La città di fondazione di Carbonia. Storia, progetto, riqualificazione

Carbonia, designed and built between 1937 and 1940, is one of the most important Italian new town devised during the fascist regime. Its foundation is due to the discovery of the most important Italian coal vein, considered strategic for the self-sufficient development of primary resources and energy of the country. In the second half of the twentieth century Carbonia suffered for the industrial mining crisis, withstanding both a socio-economic transformation and the decline of the management model of the company town, with a gradual release in the control of the real estate. Since 2001 the city council, with the advice and the active involvement of the University of Cagliari, promotes a general project with the aim of creating the tools – cultural and operational – needed to take action to re-establish the historical and social identity against the negative effects of the crisis. This project was awarded in 2011 with the Landscape Award of the Council of Europe, who considered this experience exemplary because it promoted the redevelopment of the company-town in a sustainable development perspective for the modern, urban and mining landscape of the twentieth century.