's critical abilities, in the ability to offer incentives, united with
the skills of rationality that are typical of man as engineer, who builds in order to respond to needs, not only
functional, but also a search for a new aesthetic that is forever filled with great enthusiasm and a positive
attitude". [6]
Once again, they are possibilities bound to reason, allowing the transversal exchange between the idea and
the signs of environment and that are realized in architectonic objects that stimulate human perception and
the relationships with the context, triggering verification processes and activating a development based on
human potential that is closely interrelated with the environment.
Fig. 5: Shigeru Ban, Japan Pavillon, Hannover Expo 2000.
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3. Sustainable morphology as integral to the signs of iterative and matrix phenomenal realities (G.
Taibi)
Very often it happens to have to take account of the consistency of widespread phenomenal realities, the
fruit of the creative process of man that is manifested in a simple and spontaneous way.
Such are cases ascribable to the translation in architectonic terms of required apparatus, crudely expressed
by those describing in practical terms that which represents necessary needs.
The mind engages in this fertile activity, carrying out a system of appropriateness between necessity and
areas, planimetric and volumetric, according to the space available.
In all this, the human mind unconsciously also takes account of external factors, such as accessibility from
the outside and the relationship of visual communication with the surrounding environment, which
unequivocally tend to affect the articulation of his habitat.
We thus witness an expressive freedom that is, with certainty, detached from the competence of operators in
that field, experts in the morphologic composition of making architecture.
In reality – it being understood that innovative processes and transformations that determine progress in the
various fields of knowledge, art and technique are surely the outcome of those constructive qualities of the
imagination, of fantasy - the product of creativity must be interfaced with the reality of the reference context.
Fig. 7: The site suggests. Emilio Ambasz, Schlumberger Research Laboratories, Austin, USA, 1982.
Everything must be brought into play in a very broad and shared concept, namely with appropriateness to
the typology of the topos.
In practice, one faces a situation attributed to the systemic entirety of the complexity that plays a certain and
determining role in the issue of sustainability in the morphologic order of architecture; sustainability that,
generally, concerns a subject, whose interpretation is by vocation very broad and surely very close to
conservation and the prospects of compatible development of the territory.
“It must in any case be recognized that at every historical moment, human activity, notably that of building,
has set out to satisfy present requirements, implanted in some way in the groove of the former ones, but only
where it could acknowledge their permanent validity, and projected towards the future, but only where it
might augur a real expectation of advantage.” [7]
We must fundamentally reflect on the conditions with respect to which the human being, in expressing
himself by producing morphologies adapted to the needed apparatus of the individual and grafted onto the
1164

features of his family structure, are manifested in intuitive and instinctive forms of spontaneous architectures,
but marked by testimony and a sentimental memory of the past.
We may, for a moment, consider that the intervention of man, in light of the concept expressed by De
Rubertis, instils the canons with an intrinsic natural quality, so much so as to be considered formidable and
certainly channelled among the interventions of a strong nature, of continuity with the past and with a
powerful chromatic, pictorial and aggregating content.
And so these considerations, ironically, allow a reflection, namely that those individual and successively
concerted interventions, may deserve reference to a general fabric and to have some value of note if seen in
a context in which appraisal, comparison and competition must or may be regarded as a stimulus and spur to
achieve results that have features of a certain quality in the panorama of artistic production.
But these spontaneous, sincere and impulsive formulations, reassessed in the light of opportune stylistic
interpretations, face and are confronted with the distinguished interventions by those who, operating in the
field with profundity of intention, bring into play a composure of forms studied in accord with the vigorous and
forceful lines of the topos.
They are interventions that leave a mark, with decisive and significant character, upon the territory,
sanctioning rigorous relationships with the site, in which one acts, with determination, in full accordance with
the lines dictated by the morphologic configurations of the places.
In this sense, the perfect synchronous behaviour between the distinct features of particular interest
suggested by places and acting according to the dictates of a meticulous rigor that envisages cultural
preparation and sensitivity of those operating in the field, is successful and of certain efficacy in the
outcomes of the interventions on the territory and in the increasingly dynamic, singular and articulated
morphology of the projected compositional whole.
They are interventions that, precisely in being fully integrated in the environment, manifest morphological
logic, sometimes sinuous, sometimes fragmented and subdivided, which in their evolutionary development,
imply a coherent set of iterative and matrix processes.
Fig. 8: Zaha Hadid, Dividing Curvature is a method that creates curvature sensitive mesh.
They are interventions that express the intention of being liberated from the rigidity of Euclidean geometric
schemes in order to arrive at decidedly more evolved new systems.
They are interventions that in a structural unicum of form, fuse art with nature, evoking “sharp, incisive and
memorable images”, in a word “vivid”; an “inner need should characterize every image, as form and as
meaning (…) as a wealth of possible meanings”. [8]
They are interventions in which the choices and treatment of materials, the relationships between solids and
voids, the transparencies and the epidermic folding of the skin of the building, in relationship to the
definitions of volumetric complexity of the architectonic organism, are determining.
