Veronetta: prove di geografia sociale

This paper reports the case of one district of Verona, precisely Veronetta, located near the historical center of the town, that shows broad sociospatial dynamics. Given its territorial history, the compresence of attraction and repulsion factors as well as the recent pushes exerted by movements carried out by active citizenship (such as the spontaneous aggregation in a social street, the subsidiarity pacts, or the community cinema project), Veronetta reveals all the richness and criticality of a portion of the town looking for a definition of its meaning in the wider context of the urban area.

Facadism: An Approach for Spatial Reconfiguration

Baghdad’s historical center is a rich site of heritage and cultural values, yet it suffers from urban deterioration. Many urban spaces and historical structures are aging, which has caused a decline in the vitality and function of axes and open spaces. This research is based on the principle of facadism as one of the main approaches to the preservation and rehabilitation of historic and traditional buildings. The purpose is to address urban degradation and the spatial reconfiguration of urban space in a way that promotes its sustainability and revitalization. This research aims to formulate a theoretical framework that includes a list of interference patterns and their role in spatial reconfiguration. This will be applied to the spatial reconfiguration and development of Al-Rasheed Street in the historic center of Baghdad. A questionnaire elicited the opinions of experts, designers, and implementers in academic and executive institutions on the possibility of reshaping local spaces using facadism. The results of the questionnaire showed that experts support the possibility of adopting this method in spatial reconfiguration in order to intervene in the degradation of historical environments, and also to create a homogeneous and interconnected urban environment that prevents the eradication of cultural and urban heritage. By adopting the preservation of a façade in its various forms, considerations need to be made regarding its compatibility with the nature of the problems in the study area and the ineffectiveness of the pattern of dismantling and transferring a building to another place. This is due to the importance of the historical place and the need to preserve all its historical items within the fabric, in addition to the effectiveness of some detailed patterns in different items of formation.

The Entry Into Jerusalem Archaeological Complex of Tsarevokokshaysk (17th - 19th Centuries)

The article presents the historical and archaeological characteristics of the territory adjacent to the Entry into Jerusalem Church of the Tsarevokokshaysk. The substantiation is presented that in this part of the historical center of Yoshkar-Ola there is a complex of interrelated archaeological objects that existed here in the time interval from the first decades of the life of the Tsarev town on Kokshaga River to the beginning of the 20th century. The Entry into Jerusalem archaeological complex consists of a historical necropolis of the 17th – mid-18th century, foundation of the Entry into Jerusalem Church built in 1759, remnants of the Rozhdestvenskaya Sloboda of the second half of the 18th – 19th centuries and structures belonging to the Bogoroditse–Sergievsky Monastery of the late 19th century. The authors use archival sources, which, when compared with the data on archaeological research, give an idea of the historical topography of this part of Tsarevokokshaysk in the 17th – 19th centuries.

Analysis of urban elements orientations to characterize the spatial extension of the foundation of the Roman city of Amida

The structure of the historical center of the city of Diyarbakır is largely inherited from the Roman city of Amida, through numerous testimonies still present in certain urban elements, such as buildings or cadastral parcels. The detailed analysis of the orientation of these urban elements in the current urban plan of Diyarbakır can contribute in particular to a better understanding of the different eras of foundation of the city of Amida and their spatial extensions. This research proposes to compare two methods of extraction of orientations from urban elements of the city of Diyarbakır. First, historians carried out a manual survey of the orientations from an aerial photograph, which made it possible to bring out two frames corresponding to two eras of the founding of the Roman city of Amida. These orientations were then compared with those extracted automatically from the geographic databases of cadastral parcels and built-up urban elements captured at a large scale. If the results obtained with the two methods converge, they also show differences, both on the orientation values and on the spatial extension of the two frames observed. These differences may contradict the initial observations, but are also sources of new perspectives of research on the spatial extension of the different periods of foundation of the Roman city of Amida. Finally, the results of this research tend to show that the two approaches prove to be complementary in detecting ancient urban structures in a contemporary city plan.

Properties of the Ignimbrites in the Architecture of the Historical Center of Arequipa, Peru

The petrographic and petrophysical characteristics of three varieties of ignimbrites used in the architectural heritage of Arequipa (southwest Peru) are analyzed. The modal classification QAFP and TAS diagram discriminate their dacitic nature. Mercury injection porometry revealed very high porosity: 46.5% for white and beige ignimbrites, and 35.5% for the pink variety. Ignimbrites contain intrusions of vulcanodetrital fragments and vacuoles that influence their predominantly non-linear mechanical behavior. The results of water absorption by capillarity (C) and ultrasound pulse velocity (UPV) demonstrate a slight anisotropy for the beige variety and near isotropy for white and pink ignimbrites, which justify the randomness of the application of the ashlars in the masonry and in the selection of the faces to carve. Surfaces with hollows in the white and beige ignimbrites are the result of the erosion of the acicular pumice that fills the vacuoles.

