Libera Amenta (University of Naples Federico II)
REVERSE LAND: Wasted Landscapes as a resource to re-cycle contemporary cities
Thursday, June 18
Abstract:
Land as resource is becoming increasingly scarce. Nowadays, both the rapid growth of contemporary cities and their shrinkage resulting from of economic crisis, de-industrialisation, and political change, are shaping the landscape in a chaotic and unsustainable way. Contemporary cities are composed by an accumulation of heterogeneous fragments and chaotic pieces: some of them are neglected and degenerate into “Wasted Landscapes” (WL). WL are forgotten spaces with unclear value in urban dynamics. They can be abandoned buildings, polluted areas or open spaces in which the agricultural productivity is compromised. They are brownfields, derelict lands, drosscapes, polluted industrial landscapes, terrain vague, vacant land, friches, interscapes, underutilised areas, ‘in-between’ surfaces left over by the dominant economic forces of urbanisation, abandoned and/or contaminated sites, degraded and interstitial entities. WL can be open spaces as well as constructed objects such as, buildings or infrastructures at the end of their life-cycle. On the one hand, they are generally problematic spaces for investors, because their transformation into more liveable spaces would require major efforts. On the other hand, they are generally located in strategic locations not far from the city centres with high potential for redevelopment. WL are considered to be problematic but can also be viewed as a starting point with the potential for future re-cycling of contemporary European territories.
Slides from the seminar are available here.
