TEssutO URBANo · URBAN Fabric
Edifici in aggregato
nella zona rossa di Concordia
sulla Secchia, Modena
Buildings in stock
in the red zone of Concordia
on the Secchia, Modena
The current layout of urban
centres is a dense web of
buildings one on top of
the other and mutually
dependent. The result is an
extremely heterogeneous
fabric, about which not
much is known in terms of
size, geometry, construction,
energy and occupational
characteristics, etc. The land
registry services keep detailed
surveys on the property
units: totally unconnected
data, which do not allow
immediate projections to be
46 paesaggio urbano 2.2013
obtained on the composition
of a historic centre. Satellite
images and virtual navigation
services offer support in the
understanding of grouped
building fabric which remains,
however, superficial.
The earthquakes have
highlighted the fragility of
historic centres, not only
from a structural point
of view, but also from a
knowledge and management
point of view. Whereas on
the one hand the study
of geological phenomena,
like the understanding of
the behaviour of masonry
structures, has achieved
remarkable results, the
application of any kind
of calculation model or
intervention programme must
deal with the unknown of
the grouped fabric. When the
assessment of the damage is
followed by the need for the
administrations to coordinate
the redevelopment works (and
relative funding), a thorough
knowledge of the structural
units that constitute the
groups of buildings is essential.
Before being drawn up, the
Reconstruction Plans require
the recognition of the U.M.I.
(Minimum Intervention Units):
independent buildings and
structural units in building
groupings […] that are made
up of more than one building
whose repair, restoration
with seismic improvement
or reconstruction must be
designed individually, to
be implemented through a
single building intervention,
or through a programme of
interventions split into different
stages or lots. The recognition
of the U.M.I.s must consider the
typological, architectural and
landscape characteristics of the
building fabric, whereas the
planning requirements impose
the choice of recalculating the
envisaged sections of work,
on the one hand fulfilling the
need to effectively organise the
reconstruction operations, but
at the same time cancelling out
the advantages of a legitimate
enquiry operation into the
urban event.