La grande bellezza dello spazio urbano

Contemporary urban space can be interpreted in many ways; it is the stage and backdrop for social, economic, and environ- mental dynamics that can significantly affect the quality of life of the people who live there. But when does an architectural gesture aim to unravel the tangle of dynamics it creates in anthropized space? Can a project restore the contextual places upon which it is grafted? To find a possible, though not unique, answer to these questions, a cult scene from Sorrentino's film "The Great Beauty" will be evoked, defined by many as a description of the DECADENCE OF THE PRESENT or the GIRAFFE. With these initial reflections, what follows is a description of a multi-layered scenario made up of different places and contradictory contexts in which everything seems to hold up as if it were a trick that hides but does not solve. Through processual interventions we want to strengthen the value of the places where we act, without having the presumption to solve all the problems, but rather to preserve a fertile field for future development. As we will see, "the gaunt, impermanent flashes of beauty" shine precisely in the absence of light or next to the denial of beauty; the encounter with something sublime takes place in the emptiness of waiting, and the chaos that seems to suspend everything does not manage to draw what has roots into its vortex (Zamborlin, 2016). Thus, the sublime and the chaos transform into forces capable of enhancing urban space without destroying it only when urban space, in this case the discussion of architecture, is the object of a programmatic action in perpetual evolution, shaping and changing as needed. The measurements and data become a fundamental element for the evaluation of the impact that the architectural action has on the social context; they are able to provide a tangible feedback in terms of quantity and quality during and after the design and implementation of the project.