The Project for the Sphinx Alley in Luxor. Notes About the Methodological Approach, Between Modalities of Analysis and Operative Criterias

Abstract

The occasion of elaborating a proposal for reopening the Sphinx Alley represented the occasion not only for facing an experience of applied research, or more closely knowing a cultural approach that is different from ours, but also for a reflection about a methodology able to tackle complex themes in a real case-study. The preliminary analysis, and the verifications during the evolution of the work phases, suggested to start from the recognition of a few unavoidable principles. The first was the one of adopting a diachronic approach, required by the necessity of considering two coexistent and overlapped cities, the Luxor of the past (in the pharaonic Egypt) and the contemporary one (in a strong demographic growth and with a decisively tourist vocation). The second was the one of maintaining an interscalar approach, required by the different problematic levels, that included the one of archaeological finds (the Sphinxes), the one of the site (the Sphinx Alley and the areas in front of the Karnak and Luxor Temples) and the one of the territory (interpreting the segment not only as a linear system, but also for its possible transversalities). The third was the one of an interdisciplinary approach, that was naturally fostered by the composition of the workgroup, whose participants came from different research fields (architecture, urban design, conservation), and asked to share approaches and acknowledges considering the specificities without losing the dimension of the wholeness, inspired by a thought “that distinguishes and connects”, as Edgar Morin wrote, more than a “disjunctive and reductive one”. The proposal was based on a few distinct principles, through an enhancement by description, by conservation, by reconstruction and by the reconceptualization of the relationship between ancient and new. The choice of drifting away from the idea that the historical patrimony we tackled was constituted by a fossil, statical and untouchable, allowed to verify how much it is necessary to rebalance our operative strategies towards the relationship between architecture and archaeology, and to comprehend how today these can effectively configurate themselves as the protagonists of a new and potentially very worthwhile alliance.