It would be fantastic today to be able to reason in terms of transformation and flexibility in instantaneous time
of the material and therefore of the morphological configuration of our volumetric layout.
The intelligent man-structure relationship, in which the space is deformed and adapts in real time in rapport
to the needs of man, may certainly be a stimulating search, but in the utopian current state of things, it would
seem at best to be able to combine with the dynamic and virtual qualities of an electronic game and certainly
not with the problematics of real space.
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In truth, we are witnessing today - and we are in a condition to be able to supply ample documentation on
these lines - the propulsion and wealth of design-concept thinking, strongly dynamic, in which a robustly
expressive freedom moves instinctively in interpreting the place, nature, environment and landscape.
Cities, without setting any brake on progress and development of our civilization, must emerge with
determined intensity and succeed in the intention to allow favourable opportunities to the true concept of
innovation in the processes of versatile creative fertility.
In this sense, we must apply local understanding to the developments of those territorial models and those
architectonic morphologies that may give vitality and renew the productive life and processes of
communication, on which the carrying out of our activities depends.
One possible response may be found in the composite expressions of form, generated by iterated and matrix
systems, the indisputable locus of complexity theory.
Certainly, it would not be utopian to think of programming the growth and transformation of the city as in a
morphogenetic systemic unity, which is self-regulating and that moves through procedures of calculation
consisting of genetic algorithms that entail generative processes and selective criteria.
And so the domineering character of the production of doing architecture emerges.
We are in the presence of strong, well-defined signs and concepts in which sinuosity and undulation,
fragmentary forms and broken lines define the lines of force of morphologic complexity.
In all this, there is also the concept and closeness to digital liquidity and fluidity of the designed forms that
are inevitably linked to the stylistic trend of parametricism that, albeit moving in the direction of the nonrigidity
of forms, in the non-serial repetition of elements, in the search of complexity as varied order, seems
however to have failed to relate to the physical and ergonomic nature of the human being.
“Whereas all architecture of the last 2500 years was constituted from the arrangement of a small number of
ideal geometric figures – cubic volumes, cylinders, hemispheres, and pyramids – Parametricism rejects
these figures in favour of splines, blobs and NURBS surfaces. All the elements of architecture become
parametrically malleable. (…) Innovation in architecture proceeds via the progression of styles (…) The style
consists of methodological rules: some tells us what paths of research to avoid (negative heuristics), and
others what paths to pursue (positive heuristics). The negative heuristics formulates structures that prevent
the relapse into old patterns that are not fully consistent with the style, and the positive heuristics offers
guiding principles and preferred techniques that allow the work to fast-forward in one direction”. [9]
In the hope we may arrive at the theorization of the variability in real time of the order of the material-spatial
configuration without further delay, bringing into play the automatic malleability of the constituent material, we
are witnessing today, with greater determination, increasingly evolutive processes, in which composing in
terms of architecture moves through systemic elaborations of complexity. It is the outcome of iterative
procedures, wherein the fusion between the shapes of architectonic work is achieved through different
modes of spatial interconnection, blurring, opportunely and softly, the borders between the forms of the
versatile unity of the design-concept imagination.
Fig. 9: Morphologies of parametric research. Zaha Hadid, BMW Central Building, Leipzig, 2001-2005.
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Bibliographical references
[1] EDWARDS, Betty. The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain. (translated by ARCHER Mary and
PRASSO Daniela). 9 a ed. Milano: Longanesi, 2009. Il nuovo Disegnare con la parte destra del cervello. ISBN
978-88-304-1873-8.
[2] DI GUARDO, Domenico. Architettura e segno digitale. Esperienze e visioni radicali. 1 a ed. Roma: Aracne,
2007. ISBN 978-88-548-1295-6.
[3] GUCCIONE, Margherita (editor). Zaha Hadid: opere e progetti. Torino: Allemandi, 2002. ISBN 88-422-
0989-9.
[4] NORBERG-SCHULZ, Christian. Architettura: presenza, linguaggio e luogo. Milano: SKIRA, 1996. ISBN
88-8118-029-4.
[5] BÖHME, Gernot. Atmosfere: la relazione tra musica e architettura oltre la fisica. In Focus. Metamorph.
9.Mostra Internazionale di Architettura. Venezia: MARSILIO, 2004. ISBN 88-317-8532-X.
[6] ALESSIO, Lorena. Shigeru Ban. Roma: EDILSTAMPA, 2008. ISBN 978-88-7864-041-2.
[7] DE RUBERTIS, Roberto. La città mutante. Milano: Franco Angeli, 2008. ISBN 978-88-4649-758-1.
