Re-Settling APPennines. The architectural design as a research tool for the re-activation of Marche Region Inner Area

Nowadays, the combination of on-field research, action-research and collaborative processes are fundamental for researchers in the architectural design field to understand potentials and risks of the place they are deepening and have a direct and lasting bond with local communities. The researcher uses the architectural project as a regenerative tool to change the physical contexts he/she is working on and engages relationships with the municipalities fostering the importance of on-field and co-creation processes also to show how university can support them in achieving more sustainable and resilient futures. With this approach also the ongoing doctoral research project RESETtling APPennines is working, focusing on the reactivation of some municipalities of the Marche Region’s Inner Area, in Italy. The research investigates this area by exploring new dynamics of transformation and strategies for the enhancement of built heritage and living spaces for a restart of the area¬¬. In particular, the project focuses on Cagli (PU), a municipality undergoing socio-economic transformations. The methodology of the research involves a subdivision of activities into different and successive temporal and operational steps, according to an interdisciplinary approach: the areas of interest are investigated through the lenses of architecture and digital innovation, necessary for the exploration of an extremely complex territory. Surveys, interviews, urban walks and dialogues with local actors are an opportunity to co-think the reactivation of the “potential spaces” of Cagli through the design project and help to address common goals towards the enhancement of the city and to trigger new tangible and intangible relationships between municipalities of the entire Inner Area.