Thesis title: Traccia Campo Atmosfera. Verso il progetto di messa in presenza degli arcipelaghi archeologici: il caso delle vie Appia e Latina tra Roma e Capua
Contemporary archaeological territories present themselves as fragmented archipelagos: systems in which sites are physically isolated — through perimeters, legal constraints, and regulatory categories — and conceptually isolated, as interpretation prevails over the bodily experience of places. Two converging paradigms produce this separation: the paradigm of enclosure, which transforms sites into enclaves withdrawn from the dynamics of the surrounding territory, and the hermeneutic paradigm, which orients heritage practices toward interpretive apparatus — panels, reconstructions, multimedia devices — leaving the affective and material dimension of presence unexplored. Meaning and experience cease to communicate.
This research asks how such a dialectic may be reactivated, proposing the atmospheric paradigm — grounded in the phenomenology of the lived body — as both a conceptual and operative framework for design within archaeological territories. The hypothesis is that this approach enables alternative imaginaries: new experiential and design scenarios capable of orienting architecture toward a staging of presence grounded in the bodily and material experience of places, while integrating existing interpretive practices.
The research trajectory moves from the construction of a theoretical apparatus, through the development of methodological tools, to experimentation on a case study. The theoretical apparatus is articulated through the triad trace–field–atmosphere: the trace as a mediating device between materiality and meaning, capable of operating simultaneously as an interpretable document and as a trigger of presence; the field as a relational system that transcends physical and conceptual perimeters, reconnecting dispersed fragments; atmosphere as the affective dimension of spatial experience, emerging in the encounter between the lived body and the qualities of places.
The methodology integrates three complementary gazes — from above (systemic relations), through (phenomenological experience of the path), and from below (material specificities of sites) — enabling the atmospheric dimension to emerge at the intersection of different scales and perspectives. The project of staging presence translates this apparatus into modes of reading, analysis, and design orientation.
The case study of the Via Appia and Via Latina between Rome and Capua constitutes the terrain for methodological experimentation. The selection responds to three criteria: the paradigmatic condition of an archaeological archipelago; the linear and traversable nature of the routes, which enables phenomenological inquiry grounded in walking; and the epistemological distinctiveness of the ancient road — the only monument that can be experienced according to its original function.
The research delivers tools for the conditions of knowledge informing design. On the conceptual plane, the triad provides a framework for giving space and voice to dimensions of archaeological territories that have traditionally remained unexplored. On the methodological plane, fields of presence — relational configurations identified through traversal — constitute units of analysis. On the operative plane, three orientations — activation, modulation, mediation — translate the theoretical apparatus into directives for design. The atmospheric paradigm integrates the hermeneutic one, expanding the register of intervention toward that dimension of presence which interpretive tools are not structured to activate. Through the articulation of the atlas, the experimentation on the Appia-Latina case refines the approach and yields an understanding of the examined territories amplified through the dimension of presence and oriented toward design.