The archaeological assets enhancement as a process of urban valorization_Toward an interdisciplinary methodology

The paper describes the result of a three country - Italy, Egypt, Morocco -cooperative international research project to investigate the relationship between an archaeological asset and a given urban setting: in this sense the project necessarily required a consensus to use the same methodology. The method (from the Latin methodus, to follow behind to look for) should be based on the principles of a theory which pertains to architecture, the sphere of activity of the project, as well as have the goal of elaborating a process (from the Latin processus, past participle of procedere: to go forward), establishes a common set of operating procedures for the projects within the different disciplines involved (architecture, archaeology, economics but also the institutions that deal with the protection and the local territorial governments). So an integral part of this process were all the operations connected to the relationship with local institutions which govern the territory to which the archaeological asset belongs; with the governmental bodies charged with its stewardship, with the interested entrepreneurial community, with the state organizations which could be able to provide financing to start the development. A relevant role was that of the different professions involved in the elaboration of the project, the defining of the work group, which required the coordination of an architect but also needed the services of an archaeologist - not only as a consultant ex ante but also as an interlocutor during the course of the entire project - and economists for context analysis and operational proposal in the framework of a strategy of revitalization and integration of resources.