Re-signification Processes of the Productive Heritage for a Renewed Urban Quality

Abstract

The following essay is a summary of what has been produced in the activities of the research grant Productive heritage: research of records left on the territory in the broader research project The importance of the company in the development of society: how to read and enhance the cultural heritage inherited from productive activities. The aim of the research is to develop a strategy that has as its objectives the valorization, promotion and communication of the cultural heritage inherited from the disused productive activities which, today, require be re-meant to take on a renewed role in the contemporary fabric.

The analysis carried out on a sample of nine case studies allows to investigate regenerative processes whose effectiveness can already be assessed in terms of the ability to assimilate the contradictions characterizing the physical condition of the productive heritage, justified on past logics, compared with the current urban, social, economic context. This capacity, deduced from the comparison between what emerged from the interpretative reading of the sites and the synthesis of the design logic already adopted, is articulated according to some design criteria useful for the subsequent definition of guidelines; these, declined according to the five light actions, reading, mapping, enhancing, re-generating, innovating, build a methodology useful to trigger those re-signification processes capable of assigning a renewed urban quality to large areas of the urban fabric, of generating common spaces and therefore sure of everyday life, to guarantee the presence of places dedicated to new working, culture, and welfare communities.