UNESCO buffer zones and territorial identity: design as a potential tool for context-heritage integration

In the last thirty years the notion of heritage has deeply changed, and the attention has shifted from the materiality of monuments, as bearers of intrinsic values, to a wider recognition of cultural heritage as a process that increasingly involves the territorial context and its dynamics. UNESCO official preservation tools include the definition of a buffer area surrounding an enlisted property as a non-compulsory added layer of protection to the heritage core, but, without further specific criteria and purpose, this heritage and territory. The contribution critically investigates how the implementation of UNESCO buffer zones is conflictual with the more recent compulsory management plans, theoretically fostering the inclusion of local dynamics in valorisation policies. Design and spatial transformations, that are fundamental components of a living cultural environment, are mostly excluded from the development of strategic interconnections between heritage sites and their surroundings, and they are mainly seen as threats to the heritage integrity and authenticity. In this framework, the analysis of case studies highlights the potential of design actions in the heritage-context reconnection. The selected examples both in and out of the UNESCO system , are projects able to conjugate the territorial transformation processes with the heritage preservation priorities in a tentative to encompass the idea of architecture as a practice of care of heritage-related territorial fragility. Starting from these examples, the study of how design actions can be integrated both in the process of definition of buffer areas (cognitive framework) and in the drafting of the management plans (interpretation framework), defines a methodology that could activate new forms of preservation policies, that take into account the need for a renewed and shared knowledge of local traditions and for a valorisation that goes beyond the heritage site boundaries. The narrative and activating potential of architectural transformation cannot be excluded from the valorisation policies, and rethinking the role of UNESCO buffer zones can be crucial in a new balancing between preservation instances and territorial development.