New Processes for the Reuse of Public Architectural Heritage. The Reuse Italy Research Project

Abstract

The Reuse Italy project is exemplary of the contemporary discourse on the regeneration of abandoned architectural heritage, with particular focus on public assets located in peripheral areas of the Italian territory. Founded in 2019 as a Benefit Corporation, the project operates as a research-action platform that employs methodologies drawn from participatory action research to initiate processes of cultural reuse through collaborative and interdisciplinary practices.

The project’s operational framework is structured around a range of activities, such as calls for projects, workshops, public assemblies and debates, exhibitions, conferences, and publications, which have involved over 17 sites, thereby redefining the role of the architectural ruin in both design and social terms. Rather than treating the ruin as a static remnant of the past, Reuse Italy conceives of it as an active device capable of generating new uses and fostering novel spatial, temporal, and cultural relationships in support of local communities. 

The project advances a redefinition of the very notion of heritage, detaching it from rigid criteria of monumentality and promoting a stratified interpretation that brings together historical continuity, contemporary language, and civic demands.

Through the analysis of three case studies, the paper shows how Reuse Italy's activities have led to concrete and measurable transformations of three public assets, initiating real processes of recovery and establishing a replicable operational model of cultural governance capable of generating public value.