Not being anymore, not yet being. Minimum architecture in the rural abandoned landscape

Abstract

The overlook on the Emilian landscape offers us many causes for an architectural, landscaping and anthropological reflection about the identity of the Italian condition, in a time of crisis and decline, second thoughts and the longing for change. The research aims to open a question on the future of rural abandoned architectures that are hanging in the balance between “not being anymore, not yet being”, an undefined condition very common in the contemporary times. The rural chapels discovered in an abandoned state, tell us about that silent and invisible action of time, revealing the essence of the places not as a chronicle of a foretold death, but as a promise of a renewed life for every new cycle. The research considers the original meaning of these stratified places where the current empty space is fertile and useful, and at the same time disconnected from their original function but still bounded to the territory that has been profoundly shaped and modified by the work of man.