Musei per la fruizione di complessi industriali dismessi. Design per la valorizzazione di sistemi produttivi, territori culturali e comunità

Since the 1990s, numerous projects for the rehabilitation and museal re-functionalization of disused and abandoned industrial buildings and complexes have given rise to experiences characterized by specific museographic, scientific, and cultural methodologies. In this context, design is called upon to operate within complex planning strategies, developing approaches to valorization and accessibility grounded in processes of reinterpretation and re-signification of places—processes capable of articulating the intricate dialogue between habitat and built environment, while evoking anthropological landscapes, knowledge systems, and production practices distinctive of specific territories and communities. Through interdisciplinary and often highly experimental design methodologies, design becomes an activator of participatory and integrated processes based on horizontal, multi-actor cooperation (involving institutions, administrations, professionals, local actors, and inhabitants), on direct experience of places, and on dialogue with communities capable of expressing opinions and perceptions and transmitting both individual and collective territorial knowledge. The examples presented in the paper, despite their heterogeneity, aim to illustrate certain models for interpreting the territory and constructing cultural identity - good practices of territorial development and social innovation centered on design - conceived as open-ended project actions oriented toward the production of connected and shared knowledge.