Riscrivere il sostrato. Rigenerazione post-trauma del paesaggio urbano di Beirut e Sarajevo

Within the multiple perspectives, which set post-trauma reconstruction processes of war-damaged historic urban environments, including disciplinary ones, the scope of this paper is to analyze some case studies where the design for new open spaces has been aimed at preserving the memory of the past, within a renewed urban landscape. Sarajevo and Beirut are apparently geographically and culturally distant. Nevertheless, they represent two interesting examples of different approaches to reconstruction, where the design of open spaces, roads, cemeteries, gardens and archaeological areas has remarkably contributed to the preservation of the memory of their urban history. Starting from a reading of the historical, archaeological and morphological traces, which are taken as substrate, and with a specific focus on the design of the open areas, gardens and squares, therefore of the urban landscape as a whole, this paper deals with the way in which, within reconstruction transformative processes, these projects have acted as synthetic tools for re-writing the urban landscape substrate. Not only for their formal capacity to reveal and rewrite urban history, and therefore to enlighten it, but also for the ecological and social implications, linked to the recovery of the environment and the local community through the reconstruction of public spaces.