[8] CALVINO, Italo. Lezioni americane, sei proposte per il prossimo millennio. Milano: Garzanti, 1988. ISBN
978-88-0448-599-5.
[9] SCHUMACHER, Patrik. ZHA Conceptual Morphologies within the Framework of Parametricism. In
AA.VV, Zaha Hadid. Milano: Electa, 2009, pp. 21-23. ISBN 978-88-370-7177-6.
1167

Recognizing Cultural Heritage for Social Sustainability: A Spirit of Place
Perspective
Juliana FORERO, Liangping HONG 1
(1) School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan,
China
Abstract
This article discusses how through the acknowledgement of the spirit of the place for cultural heritage
preservation, within the social sustainability context, it is possible to achieve sustainable development
processes. After a brief review of these theories, the analysis of the creation of the urban park Mirador de los
Nevados for the renewal of the downtown of the district of Suba in Bogotá - Colombia, give some ideas on
how the link between social sustainability and cultural heritage preservation, can bring up a set of processes
and practices for the enhancement of sustainable cultural and urban heritage preservation, without leaving
aside the environmental and economic elements.
Keywords: cultural heritage, spirit of place, social sustainability, sustainable development
1. Introduction
Theories for Sustainable development principal dimensions –economic, environmental and socio-cultural-
have not been equally developed and thus their relationship remains unclear. Academic and political
approximations have generally been limited to economic and environmental sustainability, while literature
about social sustainability is still inchoate. Indeed, social sustainability is still an under-theorized and
oversimplified concept. Nonetheless, in the recent years, social sustainability has been slowly recognized as
a fundamental component of sustainable development. Consequently, it has started to play an increasing
role in urban planning and to be included in the governments’ agenda (9) (23).
Urban cultural heritage is an essential element of city sustainable development. Nevertheless, research
concerning the relationship between sustainable development and urban cultural heritage plays almost no
role in social sustainability debates (34). Most studies ignore the social function of the cultural heritage and
focus on two main fields: sustainable tourism and environmental degradation affects on material heritage;
other studies list monuments, buildings and conservation areas, implying that the worthiness of cultural
heritage only relates to the tangible objects (33).
To find new ways to interpret the relationship between cultural heritage and sustainable development, the
debates regarding cultural heritage should be framed into the social sustainability studies. From this
perspective the importance of the social function of cultural heritage would be recognized not only in the
theory but also in the practice, while at the same time it would be a tool for the social sustainability
development. The Spirit of Place theory, which embraces the essential categories for heritage studies -
identity, memory and territory- and its sustainability, offer a model to integrate cultural heritage into
sustainable development paradigm.
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Under Spirit of Place theory for cultural heritage preservation, material and immaterial components cannot be
divided, as well as the cultural, social, economic and environmental elements are required to be understood
from an integral perspective. This condition is considered essential for the preservation of the communities’
identity that has been protected and passed along from generation to generation (18) (30).
In addition, it is important to contextualize cultural heritage preservation under the sustainable development
and urban planning conservation and preservation fields, in which the preservation and conservation of the
historical and cultural places concerns not just to the importance of the object (the built heritage), but the
protection of the social function of the heritage and its cultural representation in the space (25).
An analysis of the creation of the urban park Mirador de los Nevados, as part of the renewal of downtown
Suba District in Bogotá, Colombia, give some suggestions on how the link between social sustainability and
cultural heritage preservation -under the umbrella of sustainable development-, can further suggest a set of
practices for the enhancement of sustainable cultural and urban heritage preservation without ignoring
environmental and economic elements.
The case study presented in this document is not about an urban renewal project executed through the
restoration of historical buildings or the implementation of sustainable tourism processes. This is an example
of how governmental policies for social sustainability were implemented congruously with the cultural and
social needs of a specific community, through the recognition of the cultural heritage preservation and its
social function. This approach was foundational in developing the Mirador de los Nevados Park and explains
why it has become a strong example of a sustainable cultural heritage preservation project. This is an urban
renewal intervention project out of which the theory of the Spirit of Place was applied in pursuit of the rescue
of the cultural heritage for the sustainable development the city of Bogota is looking for.
This paper analyzes how through the acknowledgement and use of Spirit of Place theory for cultural heritage
preservation, within a social sustainability context, it is possible to achieve a sustainable development
process. In this regard, cultural heritage is protected because of its cultural significance and social function in
a specific territory and for a specific community. The strengthening of the local identity, linked to the past “not
just in the continuity of the built heritage and urban spaces but also in the living culture that created, and is
still shaping, the district townscape, or genius loci, that characterizes the heritage places” (25 p. 468), has no
other consequence than the construction of the sustainable development processes based on cultural
heritage
2. Spirit of place, sustainable development and social sustainability
Heritage is “the indivisible and valued creation that comes from people, culture and place together. It is
tangible and intangible, not one or the other” (8 p.2). Heritage refers to the set of assets inherited from the
past and directly related with the identity and memory of a specific culture in a specific territory (29).
