Rigenerare gli spazi del patrimonio culturale: strategie e processi nella città contemporanea

Abstract

The profound instances of marginalization in recent years have shifted the meaning of issues related to the contemporary city toward a new “urban question”, understood as the centrality of the physical dimension of space in recomposing social and cultural relations and in creating innovative forms of integration between cultural heritage and regeneration processes. The paper proposes a cross-cutting reflection on the structuring role that cultural heritage – particularly the diffuse heritage of smaller physical and perceptive scale – can play in fostering a sense of belonging and strengthening social bonds and every form of rootedness in the territory. The objective – through the analysis of selected best practices – is to identify criteria and principles for activating effective and sustainable regeneration processes that move beyond the concept of “extracting” the artifact from its context, toward a progressive broadening of the field of attention, from the monument to its surroundings, in a sustainable perspective that restores relevance and contemporaneity to the urban areas involved.