From lounge durée to Innovation. Regenerating Alpine territories through the adaptive reuse as a strategy for sustainability and the rediscovery of everyday life heritage

The practice of adaptive reuse in architecture significantly predates its theorization. Indeed, the entire history of architecture is traversed by countless examples of recovery and reuse, involving radical transformations of pre-existing structures and the built environment. These practices have always been so deeply implicit in the very act of building that they did not require explicit definition or theorizations, being profoundly incorporated into the longue durée of architecture (after all, as Christopher Wren reminded us, “architecture aims at eternity”). It’s only recently that a more sensitive and mature understanding of the complex concept of sustainability (environmental, social, and economic) has driven research towards reuse as an alternative to new construction. Furthermore, in alignment with modernity’s pervasive trend towards disciplinary "specialization", we have felt the need to assign a precise definition to these practices, appending the adjective ‘adaptive’ to the noun ‘reuse’. This clarifies a methodological approach ambiguously suspended between innovation and conservation, both equally necessary processes. This contribution aims to illustrate a recent ‘research by design’ experience conducted by the author in the Orobic Alps, one of the many sites of the ‘grey heritage’ of the widespread everyday life in ‘inner and alpine Italy’. Here, the stratified architectural and landscape heritage, marked by the long-standing interaction between communities and the territory, has become a driving force for recovery founded precisely on the practice of adaptive reuse. Recent projects for the regeneration of the mining system and several iconic buildings demonstrate the potential for revitalization based on active community participation and the reactivation of local economies. The case of Dossena prompts a broader reflection on how to rewrite current policies and instruments to include forms of heritage that are currently invisible to major institutional policies but are central to the future of alpine territories.