Functional and Morphological Transformations of the Urban Block—Contribution to the Expected Modernization of Zagreb’s Historical Core

The paper explores the possibilities of the structural and functional transformation of blocks in the historical center of Zagreb as a part of modernization after many years of neglect as well as earthquakes in 2020. The research aims to determine how the existing block tissue corresponds with the needs of today’s residents and the possibility of its improvement. The historical circumstances in which the blocks were formed and underwent the most significant changes and modern processes that affect the state and value are determined. There is a special focus on the interior of the block (courtyards), as well as on the spaces on the ground floors of street facades, where numerous, unexplored changes can be observed. The findings provide starting points for desirable structural–functional transformations of blocks and stem from the synthesis and interpretation of knowledge from four interrelated parts of the research. The characteristics of blocks have changed during city development stages, as depicted by an analysis and graphic interpretation of historical maps and urban plans (1864–2021). Influences of modern processes on changes of the city are determined on the basis of the synthesis of previous research from different interdisciplinary points of view; a detailed analysis of the structural–functional changes is conducted on the example of three selected blocks. Transformation models for three selected blocks are proposed.

Properties of the Ignimbrites in the Architecture of the Historical Center of Arequipa, Peru

The petrographic and petrophysical characteristics of three varieties of ignimbrites used in the architectural heritage of Arequipa (southwest Peru) are analyzed. The modal classification QAFP and TAS diagram discriminate their dacitic nature. Mercury injection porometry revealed very high porosity: 46.5% for white and beige ignimbrites and 35.5% for the pink variety. Ignimbrites contain intrusions of vulcanodetrital fragments and vacuoles that influence their predominantly non-linear mechanical behavior. Results of water absorption by capillarity (C) and ultrasound pulse velocity (UPV) demonstrated a slight anisotropy for the beige variety and near isotropy for white and pink ignimbrites, which justify the randomness of the application of the ashlars in the masonry and in the selection of the faces to carve. Surfaces with hollows in the white and beige ignimbrites are the result of the erosion of the acicular pumice that fills the vacuoles.

IDENTIFICATION OF URBAN CONFLICTS IN THE STRUCTURE OF HISTORICAL BUILDING OF SMALL TOWNS (ON THE EXAMPLE OF VALUYKI, BELGOROD REGION)

Today, there is a need to assess the historical development of small cities in Russia in order to identify urban planning conflicts in the urban environment and determine promising directions for their resolution. This study is aimed at analyzing existing urban planning conflicts and disclosing the resource potential of the territory of historical buildings in the center of a small town on the example of Valuyki, Belgorod region. The authors uses conflictological and complex approaches. The analysis of the planning, functional and transport structure of the city is carried out. The analysis of the cultural heritage objects of the historical center based on historical and cultural reference plan of the city center is compiled. The current state of the riverside territories of the river Valuy in the central part of the city has been reviewed. A number of urban-ecological conflicts leading to the degradation of the coastal zone have been identified. Urban planning conflicts of the city center (social-functional, land-use, transport, etc.) are also identified and classified, their types are determined by the type of location (linear, point, areal), their participants and possible directions for their solution are identified. The promising directions of the development of the historical center of the city and the likelihood of the emergence of new types of activities for cultural heritage sites have been determined.

Application of XPS and PA techniques in the study of lime used in the Talavera House from the historical center of Mexico City

X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) and Photoacoustic (PA) techniques are useful to identify the structure and optical properties of chemical compounds used in archaeology, among others. In the present study XPS and PA techniques were used to analyze seven samples obtained from the Talavera House, during the conservation and restoration works carried out in the 2012-2013 period. Talavera House is located between the República del Salvador, Talavera and Roldán streets, in the historic center of Mexico City. The objective of this study was to identify the chemical compounds added to the lime when burned in the furnace and its use in the tanneries during the 18th century, both elements located in the second yard, as well as in the construction of the corridor in the 20th century located in the first courtyard. The samples were collected at these points and analyzed by XPS and Photoacoustic (PA) techniques, comparing these results with other excavated sites.

Seismic Vulnerability Assessment and Simplified Empirical Formulation for Predicting the Vibration Periods of Structural Units in Aggregate Configuration

The present research aims at investigating the vibration period of structural units (SUs) of a typical masonry aggregate located in the historical center of Mirandola, a municipality in the province of Modena. The clustered building consists of eighteen SUs mutually interconnected to each other, which are characterized by solid brick walls and deformable floors. First of all, non-linear static analyses are performed by adopting the 3Muri software focusing on two distinct modelling techniques concerning the analyzed SUs in isolated and clustered configurations. Congruently to the procedure adopted, in order to evaluate a reliable seismic structural response of the SUs arranged in aggregate conditions, the contribution in terms of stiffness and mass derived from adjacent buildings is considered. The analysis results are represented in terms of risk factor, stiffness, and ductility. Secondly, the eigenvalue analysis is faithfully developed to identify the main vibration modes of the investigated SUs by proposing an empirical formulation, that allows for predicting the vibration period of structural units placed in aggregate configuration starting from the corresponding isolated ones. Finally, fragility functions are derived for both the heading and intermediate SUs to point out the expected damages under earthquakes with different intensities.