Urban Ruins: memorial Value and Contemporary Role

This research project focuses on the role that ruins play in urban centres in terms of meaning, testimony, values and opportunity; it was developed on the international level. After an historical and contemporary outline of theoretical and practical approaches to ruins internationally, with an in-depth analysis and comparison of the British and Italian approaches, the aim is to delineate a transdisciplinary and integrated methodology that allows the investigation of the strategic values of such artefacts and their potential contribution to a sustainable requalification of the historic urban cores. This protocol was tested on the urban ruins of the historical centre of Cagliari, a mid-sized port city on the southern coast of the island of Sardinia. Here, the ruins left by the aftermath of aerial bombardment by the Allies during the World War II represent something of a blight on the landscape beyond the mere presence of fallen masonry and overgrown vegetation. They also represent an absence, a series of voids at nodal points in the historic centre that have neither a current function nor any plans for future use. This is largely caused by the complicated management of the built urban context and ineffective planning procedures that drive non-intervention approaches. Approaching the problem initially through the lens of architectural conservation, this research considers the urban issues along with aesthetic, economic and social questions relating to the reuse of ruins. A comparative evaluation of the international cultural and legal frameworks creates a basis for identifying possible strategies and guidelines to safeguard and re-use the historic urban ruins such as those placed in Cagliari.