Costruire e abitare nelle Culture del Mediterraneo

According to the Faro Convention adopted by the Council of the European Union in 2005, we should understand cultural heritage in its broadest sense as the totality of resources inherited from the past by a people. Cultural heritage plays a key role in the sustainable development of communities, with social, economic, and environmental impacts that go beyond the need to preserve heritage assets. The paper describes the building and living styles of two ancient villages in the Mediterranean area: Il Casale di Armento (Potenza, Basilicata), and the El Cabañal neighbourhood in the city of Valencia (Spain). Il Casale di Armento is a rural village completely abandoned since the early 1990s. It is at risk of total loss due to the continuous collapse of entire buildings. El Cabañal neighbourhood has undergone an exemplary process of redevelopment and protection that has transformed the old fishing village into one of the most attractive tourist areas in the city. The district is distinguished by polychrome and eclectic ceramic coverings that represent the popular Valencian modernist style, born from the original and creative reinterpretation of the decorative styles of Art Nouveau. A new vision of the sustainability of development emerges from the analysis of the case studies, free of distorted juxtapositions between the protection of fundamental rights and the demands of economic development and social progress. In the new millennium, we will achieve the sustainability of development only if we will regain the ability to build and inhabit of the ancient peoples that improved the quality of their lives and reduced the fragility of the places in which they lived by means their ingenuity, their creativity, and the solidarity of collective living.