Industrial Heritage in Abruzzo between relevance and decadence

The debate on the reconversion of places of former production, of which the main speakers are indisputably the designers, sees the confrontation of multiple and different positions, as multiple and different are the thematic declinations that the problem poses, from the territorial management, to the economic and social aspect, up to the purely formal aspects, passing in many cases through the necessary resolution of environmental problems. From here, the need to preserve what is today considered part of a country's cultural heritage but also to reuse and convert buildings or production spaces, for cultural, social and administrative purposes. Thanks to the availability of space, these artifacts appear suitable for any type of new use, but their being cultural heritage imposes strict criteria for their protection, reporting the problem of conversion as an integral and substantial part of the dichotomy between project and conservation. The contribution focuses on some case studies in Abruzzo that show how it is possible to redesign the territory today, transforming industrial sites into nature reserves, agricultural parks, offices for social services and for the local economy. Through these it is hoped to arrive at a new culture of recovery, which sees the knowledge of the sites and industrial monuments closely linked to both the governance and planning of the territory and the purely financial and management aspect of these. The one described in fact turns out to be the only viable road, able to transform industrial archeology into a "common heritage", in the true sense of the term, is to link these artifacts to contemporary processes of local development that put the community at stake, the institutions, operators and technicians, with the common goal of recovering these areas as sources not only of soil but also and above all of historical and landscape values.