Promoting Industrial Heritage | Original Article

ABSTRACT:

Countless are abandoned industrial buildings that dominate the skyline of today's urbanized areas and which, thanks to their imposing size, have now become part of all those intrinsic characteristics that make up the identity of a place. For many, these buildings are part of a historical moment that saw them as a symbol of progress and wealth, but following the awareness of planetary pollution and the need to reflect on the theme of environmental protection, the situations in which these industrial complexes have been abandoned have become increasingly common. To prevent these buildings from being left in a state of neglect, a mere memory now without function, how to redeem them giving industrial buildings a new life in the changing society? Often a demolition and reconstruction process deprives a place of its collective identity, which could instead be maintained in a strategic operation of “adaptive reuse”. Will be proposed a reflection on some examples of the successful redevelopment of industrial complexes in Europe will be illustrated a study done in collaboration with Betrice Mazzucco on the regeneration of the industrial area ex-SAROM on the dock of the city of Ravenna, aiming at the integration of its two cooling towers into a multifunctional park. The Hammon towers, visible from every point of the city, have become for the inhabitants an essential landmark, but they are located within the disused factory area which makes their integration impossible into everyday urban life, giving us an ideal example to work on.