Ragusa Ibla_San Paolo neighbourhood: regenerative cultural common

In XX century Italy abandonment is a widespread phenomenon. In the case of S. Paolo – a neighbourhood in the periphery of Ragusa Ibla, a UNESCO site in Sicily -, abandonment is linked to 1) the fragility of its geographical position; 2) the contraction of economic growth; 3) the lack of "modern" urban services. These three factors are interlinked and active as circular causes of the present condition of abandonment of S. Paolo. The paper presents our proposal of intervention working on the three factors together through a two-steps method: first, we clarify at different scales the issue (abandonment) and the processes that are producing it; then, we intervene on the three circular and non-linear causes, according to our vision of complexity. Our method also acts on the currently widespread development practices, which could entail the risk of manipulating the identity of a historical place in defining not a collective but only a private space (planning gentrification) and without producing a sustainable project in the long-term spam. We follow a Design Thinkers approach within a Practice of Metropolitan Discipline: every analysis is project-oriented and evidence-based.