The Historical City between Past and Future. Is the Center becoming Peripheral?

Antonluca Di Paola

doi:10.4028/www.scientific.net/aef.11.443

Abstract

The passage among the concept of "historical center" to that of "historical city" involves an expansion of the concept of "historicity" that means a different way to look at the contemporary city. The "historicity" is, in fact, a value attributed to portions of territory, to building/monuments of a past, also recent, that are considered such for rarity, testimony, beauty. Consequently the first problem is the recognition of the "historical city"; that involve individualization and interpretation of the existing values with the purpose to give new functions and roles to those parts of city. The whole the knowledge implicates a new urban project, new tools of intervention and new planning procedures, according to the demands expressed from the urban communities of the Mediterranean Basin, in Italy and particularly, also in Libya.

Highlights

In the cities of the Mediterranean coexist in the same degree opportunities and contradictions
The passage from the concept of "historical center" to that of "historical city" involves an expansion of the concept of "historicity" that means a different way to look at the contemporary city
The first problem is the recognition of the "historical city", which involves individualization and interpretation of the existing values with the purpose to give new functions and roles to those parts of city

Summary

Introduction

In the cities of the Mediterranean coexist in the same degree opportunities and contradictions. The “Athens Paper”, revisited by many in an ecological key, can be assumed as the founding document of green construction and eco-urbanism of the south It identifies operational principles still up-to-date for house-building and a sustainable architecture assuming the knowledge of the territory (social, architectural and historical) as the cornerstone of the entire process; the planning choices, according to the Paper, result from the elaboration of alternative scenarios, based on criteria of public utility, cost reduction and of re-evaluation of the social, cultural and environmental factors, with the purpose to develop a global urban project, managed in an integrated and developmental way [4]. A program that can be summarized in three fundamental concepts: recover, preserve and restore

The historical city between maintenance and transformation

Is the historical center the new periphery?