Urban Design and sprawled archaeology. From the «ancient vs new» dichotomy to pre-existence as design material

The transformations of the contemporary city (in particular in the European context), from the construction of new buildings to that one of infrastructures, often cross ancient architectural fragments, thus implicating forced conditions of proximity between ancient and contemporary constructions. These occurrences undermine the architectural criterion of “separation” based on the “ancient vs new” dichotomy. Therefore, the hypothesis of “continuity” arises as a design criterion to go beyond this dichotomy. This hypothesis, encouraged by the real cases and the narrative potentiality of the ICTs, is recognizable in literature, from Rossi to Panella, with the attempt to consider the archaeological remains as architectural design materials. Nevertheless, it does not exist a unanimous vision of it in the practice. This continuity concerns with the architectural space and its meaning related to the time. Moreover, it requires the possibility of the alteration of both remains and contemporary architecture, to some extent. Analyzing the architectural projects that deal with the problem of the forced proximity and that are in according with the features of the hypothesized continuity criterion, we can sketch a possible framework of interventions, articulated by spatial purposes (to reproduce a previous condition or to look forward) and levels of interaction between pre-existence and contemporary architecture.