Problematically, perspectives on heritage have historically been divided into the material and the immaterial,
giving rise to confusions about the meaning of heritage and its social function (8). The social function of the
cultural heritage concerns social cohesion, integration and education, as well as the social and cultural
distinction processes in multicultural societies (4). Presently, besides the preservation and restoration of the
cultural heritage, people in charge of cultural heritage management must give attention to the social function
of the heritage (29). Hence, the Spirit of Place perspective has emerged, without dividing or classifying the
heritage and involving the community into its practices. This perspective has evolved into a tool for cultural
heritage managers to promote social sustainability.
2.1. The Spirit of Place
The importance of the Spirit of Place perspective lies in its functionality. The recognition of the material and
immaterial components as essential elements to preserve the communities’ identity is driven by identifying
the Spirit of Place for a specific cultural heritage preservation process.
Place and spirit are constituted by three elements connatural to the human being dimension: identity, territory
and memory. Identity is the set of features of a person or a community that defines what we are and what we
are not. Territory is the recognition of the place where we are born and inhabit. Memory is the way we
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emember our past. The relationship of these three categories takes place in the construction of the
community, which is considering the essential environment for interrelation of every human being.
Contemporary scholars argue conceptions of Place are premised on memory, identity and the relation of
people to their territory. Thus, Place can be understood as the consequence of the multiple discourses,
subjectivities, interactions and power relations in specific time and space (26). It is also defined as a singular
fact determined by its space and time, by the topographic dimension, by its form and by its memory (10).
Place is where social relationships occur, where everyday life is unwrapped, where the people celebrate,
make rituals and other cultural and social constructions necessary for their life (7).
The notion of “spirit” corresponds to the immaterial elements of a person’s relation to Place, composed by
the “social and spiritual practices, costumes, traditional knowledge and other intangible forms and
expressions” (19). Spirit also encompasses the relationship between tangible and intangible social and
cultural mechanisms.
“The Spirit of Place is ultimately the intensity of wholeness one experiences in the place” (6). This wholeness
is related to unique and distinctive aspects of a place and its habitability, but only because of the soul of the
human being that inhabit each place (5). It involves “aesthetic, historical, social or spiritual value of cultural
significance” (30 p.2). Spirit of Place is the language that becomes material but dynamic, tangible but
ephemeral, is the expression of the memory, the identity and the cultural heritage.
2.2. Sustainable Development and Social Sustainability
Sustainable development and heritage planning face a constant struggle between preserving cultural
heritage and achieving economic growth and modernization. Currently, approaches for sustainable urban
planning are focused on creating liveable built environments, disregarding a holistic perspective for
community developments and specifically culture. This absence of social and cultural perspectives is evident
in heritage planning research where the physical forms are the main focus (25). For the viability of
sustainable urban and cultural heritage planning it is necessary to emphasize the interaction between
citizens, physical environment, social organization and public policies (13).
Social sustainability “concerns how individuals, communities and societies live with each other and set out to
achieve the objectives of the development models that they have chosen for themselves, also taking into
account the physical boundaries of their places and planet earth as a whole” (9 p. 24). It involves specific
cultural or social relationships, social structures, customs and values, which represent the social constrains
on development. In this context, social sustainability combines the traditional social policies (equity, health,
poverty reduction, livelihood, etc.) with emerging concerns about participation, social capital, needs,
economy, environment and “more recently, with the notions of happiness, well-being and quality of life” (9 p.
24). These last issues, more intangible and less measurable involve concepts such as identity, social
networks and most importantly Spirit of Place. Furthermore, these issues have become more and more
important within government and policy maker debates (9) (23).
Analyzing sustainability requires addressing four principles: equity, inclusion, adaptability and security. Equity
refers to the opportunities of access to sufficient resources to participate in community; inclusion relates to
an individual’s opportunities to participate in community processes; adaptability refers to the resiliency of
communities to respond to change; security includes both the communities’ economic security and
confidence that they live in environmentally safe and supportive places. These principles are guided by
seven dimensions of action: living, working, playing, engaging, learning, moving and importantly, Spirit of
Place. Compared with traditional methodologies and perspectives for measuring welfare, the interaction
between those principles and dimensions bring alternative social sustainability parameters of measures,
where “soft themes” such as happiness and Spirit of Place, among others, can be also qualified (9).
Cultural heritage can contribute to the well-being and quality of life of communities, while also can mitigate
the impacts of cultural globalization, becoming an incentive for sustainable economic and environmental
development (15). In this light, “the loss of a sense of place in communities became a factor of vital concern
in the context of cultural globalization and the main aspect striving for sustainable communities and
sustainable historic environment” (15 p. 75). “The notion of sustainable includes understanding of need, in
the true sense of necessity (…) [that] requires that needs be met within our social, economic and
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environmental capacity” (16). In this light, it is reasonable to understand preservation as the action that
allowed the manifestation of the spirit, as established by the Foz Do Iguaçu declaration (2008).
