Immagini di città. Echi e modelli per i territori della lunga durata | City images. Echoes and models for territories of long duration

The recent loss of fineness and the heightened erosion of historical boundaries between urban and rural areas challenge traditional spatial categories of contemporary cities. Hermeneutic exploration, through echoes from the past, of resilient settlement models can outline an inclusive and sustainable recomposition that can strategically thrive within the contemporary paradigm. From this perspective, the case of Sardinia proves to be paradigmatic. It represents a place where history moves at a slow pace, as it “seems, more than elsewhere, to be measurable in terms of long durations, thus embodying itself more in the modifications of the landscape than in the more stable arrangements of human communities” (Le Lannou, 1992). During its vibrant prehistoric period, the island welcomed a culture that generated and constructed a unique urban image. In this context, its Neolithic heritage appears highly relevant even after centuries, as it can trigger – both in its existential character and its unique state of temporal suspension – some considerations for the reactivation of long-duration territories. This is a system where relational logics have always represented, governed, and anchored a stable physical-conceptual identity that presents itself as a model for more fragile locations, now subject to phenomena of progressive abandonment and depopulation.