Integrated strategic projects for the reuse of prayer spaces: Methodologies and Case Studies

Disused churches are a very common phenomenon in European contemporary cities. The disposal process highlights how we need to address an issue that is becoming increasingly important: today’s society is transforming the sense of the sacred. From this point of view, we can face future challenges for a different interpretation of the Church’s real estate and its cultural heritage. Today, anthropology and the topology of the sacred highlight how religious cultural assets no longer belong only to the communities of believers who use them, but they belong to the history of populations and their culture. It is possible to redefine the concept of belonging of religious cultural heritage in order to find useful tools to manage the criteria of transition from a classical model of sacred space which hybrid model of holy space and that safeguards the human dignity. Starting from this theoretical background, the article shows criteria that will support the transition processes towards the conversion / dismission of the religious cultural real estate.