3. Mirador de los Nevados Park
Fig. 1 Fig. 2
Mirador de los Nevados Park is a metropolitan urban ecological park located a few blocks away from the
downtown of Suba District in Bogotá and belongs to the Muisca Indigenous Reservation Area. The Park was
created in 2002 as an attempt to give recognition to the Muisca Indigenous culture and its efforts to survive in
the face of colonization and urbanization in Bogotá during the last century. It was built in a place that for
more than fifty years served as a quarry and now is an environmental and ecological protected area. The
park’s name literally means “Snow-capped Mountains Watch point”, due to the fact the place is the only spot
in the city from where it is possible to appreciate three of the most important snow-capped mountains of the
Colombian central Andes ridge: their names are Tolima, Ruiz and Santa Isabel.
The site is one of the cultural and natural heritage places of the city and its architectural design is based on
the Muisca Indigenous cosmology. Because of it historical, cultural, environmental and scenic values, the
Mirador de los Nevados is an icon of the public space of the city. Furthermore, because of this minority’s
cultural beliefs regarding nature’s protection, this park also became a platform for environmental
conservation and education of the citizens. The development of non-formal environmental education
strategies through the implementation of the program “Environmental Classrooms”, aims to empower the
citizens and make them able to intervene and promote social actions on behalf of the improvement of their
life quality and the environmental conditions of their territory.
Is important to understand the context within which the park Mirador de los Nevados was created. This site
has a direct relation with the first inhabitants of the city in the district of Suba and their memory of the region.
The historical and the socio-cultural dynamics that infuse the park are expressions of its Spirit of Place. The
advent of a broad cultural heritage preservation ideal was the key to make the park part of the city’s
sustainable development process.
3.1. The context of the Park: Suba District history, Muisca community and their cosmology
The district of Suba is located at the northwest border of the city. It dates back to pre-Hispanic times when
the great Muisca family of tribes inhabited this place. These groups subsisted through an agricultural-based
economy, in which a commercial bartering system helped them exchange their products with other
communities within the region. Their territory had a rich natural environment covered by forests, rivers and
lakes. In 1537, during the Spanish colonial period, the economic and political structure of the native
population was dissolved and their lands were expropriated. Centuries later, in 1954, Suba became a district
of the city of Bogotá and six years later, due to its location, one of the engines of city’s development. During
the 1980s, Bogota suffered a strong influx of immigrants and people from all over the country came over to
Suba looking for better opportunities. This created a great cultural and ethnic diversity, but also the
exacerbated complex social, cultural, economic and political tensions. Additionally, this area has the largest
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State’s social offer (health, education, welfare), yet there are high levels of inequity and inequality (1). The
district’s downtown is the historical location of ancient urban Suba, where the architectural heritage, history
and identity remain visible. For Bogotá’s Territory Management Plan, this place is considered an area of
cultural interest and thus, its surroundings receive special legal preservation (20).
Suba is one of the most densely populated areas of the city. The ethnic population accounts for 4,5% of the
total population of the district, out of which 0,75% are indigenous. There are two principal indigenous groups:
Kichwa and the larger called Muiscas. The community of Muisca is divided into two groups: Cabildo Indigena
and the “Muisca Nation”. Although only the first one has been officially recognized by the government,
projects for cultural minorities in the area of Suba often include both of them (2).
For this indigenous community, Suba symbolizes their home: a place full of green spaces, where friends and
families meet. This is the place they understand; here they know where are the stores, the parks, the spots
where they can find peace: the park Mirador de los Nevados, the Planada, the central square, etc. It is the
place where they were born and live; there, they have the feeling of being someone living somewhere (22).
The Muiscas, in pursuit of being acknowledged as an indigenous population, celebrate meetings, forums,
cultural activities, and other forms of demonstrations, in which they express their own identity, their projects
and struggles. They inhabit the city while including the nature according to their cosmology and living
notions. For them, mountains, lakes and wetlands are some of the most important elements of the
relationship between earth and human beings (22). In the park, the contributing factor for all of these
expressions to be possible is that the Muisca spirit is printed in the space. There the social function of the
cultural heritage contributes to the renovation and reproduction of the communities (14).
An important characteristic of social sustainability is that instead of being understood as a static process, it is
interpreted as a dynamic socio-historical process (23). The park is the expression of this understanding,
where the social sustainability is promoted on the bases of a place and its communities’ continuous historical
and social processes.
At the same time, the community and neighborhood are the heart of the analysis. This is, the importance of
community participation resides in the space given to its members to express their needs and aspirations
while acknowledging their conception of the place they live (9). The participation processes that take place in
the park are part of the social sustainability framework, in which it is possible for the Muisca people to
maintain a contemporary urban, but yet indigenous, identity and memory.
