Porto d’Ischia. Un progetto di restauro del paesaggio

The space occupied by the Port of Ischia boasts an extraordinary history and landscape. Years of improper use, due to the exceptional increase in tourism witnessed by the island of Ischia since the 1970s, produced a state of physical and environmental decay that has now reached alarming levels. The Port’s role as a hub for all of the island’s principal connections with the mainland has forced it to accept massive and improper uses that spoil its appearance and rob it of its potential. By interpreting the concept of “landscape restoration”, introduced by Franco Purini during the early 1990s to highlight the condition of instability typical of so many of Italy’s important environments, and simultaneously indicating a possibility for their redemption, the intention is to provide a response with the ability to trigger the recovery of this unique spatial environment. The text presents a graduate thesis, developed at the Mediterranea University of Reggio Calabria, as one example. The project begins with a re-reading of the original qualities of the site to propose a restoration that is sensitive toward its history and capable of indicating new potentialities.