The rural landscape in Sardinia: elements for a regional atlas
(Antonello Sanna with Ignazio Garau)
The regional rural landscape is the connective tissue (thus far largely misunderstood) in Sardinia’s vast landscape scenario. Today in the political/cultural debate, there is still a strong prevalence of such issues as coastal organization or the urban dimension. And yet, it seems reasonable to believe that the key to the region’s future prospects lies in the actions that can be put into place for a "project for the rural landscape" that is sustainable and shared. In this sense, the research project promoted by the Sardinia Regional Directorate for Cultural Heritage and Landscape is based on some very important premises, among which:
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The new focus on landscape centers on three key questions:
- the search for identity
- the reduction of landscape deterioration
- the definition of a new development model that is markedly "local"
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The strong presence and significance of critical elements characterizing the "structural" problems of the rural landscape can be summarized in the following proposition:
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the weakening (at times elimination) of the reciprocal relationship between community-territory- economy and cultural practices, with resulting change/crisis in the historic landscape:
- the change in the structural relationship - in terms of production – of the rural landscape
- the change in the cultural relationship – in terms of perception, understanding and recognition – of the rural landscape.
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the weakening (at times elimination) of the reciprocal relationship between community-territory- economy and cultural practices, with resulting change/crisis in the historic landscape:
The regional rural landscape is, first and foremost, the sparse landscape of low-density settlements with its contradiction between compact dwelling areas and places of work that are historically devoid of houses, buildings and characterized by 'weak' signs such as paths, fences, terraces, hedges and, in general, the patterns of the cultivated landscape. With the deeply rooted "presence of the past" and with the strong predominance of the "long term," this dominant character merged with conservative phenomena and permanence. Recently, there have been increasing signs of change, often under the guise of "innovation without quality." The most visible result is, perhaps, the deterioration of the peri-urban vegetable gardens reduced to indistinct peripheries both in the metropolitan areas as well as in the inland areas.
In addition, a number of phenomena (contamination, disconnection between places, people and producers ...) makes it exponentially more difficult to recognize the community’s linkages and local roots and thus reciprocal relationships with their lands and landscapes In this sense, if we accept what Roberto Gambino states about the role of landscape planning and the roles that it is called upon to play:
- regulatory functions to define, with legally binding effects, public and private behaviors;
- strategic functions to produce models for integrated planning which brings together diverse subjects and competencies and which requires common frameworks and visions to create convergence of the different interests;
- dialogical functions to evidence the issues at stake, the reasons underlying the proposed choices in order to guarantee democracy in the decision-making process,
Download: Consistenza del paesaggio rurale in Sardegna.pdf