Figure e forme dell'insediamento costiero turistico in Sardegna. Il caso dei grandi complessi ricettivi "pionieri" = Figures and forms of turist coastal settlement in Sardinia. The case of the large "pioneer" hotels

Since its beginnings, the tourist colonisation of the Sardinian coast has referred to different and complementary settlement models. It is common for large hotel complexes to precede the development of new urban areas, and they have been acknowledged to be the forerunners and catalysts of subsequent territorial evolutions. With the progressive increase in settlements, the theme of the large “pioneer” complexes takes root, so much so that in some cases the regional government itself promotes their construction, through the Ente Regionale Industrie Turistiche - ESIT. The solutions proposed show varied morphological, typological, and linguistic characteristics, sometimes capable of very clearly interpreting the dialectical relations architecture-landscape and modernity-tradition. Additionally, some of them were designed by influential authors on the national and international scene, as highlighted by the significant coverage they received in specialist press at the time. This list comprises a selection of noteworthy hotels in Sardinia, Italy. The selection includes Hotel Cala di Volpe (1963) designed by Jacques Couëlle, Hotel Cervo (1963) and Hotel Pitrizza (1963) by Luigi Vietti, Hotel Romazzino (1965) by Michele Busiri Vici, the Albergo a Porto Conte (1963) by Marco Zanuso and Antoni Simon Mossa, Hotel Pontinental (1963) by Renato de Baldi, Hotel Timi Ama (1963) by Edoardo Vittoria and the Stazzo Pulcheddu (1975) designed by Alberto Ponis. But if in many cases these architectures show the potential for a valid territorial development, defining rules and guidelines for the consequent expansion of the urban form and ecosystem relations. In others, on the contrary, they appear from the outset as enormous self-referential monads; veritable enclaves with heterotopic characteristics. An aspect, the latter, which, together with difficulties in management, often decrees their inexorable decay and abandonment. In the light of what presented above, seventy years after the first major process of settlement on the Sardinian coast, the research is based on a comparative reading of case studies at a territorial, urban and architectural scale, with the aim of identifying, in the relations that the large hotel complexes establish with the landscape, the formal, figurative and linguistic characteristics that have determined their positive destiny, in order to draw lessons for architectural project in the coastal context. Similarly, the reasons for the degradation and abandonment of less fortunate cases will be identified, to hypothesise possible solutions for their reuse.