Monitoraggio del rischio e conservazione del sottosuolo antropico come risorse per le attività umane in Italia e Giappone

Responsabili di progetto

Roberta Varriale, Chiaki Oguchi

Accordo

GIAPPONE - JSPS - Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

Bando

CNR/JSPS biennio 2018-2019 2018-2019

Dipartimento

Scienze umane e sociali, patrimonio culturale

Area tematica

Scienze umane e sociali, patrimonio culturale

Stato del progetto

Nuovo

Proposta di ricerca

Underground Built Heritage (UBH) - such as anthropic caves, mines, dismissed infrastructure, or human settlements - has a long history extending back several thousands of years, when cavities became shelters from inclement weather or wild animals, successively cultural and religious places, spaces for housing, for mining, for food production and storage, and for natural resources' distribution. Nowadays, the UBH embraces a variety of artefacts of archaeological, historic, artistic and architectural interest, each of them having historical and cultural uniqueness and being source of identity for local communities. The significant communicative role of UBH has always stimulated several projects addressed towards its preservation, valorisation and reconversion worldwide. Italy and Japan are two perfect examples of Eastern and Western approach to underground building culture: surprisingly there can be more numerous identifying aspects of Italy and Japan in the use and re-use of underground space than in the corresponding surface areas. The project will stress on the following common elements: 1) role played by historical underground space in supporting aboveground urban sustainable development 2) role played by religious, archaeological and modern senses affecting the characterization of UBH. 3) role played by hazardous processes such as weathering, deterioration, volcanic and bradyseism on negative building edification and reconversion. The proposed project aims at comparing the most significant experiences in valorisation, re-use and reconversion Italian and Japanese UBH adopting the classification given by the Commission on Artificial Cavities (2013) and focusing on common problems linked to physic and cultural vulnerability of those spaces: a) Understanding current situation: basic description of the UBHs and measurement of geo-material properties such as strength, porosity, permeability, chemistry, mineralogy, and groundwater/subsurface water chemistry, as well as environmental monitoring, b) UBH damage assessment: interpretation of deterioration degree, also supported by 3D technologies, c) UBH valorization: communications of historical functions, restoration, fruition as a cultural site (installations of technological instruments to diffuse the underground culture, reconstruction of underground life), d) UBH re-use: restoration of historical sites and location of old functions according new parameters (productive spaces reinvented according to the contemporary standards, sustainable living), e) UBH reconversion: restoration of historical sites and location of new functions but preserving the communication of the old ones (shops, hotels, restaurants, urban facilities in pre-existent underground spaces). Local teams will focus on selected cases in the classes: caved cities, religious practice, historical networks and sustainable development. The Italian team will study Naples (UNESCO site, Undergrounds in Naples, Varriale 2009) and Matera (UNESCO site and European Capital of Culture 2019). In Naples, acknowledged as the underground city, the Italian team will analyze the relationship between the valorization and the diffusion of its underground UBH (catacombs and historical ossuary) as significant example of local culture and strongly supported by local bottom-up actions but also the role played by underground stratifications within the planning of nowadays networks (Linea 1 Metro). In Matera underground space is a parallel world, the analysis of which, in its darkness, helps to throw light on many of the more obscure areas of its urban development in a historic perspective. In Matera the relationship between over-ground and underground urban development is not only linked to the past, it also reveals many surprising possibilities of intervention following the roles of "best practice in architecture" and sustainable urban development, combining perfectly two of the main guidelines in urban planning and historical centers regeneration. Japanese team will focus on Taya cave, Oya abandoned stone mine and Yoshimi-Hyaku-Ana archaeological site. Taya cave is a unique 13th C underground Buddhists cave, tremendous reliefs are sculpted on the cave walls composed of soft Quaternary silt rock including shell fossils and with a relative height of 20-30 m. Opened as a public sightseeing spot and well preserved, studies about resilience to soft rock, durability and future fruition are at the core of Japanese team, hypothesis of integration of fruition with the support of 3D photogrammetry models and virtual reality models. In Oya abandoned stone mine, excavated tuff since Edo era in 17C, is opened for public in the present as one of a sightseeing spot around the region, excavated old buddhas in Oya-ji temple and a big Heiwa-Kannon Buddha complete the site. Damage assessment due to salt weathering, creation of 3D photogrammetry models inside of the abandoned stone mine as well as outside, Heiwa-Kannon Buddha, as for the virtual tour in the future (Oguchi and Yuasa, 2010). Yoshimi-Hyaku-Ana archaeological site, many graves excavated on Tertiary hill, is one of the important cultural property of Japan. However, it has been suffering from salt weathering. (Oguchi et al., 2010). The comparative analysis carried on by the teams will stress on: a) exchange of good practices/innovative methodologies for assessing the state of conservation, the analysis of materials and risk monitoring of selected caves; b) development of an ICT tool based on the Geo-Referred 3D model of the underground spaces for monitoring the state of conservation, planning future interventions and restorations and introduce virtual reality for visitors; c) good practices for re-using historical sites and location according to new parameters; d) solutions for enhancing UBH artefacts as a cultural site on a broader territorial scale, in order to suggest best practices, promote synergies and develop specific dissemination tools.

Obiettivi della ricerca

Improve the network between Italy and Japan, two very different areas but where the use of underground has been historically consolidated to face and solve urban and social conflicts. Carry on cooperative research on the main characters of the negative building culture of these areas focusing on analogies and differences about the overturned approach to urban and rural growth. Point out multidisciplinary approaches to assessment and valorization of the rock-cut monuments spread in Japan and Southern Italy according to their functional and chronological conformities and divergences. To experiment and consolidate common guidelines in the use of 3D technologies for both preservation and fruition of UBH. Feedbacks are expected both in archeology, history of architecture and environmental urban history with significant involvements in contemporary sustainable urban regeneration and planning.

Ultimo aggiornamento: 01/12/2024