Agro Pontino e industria, abbandono e nuova vita. Le mutazioni di un territorio

The sudden acceleration of time due to the economic development of the second half of the last century, and the slowdown generated by the long economic crisis that opened the new century, compel to a thorough analysis, not only conceptual, about how to combine the probable prospect of an economic slowdown with an improvement of the quality of life of individuals and of urban systems. The fast-urban decadence may not lead just to neglect. In fact an alternative founded on rehabilitation and reuse does exist and deserves to be explored. The proposed essay aims to demonstrate how the architectural project can be the key tool to combine territorial resources and collective needs, and to experience innovative spaces capable of returning the abandoned heritage to the social context to which it belongs. Imagining a “new life” for the industrial heritage needs concreteness, critical wisdom and creativity. The architect is forced to a unique and diverging glance at once, he should preserve the spatial and structural qualities, which are memory of a time and of scopes now gone, and at the same time add new functions, connections, meanings, pointing the direction for a possible future. The proposed investigation becomes empirical applied to a portion of territory in southern Lazio. In this case study the possible reuse of two industrial poles which have been essential for the local urban development is assessed: the former glassmaker A.V.I.R. in Gaeta (1909-1982) and the former foundry Pozzi Ginori in Latina (1958-1998). Both poles represent industrialization phases of the same territory. They are among the most illustrative examples of a group of abandoned factories linked by an important infrastructure network. For these reasons this study could be the occasion for thorough assessments of the potential for the regeneration of a single building but also of a part of the urban area and of a territorial system.