The opportunities for smaller villages in the rapidity of globalization: some reasoning on the villages of the “Alta Murgia”

The Polytechnic of Bari, for several years is developing an analysis process for the smaller cities of Alta Murgia through a network of Conventions and Framework Agreements, resulting in numerous degree theses. In particular, in this case is presented the results of some proposals carried out on the cities of Acquaviva delle Fonti, Gravina in Puglia, Altamura and Spinazzola. The disciplinary reference framework is on the urban restoration of the minor centers, however it has quickly become clear that the disciplinary instruments on material recovery, although well established and materially effective to the objective of protection and safeguarding, are not effective for the valorization and functional recovery of sites. This is an heritage largely private and not directly protected by law, but certainly is an expression of a strong and specific identity value of this territory, diversified in its local specifications, but uniform in a vernacular declension of basic construction according to the building techniques, materials and specific local buildings types. This heritage shows clearly the need to be preserved and handed down, also for the protection of territories and landscapes, but at the same time strongly expresses a serious inability to self-sustain and renew itself. The analysis system on which we are working tends therefore to constitute a network of analysis of local values to determine development processes related to the cultural supply chain that invests both the socio-economic values and the material assets of the building in order to generate complex processes self-incremental that allow the development of network synergies of local quality values (even if sometimes too weak, if taken individually) belonging to the different areas of valorization to develop a programs of attraction of population, resources and new vitality compatible with the systems of life and with the working and productive world and with the values of the contemporary age. The challenge of the proposed paradigm is to be able to develop a new updated process of use of the sites that embody our memory and our identity, allowing us to pass on its values, updating its ways of use and the productive and relational capacity towards today’s needs.