4. The spirit of place, social sustainability and the park
Under the social sustainability approach, the governmental policies have to be articulated with traditional and
more recent social policies involving the economic and environmental sustainability, but also the community
participation and intangible elements that enrich the soul of the communities (9)(23).
As part of the national constitutional laws, the Colombian Government is bound to recognize cultural
minorities. The government must promote spaces for the minorities to practice and experience their own
cultural, political, environmental and economic path. The creation of the park and its designation as a natural
and cultural heritage site for the city are part of the national efforts to meet this requirement (14). At the same
time, policies for urban planning have been developed by national and local governments under the rubric of
“sustainable cities”: where cities should integrate environmental protection, economic development and
individual welfare and social development, without depleting the natural resources for future generations.
The policies for land use, occupation and expansion aim to prevent the expansion of the city into rural or
protected areas. Sustainable conservation, restoration and natural resources use will support social welfare
and economic development (24).
Although within this governmental policies framework it seems that once again the environmental and
economic issues have prevailed over the social ones, as a matter of fact, the social sustainability principle
has played a leading role in the instauration of the Mirador de los Nevados Park. Since conceiving of the
park, the community of Muisca was fully involved. The planners, designers and promoters of the project,
have consistently worked with community leaders to decide how to protect of the Muisca’s cultural heritage
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and restore an environmentally degraded area. Thus, the Muisca’s indigenous beliefs about nature guided
the “expert knowledge” of the planners for the design and construction of the park. At the same time, the
main elements of the design and composition of the space, such as the trees and fauna, were also
determined by the Muisca cosmology. The park’s environmental educational programs were also developed
by scientists jointly with indigenous expertise. Since Suba has been the home of the Muisca, during the
park’s creation and implementation, all the aspect related with the recovery, renewal and promotion of the
environmental elements of this area were imbibed with cultural principles of this minority. Thus, the
environmental protection was framed in the memory and identity of its indigenous inhabitants.
The park follows Garnham (1985) proposals to link people and space, including elements as diverse as
architectural style, natural settings, memory, metaphor, image, spatial relations, cultural, history and societal
values, public environments and daily and seasonal activities (21); these are also social sustainability
elements. Further, the park is analyzed as a materialization of the social sustainability and the Spirit of Place
relationship.
4.1. Materializing social sustainability and Spirit of Place for cultural preservation relationship
Urban renewal projects and the way they manage to recreate the space are fundamental tools for the
materialization of the Spirit of Place and social sustainability relationship. This relation have to be printed in
the urban space for it to be recognized and used by the people, for it to make the cultural heritage an
essential foundation of sustainable development processes. Mirador de los Nevados park is the place where
the tangible and intangible Muisca cultural representations interact with social sustainability elements that
Colantonio (2011) has called “soft elements” (happiness, well-being and importantly Spirit of Place).
The design of the park is one of the expressions of how, the exaltation of the esthetic, social and spiritual
value of Muisca cultural significance, make the park a place for the improvement of the quality of life of the
Muisca and Suba inhabitant. The park and each of its sections inside are places that correspond to the
understanding of the Place as a specific space characterized by its singular identity (18). It has as a
consequence the representation of the Spirit of Place as the sense wholeness where the parks visitants will
not only feel in a natural environment, but also in a place where they can feel connected to what they are. In
this context, the seven dimension of the social sustainability become active thanks to the Spirit of Place for
cultural heritage preservation materialized in the park Mirador de los Nevados,
Its six circle-shaped hectares, 3 obelisks, 7 rounded squares and several natural trails called “astrologic
paths”, cross the park representing the cosmic space as the Muiscas understood it. The obelisks are placed
in the highest parts of the park, representing the sun’s equinox and winter and summer solstices. They also
symbolize the way the indigenous understood the relationship between the Earth and sun. From the obelisks
it is possible to see the districts of Suba and Engativa and the town of Cota. The squares names honor
Muisca culture: Clock, Astral, Sun (Sué), Bochica, Chiminigagua, Bachue, Moxa Squares. They are further
classified according to specific cosmological functions: 1. Central Squares where the principal attraction is
the water mirror which emphasizes the ancient riverbed that disappeared hundreds of years ago; 2. The
Observatory Squares the aforementioned snow-capped mountains can be viewed, symbolizing peace and
the greatness found in the Mother Earth by the Muiscas; 3. The Astrologic Squares embodying the astral
map used in ancient times by the indigenous; 4. The Entrance Square surrounded by trees and plants, is a
welcoming to the “Muisca Temple of Nature” (11)(3).
