Reflecting on the Identity of the Place: Experimental Representation of a Small Historic Centre

In the context of Palladio's Veneto landscape, where the geographical and cultural reality of the 16th century is still so evident and where Cultural Heritage and the natural landscape are in continuous dialogue, this research analyses historical traces in order to understand human-environment interaction. As part of the iNEST (Interconnected Innovation Ecosystem) project, this study focuses on the city of Piazzola sul Brenta, studying it from different points of view thanks to the interdisciplinary nature of the research context, which compares the area of design with other disciplines (psychology, urban analysis, cultural heritage). Starting from the analysis of historical maps and their superimposition with the current state, the study continues by three-dimensionally modelling the space on the basis of the survey and comparing metric data with qualitative data of different types. In fact, this small historic centre, rooted in a deep economic and cultural substratum, is the case study for an experimental analysis of the city understood as a set of multiple factors, concerned with both the physical space and the space that is perceived. A representation strategy is therefore sought that values cultural heritage and historic urban space not so much as an asset in itself but as an element immersed in a community, a holder of memory and knowledge, through which the inhabitants recognise themselves in the place. The elaborated graphic representations take into account the cultural and architectural identity that this small town holds, constantly in dialogue with the natural landscape that surrounds it and its inhabitants.