Perturbing monuments, sleeping giants, adandoned machines. Memory and renewal of industrial landscape

The brown-field industrial areas are a problematic heritage of 20th century development. Today we have to deal with them because of environmental, economic and social reasons. Industrial sites have transformed territories and built peculiar sites. Furthermore, the industrial architecture belongs to the history, culture, and memory of the entire community. It is also necessary to consider the “aesthetic” value of landscapes and industrial architectures related to the architectural culture of the twentieth century. Indeed, the industrial settlements and architectures were assumed by the Modern Movement as models for the rational city and as an expression of a renewed architectural conception. If reusing was a constantly present practice in architectural cultures, for industrial sites it is necessary to first recognize the value of “patrimony” of landscapes and of abandoned artefact’s; the added value of the recovery operation from the economic, environmental, social and cultural point of view must be highlighted; we need to choose what to preserve, enhance and reuse. Albania is a very interesting case of study. This country has been heavily invested since the early twentieth century by the phenomenon of industrialization. A research held at the Polytechnic University of Bari has dealt with the theme of the recovery and re-utilization of the Albanian industrial heritage, choosing highly degraded but significant places for the Albanian industrialization (Kombinat of Tirana, Elbasan’s Metallurgy, “Mao Zedong” Factory of Berat, “Gogo Nushi” Industry of Fier). These sites have been studied in relation to the contiguous urban areas and the nearby naturalistic, archaeological and historical sites, with the aim of making them become cultural, social and economic “attractors”.