Fig. 3 Fig. 4
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Besides, the achievements of this urban renewal project are not only represented in the landscape and
design issues. It also contributes to the social tensions and problematic of the area. Under social
sustainability approaches, urban renewal is defined as an integrated vision, addressing urban problems by
improving social, environmental, physical and economic conditions of the area (9). Mirador de los Nevados,
as an urban renewal project, was premised on social sustainability as an integral part of urban regeneration.
This project took into consideration the social tension and cultural exclusion experienced by the community
of Muisca and attempted to contribute to this situation’s solution through the improvement of the environment
and landscapes in the district, based on the spirit of the Suba community. Up to 2010, the park has served
as a space for social, cultural and educational participatory processes for more than 240.000 people, giving
them the opportunity to explore other alternatives for working on social problematic they are having in Suba
and so in their personal live processes. At the same time, through the promotion of the non-traditional
pedagogic environmental protection programs, the people interested in that subject incremented 40% in the
area (2).
4.2. Spirit of Place for cultural heritage and social sustainability: Memory, identity and territory
According to the Spirit of Place theory for cultural heritage preservation, the place is understood from to the
relationship between the human being and the space natural or man-made settings, integrating the memory
and the identity of a particular community in a specific place (19)(31). This is also linked to the recognition of
the social function of the cultural heritage, which connects the memory, the identity and the heritage (4).
In the park Mirador de los nevados, the social function of the cultural heritage corresponds to a citizen
construction where heritage is not an expression of what is beautiful to show, but the memory saved as a
reference of urban manners (32). Here the cultural heritage is appropriated and represented by a
contemporary community, which determinate the sustainability of the project. From this point of view,
people’s well-being is based on the recognition of their memory, cultural needs and cultural particularities,
thus they will protect the place as a non renewal material (34). Suba was the meeting point for the ritual
meetings of the indigenous groups of the region. It was the place where they tried to conserve the Muisca
lineage, by performing rituals for the moon and the water (1). It is where they have chosen to live and that is
why these urban indigenous residents will continue taking care of their territory and their collective memory.
This place embraces the social sustainability principles of equity, inclusion, adaptability and security.
Collective memory concerns a social group’s conceptions, cultural transmissions and use of the past. It is
use to reconstruct the image of the past according to the time and social discourses (14). When the
sustainable development improvements are based on collective memory representations, the cultural
heritage preservation will be done from a qualitative rather than a quantitative outlook, thus it is possible the
“understanding of humanity’s place on the planet” (17 p.40). Muisca community has found their sacred
mountains, lakes and wetlands reduced because of urban expansion (22). The Park constitutes a
sustainable alternative to the conservation of the nature required by this minority.
For the Muisca people their identity is linked to their territory. They have adapted and transformed their way
of living, but not the way to understand their Muisca heritage. They live as any other citizen does: they study,
work and take part of the economy. But, at the same time, within their daily life they also uphold their cultural
traditions, games and rituals while in contact with nature (27). The Park has become a place where the social
aspect of their cultural heritage is experienced. It is a place for re-creating their cultural tradition through the
development of cultural and political activities according to their indigenous beliefs. Mirador de los Nevados
is the scene for activities like the Turmequé game, Andean dances, traditional dances, concerts of traditional
music, bartering, indigenous sports, mingas, indigenous week celebration and “environmental classrooms”,
among others. Here, cultural heritage is part of the definition of social sustainability, which is related to the
relationship between individual actions and the created environment, individual life-chances and institutional
structures, and the creation of social cohesion and participation and justice (23).
Further, Canclini established that the modern city is not only a place to live and work; it is also a place where
cultural heritage expressions become a part of daily life. The park is a heritage site integrated into the city’s
public space framework. The public spaces make the cities; it is there, in the open space, in the streets,
squares, parks and edifications, where the citizens experience being social individuals, developing their
cultural identity and the strategies for public participation (28). These places constitute the physical support
to satisfy the urban collective necessities that go beyond the individual interests. On the local scale, places
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like the Park are fundamental for the construction of the identity and sociability. That is, therefore, a
sustainable contribution to the areas of the city with social problems (12).
The sustainable development processes for cultural heritage preservation requires an understanding of
communities’ multi-variants (16), where the territory embodies the heterogeneity and complexity of urban
live, which in turn requires multicultural recognition (28). A territory that embraces the historical landscape of
a minority’s culture, its aural and its visual memory, is a landscape that can be seen, smell, heard, full of
colors, full of remembrance. Then the functions of the urban space are also cultural heritage (4) and its
sustainability is understood as a socio-historical process (9).
If the cultural heritage is taken as a component of the sustainable development through the social
sustainability approach, it would be a huge step to go beyond the traditional cultural heritage preservation
approaches. At the same time, it would let the heritage to be stand into the socio-cultural components of the
sustainable development in a comprehensive way.
