Knowledge based protection for ancient city centres

With the support of a case study, the paper describes the impact of technological transfer to anticipate the degradation processes in outdoor collective spaces. Taking into account the historic center of Salerno, the paper discusses an urban regeneration experience based on remote monitoring and permanent maintenance with innovative technologies. Thanks to a synergy between the University and the Superintendence, knowledge and innovation become motors of active protection and development with the creation of a laboratory of urban sustainability. The paper identifies a knowledge based approach as the means to promote outdoor spaces identity, with the affirmation of inner inherent dynamism, internal and external connection. Knowledge based active protection is here identified with a process of anticipation, vigilance and planning of vulnerabilities, informed to the logic of responsibility sharing between users and managers, coordinating design choices. Condition for an active protection is the complementarily of information, experience and expertise, for the preservation and promotion of the built capital. Reconciling multi-scalar and multi-sector approaches, active protection brings into play an idea of the settlement as an interconnected system, where design scenarios arise from the complexity of the relationships between spaces, performances and instances. The awareness of users, creating a sense of ownership, are conditions to support these processes, acting on the components of identity, heritage and memory.