LA RICOSTRUZIONE DELL’IMMAGINE. PROGETTI PER I CENTRI STORICI TEDESCHI

The memory of the European city is a heritage preserved in the layout of its traces, spaces and natural elements, in monuments and urban artefacts, in the small structure of the lots and parcels that make up historical blocks. As well as in the representations that have been handed down to us through paintings and urban portraits that depict the image of this unique place that has built up slowly over time. The rebirth of German historical centres shows how the city today is observed through this iconographic perspective, with the intention of reclaiming the lost historicity of its urban image, whereas the credibility of this image always depends on the quality of the individual project, on the appropriateness of the architectural and technical solutions adopted, such as to put into practice, and not only to stage, its construction over time. Therefore, these cases are not to be understood as nostalgic attempts to reproduce the city as it was, nor as simple urban regeneration projects, but as mature advanced examples of critical reconstruction, according to the meaning introduced in the European debate since the 1970s.