Thesis title: Strategie di ri-significazione tra archeologia e paesaggio. Il caso studio del Lago Patria e dell’area archeologica di Liternum
Discarded landscapes, defined as fragile fragments situated at the margins of urban and rural contexts, dot the territory as the outcome of society's constant evolution, categorized into different typologies and levels of complexity. They are defined as such because they are the result of the depletion of identity values, fragmentation, and significant levels of socioeconomic and political degradation (Maniglio, 2010). These areas, despite existing in an edge condition and apparent functional suspension, preserve hidden landscape and cultural values, and can therefore be understood as heritage. Consequently, the research focuses on archaeological heritage at the margins, analyzing reactivation strategies that transcend a mere conservative function and place the asset at the center, transforming it into an active and driving element in the development of new narratives and spatial configurations.
The legislative development since the European Landscape Convention (2000), by positing the concept of cultural heritage (Settis, 2012), recognizes the need for the integral protection of the landscape. This is understood in a relational sense, as a union of ecosystems and historical-cultural persistences, the result of the combination of natural and anthropogenic factors (Turri, 1988). The care of heritage areas cannot be exhausted within a single disciplinary perspective, but requires a holistic and systemic strategic and design vision. Such a vision must read the landscape/archaeological document ensemble as an integrated and complex unicum in continuous and dynamic evolution, to be addressed with a diversified set of inter- and transdisciplinary tools capable of operating across different spatial and temporal scales.
The objective of the research is to articulate a new narrative for a marginal landscape, capable of establishing a dialectical dialogue among the genius loci, the environmental character, and collective identity, thereby restoring voice and dignity to a geographical context that has long been exploited and forgotten. A vision is proposed for archaeological landscapes as the outcome of a complex process of building a network of relations. This is based on the understanding of historical topography not merely as an archaeological value but also as an urban value, capable of ensuring a relationship between transhistorical realities (Tsiomis, 2002). The relational aspect of landscape design and the centrality of the time factor confer a particular specificity to this research field. It aims to trace the expressible potential of these non-places (Augé, 2002), influential reserves of possibility, through a meta-design and a multiscalar approach to describe and communicate the heritage.
Keywords: Discarded landscapes, Cultural heritage, Archaeological landscape, Reuse.