Per punti. Itinerari di ricostruzione dell’immaginario nell’area vesuviana

Abstract

Through points. Itineraries for the reconstruction of the imaginary in the Vesuvian area

This paper investigates the issue of the imaginary as a tool and objective of the urban project in ‘fragile’ landscape areas. The hypothesis, linked to a revision of the concept of ‘imaginary’, which is rooted in the heterogeneous and stratified character of contemporary landscapes, is investigated through the case study of the Vesuvian area, selected because it is representative of multiple urban realities spread throughout Europe, and in particular along the coasts of southern Italy. In fact, in this area converge the distinctive morphologies of naturalistic elements; valuable historical-archaeological artifacts; settlements responding to different, sometimes opposing, logics; a dense network of mobility infrastructures; ruins of a recent industrial activity; fragments of agricultural fabric; large-scale malls.
Along three strategic lines – the Portici line, the marine decumanus of Pompeii, the Stabiese route – we have studied the opportunities for transformation offered by residual surfaces and available volumes, under the guidance of 'visions of memory' capable of renewing links between site and community: sequences of specific and autonomous projects, oriented by classical and current imaginaries, construct new semantic itineraries.

Keywords: imaginary, itinerary, palimpsest, inter-scalar project