Knowledge design and attitude to care: aspects for the conservation and restoration of historic centers in inner areas of Sicily

Abstract

The historic built heritage of depopulating towns, no longer undergoing care and maintenance, threatens ruin in many cases. In the small towns of the inner areas, some practices have been initiated thanks to public initiatives or private. Today, a ‘sustainable’ restoration, while aiming at maximizing permanence (Bellini), is characterized by an openness to innovations and the possibility of changes, reasoned and compatible, for needs of adaptation to the culture of safety, but also as a verification of the technical-economic feasibility of the project, and as the ability to involve communities in the choices, proposing itself with bottom up actions.