Contemporary heritage and cultural enhancement in the urban suburbs

The contribution proposes the investigation aimed at enhancing the fragile architectural heritage relating to the second half of the twentieth century. It examines the building production generated by the reconstruction after the Second World War which has defined the appearance of contemporary cities in an incisive way, generating still little recognized urban heritages, widespread throughout the national territory. Small and large cities, in central or peripheral places, often unconsciously preserve relevant works created by valid designers, eclipsed within the ordinary building fabric that risk disappearing because they are not subject to protection. The first step for the enhancement is that of knowledge, the identification of architectures and infrastructures that constitute important pieces to be recomposed in the overall design of protection for the enhancement of the contemporary in Italy and in globalized contexts. The research refers to the analysis conducted in the Abruzzo region, in particular the investigation carried out in the provincial cities of the Adriatic area which assumes a substantial significance, especially concerning the moment of their greatest urban growth, of transformation and experimentation of contemporary language. The numerous public, civil and religious buildings: markets, schools, churches, surveyed reveal the presence of valuable works made by not only local designers, selected through architectural competitions, from which important achievements such as the church of Quadroni in Francavilla (CH); the cultural centers of Portoghesi and Gigliotti in Vasto (CH), Sulmona (AQ); the Court of Caniggia in Teramo; the Fish Market of Barbera and Gardi in Pescara; to name just a few, which today constitute a heritage to be safeguarded and promoted, to be reconsidered in the right architectural and cultural values. In summary, the aim of the research is to provide, within a global computer system, the investigation of exemplary case studies, investigated through surveys and graphic analyses examined in their compositional excursus, from the original projects to the actual state, in relationship to the urban context and its transformations that can provide a scientific methodology for the redevelopment and enhancement of works referable to contemporary heritage.