DISMISSIONE: DA ANOMALIA A REGOLA. Caratteri, criticita' e ruoli delle aree industriali dismesse per Adriapolis: teoria per una agenda strategica di indirizzo.

The present doctoral dissertation introduces a less auto-centred approach in the recovery of brownfield sites in the medium-Adriatic area which is rooted in a reading of contextual peculiarities and a taxonomic analysis of their main features. The analytical step is given by the epistemological assessment of the Italian expression ‘dismissione' firstly as anomaly and, secondly, as a rule (i.e. measure) for leading transformative processes of the Adriatic City. In this line, a double taxonomy has been developed: the first one identifies the main features of the Medium-Adriatic territory and classifies it according to five categories; the second taxonomy focuses on the relationships connecting brownfield sites and the specific territories in which they are embedded. The reading of the local and contextual data has lead to the identification of new possible roles, synergies and strategies for the territory. In contrast to those projects in which the recovery of brownfield sites has been very often limited to a ‘formalistic exercise', where architecture was simply aiming at reshaping the form of the space, this doctoral dissertation shows that architecture can be a ‘generator of meaning' for a context. Brownfield sites can be interpreted as the primary fixed capital of those territories in which they are embedded: one of the main determinant keys for defining new lines of development. Within this framework, the mechanism through which a urban narrative is constructed is presented as a powerful tool for rethinking cities' histories; at the same time, the adaptive design process is introduced as a sustainable approach in the recovery of brownfield sites in the medium-Adriatic region. In order to stress the potentialities of this approach, the adaptive design process is analysed by decomposing it into its main phases of elaboration. In this respect, the charrette is presented as a particular codified case of adaptive design process. The use of this approach for brownfield sites is discussed drawing from an operative experience of the author in the Westerholt charette directed by landscape architect Prof. Peter Latz (Technische Universita'¤t Ma'¼nchen).