An Open Project for the Trembling Landscape of the Inner Areas: Fragile and Wounded

The Italian landscape of the inner areas is going through a phase of change: the connoting evolutionary ‘slow linear time’ of these places has undergone a sudden acceleration corresponding to impending gentrification. The exponential time of abandonment threatens the integrity of this heritage because of the loss of people and values. The fragile landscape of inner areas is often a ‘wounded landscape’ too. In the case of Italian territory—which has always been significantly affected by seismic phenomena that have been a connotative evolutionary factor—there is an almost total overlap between the inner area’s map and the seismic hazard map. Natural catastrophes mark a leap in the linear evolutionary process of these places; this temporal leap leads back to a new starting point where design actions on the landscape make sense only if in close connection with the principles and contents of the European Convention. The viewpoint inversion and the inclusive perspective at the basis of the convention lead to an approach that no longer considers only the historical-artistic values of small villages. It has become fundamental to promote interventions that consider different times and possibilities and are configured as open projects which develop a procedural logic and also look at intangible heritage: cultural, economic, social and productive. This contribution is part of PhD research investigating post-earthquake reconstruction conceived as a process linked to the different design instances related to the phases following the catastrophe. The complex condition of these fragile and wounded landscapes requires a reconstruction approach considered as the ultimate (possible) scenario of an open design process. Through case studies, the contribution investigates the role of landscape as an interpretative paradigm of the procedural nature of complex problems that must foresee multiple temporalities.