Historical city and urban voids as elements of cultural heritage: theory and projects for Aversa discontinuous city

Recognizing the value of historical urban cores and open space in contemporary urbanized territories, this contribution proposes a regeneration strategy for rarefied and hypodense urban areas. It is based on the re-signification of voids preserved from urban growth’s aggression. These places can become benchmarks-monuments of the new urban-territorial dimension of the city (Costanzo, 2008). To verify this theory, an application case is shown: it is about the medium city of Aversa and its north-western conurbation, which stands as an urbanized ring around a system of central voids. Considered as architectural fields, they can accommodate complex architectural units hosting public-collective uses. They are conformed according to collocative settlement logic exalting the qualities of the void. They also define links with historical cores, re-proposing, in new forms, the original relationship existing between the cores themselves and the countryside (open space) that is now lost.