Environmental value of former Italian settlements

The presentation works in the field of the environmental design. The research objects are some ancient towns and villages of Southern Italy where the former constructive characteristics are still recognizable. These kind of places, deserted by their inhabitants during the decades of 60’s and 70’s due the lack of development of rural areas, are still featured by a number of urban signatures that allows to understand the former relationship between the natural and built environments. Moreover, low demography consistency acts positively in order to preserving original urban pattern, reducing soil consumption and maintaining the constructive marks of the built up area. The study postulates the hypothesis that some former urban process can be decoded as an “ecological succession” where the human society act as "biocenosis" (that is, a community of living things gradually colonizes a site, while adapting their vital needs to the site features) So, human community progressively modifies the environment since reaching a sustainable balance between human needs and natural features, defining a sort of climax condition. The study proposes a knowledge oriented methodology able to: 1. demonstrate the (implicit) ecological design approach of the primary building process 2. enhance the coherence within urban pattern, building shape, use of materials, construction technologies 3. assess the value of the urban form in terms of environmental performances The study is finalized to implement local planning codes through more specific data concerning the traditional construction technologies and materials by the aim of preserving the ecological values embedded in it and the environmental performances generated.