Vol. 17 No. 21 (2026): Public Heritage in Transformation

Edited by Francesca Cremasco (Independent researcher, Italy), Silvano Arcamone (State Property Agency, Director of Sicily region, Italy)

Public Heritage in Transformation inaugurates a three-volume series dedicated to the transformation of public heritage in the contemporary city. Through theoretical contributions, research and design projects, this first volume lays the foundations for a critical atlas that interprets disused public heritage not as remnant of the past, but as a reservoir of possibilities for the future. Industrial sites, military facilities, housing, cultural assets and landscapes of reuse outline an interdisciplinary geography in which design, conservation, urban policies, economics and practices of regeneration interact to redefine the relationship between heritage, public space and the city. Rather than a collection of case studies, the volume proposes an interpretative framework based on the availability of space as a category  for understanding contemporary transformations of public heritage, while introducing the themes that will be further explored in the following two volumes.