Mobilità urbana e topografia: quattro progetti per Petralia Sottana

Urban mobility and topography:four projects for Petralia Sottana. Many villages on the Madonie mountains share some material and non-material conditions: a complex articulation of the territorial altimetry,which often generates extraordinary landscape sites; a widespread population decrease (up to 50% in the last decades); the increasing relocation of inhabitants from the historical centre to peripheral areas; the difficult conciliation of both private and public traffic with the historical urban context; a deficit in the natural cycle of substitution and renovation of historical buildings and of public spaces. Four urban projects have been elaborated by the department of Architecture of Palermo university(scientific coordinators: Teresa LaRocca and Gaetano Licata), for Petralia Sottana city council. These projects, illustrated here through drawings and images, tackle the above mentioned issues, and point out a possible key to trigger a “virtuous circle” of regeneration by putting the theme of mobility in relation with the topography. The proposed study,through its design elements and their interaction, aims at answering aspecific question with a specific synthetic approach; however, such an answer may well be articulated and extended in response to similar issues in urban centres throughout theMadonie.