Authenticity/Identity. Forms and Features of the Post-Earthquake Reconstruction

The recent and iterated seismic events that have affected the Italian Apennine regions have highlighted on the one hand the inconsistency of the preventive measures and the safeguarding of our heritage, and on the other the concern for the safety of the places, for the reconstruction of their identity and beauty. The decision to rebuild the cities "where they were" derives from the will to stay in the places hit by the earthquake as an identity choice and expression of the cultural roots of the populations in their territory. The aim of the research to which this essay refers is the definition of models for the construction / reconstruction of the Italian hill town, capable of combining the theme of safety with those of authenticity and identity. The methodological, multidisciplinary, multiscale and experimental method is based on the identification of three intervention scales, that of the single building unit, of the aggregative forms and of the urban parts or recognizable fabrics, defining a conforming dimension of the intervention able to restore the authenticity of the places not referred to an a priori defined aesthetic identity but as the result of a design thought that consubstantially combines constructive and formal value. The case study identified is the village of Trisungo in the municipality of Arquata del Tronto, a valley settlement along the River Tronto and the Via Salaria. The project assumes the elementary urban unity as conforming dimension of the intervention, considered as a morpheme capable of expressing in an organic way the reaction between the spatial, typological and morphological characteristics of the village in their relationship with the forms of the ground and its stratigraphic composition.