5. Conclusion
The Spirit of Place theory for cultural heritage preservation converges with social sustainability by linking the
people, its natural and created environments and their “chances of life” in the space. So, when it comes to
cultural heritage preservation, both theories lean on the protection of the existent relationship between
humanity and its surrounding nature and space, rather than on the material elements and the physical
objects resulting from this connection. This means the traditional perspective for cultural heritage
preservation is inverted: before it was first the recognition of the object (material features) to then recognize
the subject (community). Now, framing the cultural heritage into the social sustainability approach for
sustainable development, the subject (community) is recognized as the first component, thus the social
function of the cultural heritage lies in the recognition of the subject to then heed the object.
The case of the park Mirador de los Nevados is an example of how an urban renewal project for cultural
heritage preservation, rather than starting from the recovery of a physical object, it can began dealing with
the socio-cultural representation of a specific community, and then make it tangible through the
materialization of the Spirit of Place. Namely, the perspectives for cultural heritage preservation do not
necessarily need to be based on the material heritage. Instead, this process must be done based on the
cultural and social needs of the people living in the area that is going to be protected, preserving the Spirit of
Place without splitting the tangible and intangible components of the heritage.
Social sustainability establishes that to make tangible the immeasurable Spirit of Place for cultural heritage
preservation, it is necessary the inclusion of the community. The cultural heritage existence is not
represented only by its materiality. The reason of the existence of cultural heritage lies on its constant
revitalization through the daily usage given by the community. The inclusion of the community into the
cultural heritage preservation process has to be focused on the social function of the cultural heritage which
contributes to its renovation. Not considering the habitants, their experiences and values, lead to what Van
Der Hammen (2009) calls “shell heritage”, cultural heritage conservation processes fragile like an eggshell: if
there are no people willing to live and preserve heritage in their everyday life, it would be very easily broken.
Another important alternative to shift the traditional cultural heritage preservation to contemporary ones,
where the heritage becomes an essential foundation for sustainable development, can be found in the social
sustainability “soft themes” which are also totally linked to the perspective of Spirit of Place. Although there is
a lack of methodologies to assess the intangible expression of the social sustainability, that does not mean
these “soft themes” are not fundamental elements for the placement of the cultural heritage into the social
sustainability approach. Well-being, happiness, memory and identity seem to be subjective and
immeasurable, but when they are connected to cultural heritage processes, they become expressions of
equity, inclusion, adaptability and security. The park has become a fundamental scene for equity and
inclusion for the Musica and the Suba inhabitant to participate in community as cultural and social groups or
as individuals. Also, this site is also a tool for the people’s adaptability to social and urban changes, as well
as offers a safe and supportive environment.
When the communities’ identity is recognized and printed in the space, its infrastructure and in urban
policies, those themes are notorious in the way the inhabitant uses and experiences the space, as well as it
can be noticed how the social tensions are reduced. In the case of the park Mirador de los Nevados, it is
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evident the impact the park had on the improvement of the quality of life of the community of Muisca and
Suba. It not just brought public recognition to this minority in the city, but also through the implementation of
environmental programs and cooperative associations. It is true the park itself cannot eradicate the social
inequity in the district; however it offers a space for cultural and political participation where the power and
control orders can be questioned, where the social and cultural empowerment is possible.
The social sustainability also concerns to the recognition of the particularities of a specific society in a
specific place into the contemporary globalization processes. The Spirit of Place for cultural heritage
preservation is a vehicle for the recognition of such particularities and the authenticity of a society. The Spirit
of Place acknowledges the memory, identity and territory of a specific culture and its relation with the space.
This guarantees the possibility of having sustainable cultural heritage preservation processes, where the
modernization and the economic growth are promoted through the social and cultural needs of a community,
promoting then social sustainable development. In the park Mirador de los Nevados, the implementation of
non-traditional pedagogic tools for environmental education, as well as the recognition of the cultural
heritage as an expression of an urban indigenous and urban minorities not only makes sustainable the park
itself, but also brought a sustainable approaches for Suba district and the manage to this area social and
environmental problematic.
When sustainable development is founded in conventional approaches from traditional social policies,
considering that economical and environmental oriented sustainability policies are enough to reach social
welfare and without including particular communities’ conceptions of the space, neither its memory nor
identity, it do not imply social sustainable process. The Park is an example of that. Social and Environmental
sustainability of the park is nowadays a reality thanks to: 1. to the inclusion of cultural heritage, through the
spirit of the place theory, into the social sustainability framework; 2.the coupling of this perspective with the
national and local sustainability policies. In other words, cultural heritage and the recognition of its social
function was the key of the success of social sustainability and rest of sustainable development processes
that consequently derived after this urban renewal project at Mirador de los Nevados.
Through the approaches of social sustainability it is possible to promote development processes within which
the principal goal is not the ultra-modernization of the space, but the development of solutions with cultural
and identity contents to solve local urban problems for specific social and cultural urban space.
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