Villages in search of an author. Italian ghost towns reactivation: strategies and design

Abstract

The phenomenon of abandonment is widespread all over the world. All the urban realities, even the most excellent from the point of view of the administration of the territory, present the characteristics of the dismission. Abandonment can involve an isolated building, a part of the city or an entire urban reality, a village or a network of villages. It is a complex phenomenon in constant change that depends on geographical, social and political aspects of a place. In the case of Italian territory, the phenomenon of abandon affects above all the medieval villages diffused on the entire peninsula, not far from the artistic, cultural an architectural heritage, valued and celebrated all over the world for its beauty. The topic of this work are the sleeping beauties (A. Mocciola, 2014), small forgotten towns, small fragments of history and daily life lost in the silence of absence, distant from the institution, hidden from the network of navigators, unreachable mobile, ignored by Wi-Fi. The abandoned Italy is a tourist map read backwards.