Città, territorio, architettura. Appunti per una Bari ‘immaginaria’

Building and aggregative characteristics of Bari Vecchia result from the superposition of settlement patterns belonging to different phases and cultures. As in many other historical centers along the Mediterranean rim, the urban fabric is characterized by the coexistence of different structures, given by a large cultural commingling as a result of conquests and exchanges among populations; here the peculiar masonry construction techniques led to the overlay in time of these traces and gave rise to the complex palimpsest, which is discernible in the structure of the building types and aggregates. This paper, using the methodological approach of process typology, aims at returning the results of some preliminary analyses on the formation and transformation phases of the Bari Vecchia’s urban fabric, in order to provide an operational guidance to the reconstruction of the complexities, wealth of shapes and structures that are at the basis of its urban landscape. Recognizing the complexity (in the long times of history) of typological, morphological and territorial (related to urban transformations) phenomena which forged this complex and stratified urban space, this study aims at finding traces of the Bari Vecchia’s urban layouts in the comparison with other urban fabrics of the Apulian towns, analyzing the characteristics of the Old City’s building types, as well as looking at the discontinuity of building fabrics and routes in relation to the territorial structure. Reading and interpreting these data means to prepare any preliminary study for the design in a so deeply stratified urban fabric, that is Bari Vecchia, which can not be programmed without an in-depth knowledge of its formative processes.