Transformation process and Spirit of the Place: historic hambits

The transformation processes of the natural and built environment represent a threat for the Spirit of Place, which cannot be obtained by artificially reproducing architectures and spaces. The Sprit of Place, linked to intangible values of a territory, is built up and consolidated through the stratification of uses and meanings that are deposited in places according to the evolution of the community’s ways of living. Although intangible factors mainly affect the morphology of architectures and urban spaces, the Spirit of Place is, in a certain sense, independent of the physical support, because it exist also after that support has disappeared. The contribution suggests a reflection on those themes by joining tangible and intangible components and later analysing the aspects of the transformation processes which threaten the Spirit itself.