RESEARCH PROJECT
Reading the Historic Urban Landscape through Intermediate Places
The Project
The project, funded under Law 77/2006 “Special measures for the protection and use of Italian sites and elements of cultural, landscape and environmental interest, inscribed on the ‘World Heritage List’, placed under the protection of UNESCO,” aims to promote the knowledge and use of lesser-known places in the Historic Center of Florence. These places, often overlooked despite their historical and cultural significance, are explored through research, design, and community participationAligning with the goals of the Management Plan of the Historic Center of Florence, the project focuses on cloisters within the Core Zone, envisioning them as potential relational spaces that can help with urban regeneration, manage tourist flows, and provide new public areas for residents.
This project continues the core reflections of the Florence World Heritage and Relations with UNESCO office on the intangible value associated with places and the role of lesser-known sites in the sustainable development of the Historic Center. These themes build on previous projects initiated by the Office: “Florence and the cultural inheritance of its religious heritage” and “Minor Squares in the Historic Center of Florence,” highlighting a continuous and deepening intervention strategy within the World Heritage site.
Project Outline
The project “Boundary Spaces: Reading the Historic Urban Landscape through Intermediate Places” was conceived to address emerging needs related to the livability of the Historic Center and the use of urban spaces. Specifically, a survey on the impacts of Covid-19 on places of religious interest in Florence, conducted between November and December 2020 by the Florence World Heritage and Relations with UNESCO office, highlighted the importance of open spaces, including cloisters and gardens within monumental complexes, as places of refuge and contemplation during periods of closure and social distancing. To tackle the issue of difficult access to these spaces—often due to ownership by active religious communities, private or cultural use, or being underutilized or abandoned—the Florence World Heritage office proposed a vision of cloisters as “Urban Oases”: open, shared, and usable spaces essential for connecting history, memory, and the community. This vision aims to reduce the perception of religious properties as “closed” spaces and enhance knowledge of the World Heritage site’s heritage resources. It was shared with various entities involved in managing and enhancing the city’s religious complexes during the 2021 “Florence and the cultural inheritance of its religious heritage” project meeting, forming the basis for the “Boundary Spaces: Reading the Historic Urban Landscape through Intermediate Places” project.
The project’s initial phase involves collecting data on cloisters, churchyards, refectories, and minor squares in the Historic Center of Florence. This phase includes categorizing and indexing these spaces and mapping their locations.
The subsequent phase focused on involving stakeholders, including religious communities, institutions, professionals, and citizens. A key component of the project is the seminar activity conducted in collaboration with the University of Florence, involving students from the Department of Architecture (DIDA) and the Department of History, Archaeology, Geography, Art, and Performing Arts (SAGAS). The architectural design seminar “Boundary Spaces: In the Hollow of the Dense City,” held in February 2024, focused on an in-depth study of the Basilica of Santo Spirito, a symbolic site for the issues under examination.
The “Boundary” Spaces
From a design perspective, a specific category of religious spaces termed “boundary spaces” was conceptualized. This includes the churchyards of the Historic Center of Florence and some “proximity” cloisters. For churchyards, the selection of boundary spaces was guided by their location in front of churches, promoting an open dialogue between “the sacred” and “the profane,” thus including all churchyards in the Historic Center. For cloisters, further selection was based on the need to promote their greater openness to the community. Emphasis was placed on cloisters where the intention of enclosure, inherent in the term’s etymology, is not incompatible with dialogue with the surrounding city. The boundary cloisters are thus the cloisters where the religious function is not exclusive, and the architectural structure borders city streets, allowing external access. This boundary condition, due to both original architectural choices and subsequent modifications, has been conceptualized as the defining characteristic of these spaces, making them suitable for open use and contributing to the regeneration of the urban fabric. The criteria for identifying “boundary” cloisters are:
– Predominant maintenance of the religious function
– Location bordering public space or easy accessibility
Results Achieved
Project managers
Municipality of Florence – Culture Department, World Heritage and Relations with UNESCO Office, and University of Florence, Department of Architecture (DIDA), HeRe_Lab Joint Research Laboratory
Project funded under Law February 20, 2006, n. 77
“Special measures for the protection and use of Italian sites and elements of cultural, landscape and environmental interest, inscribed on the ‘World Heritage List’, placed under the protection of UNESCO”
MORE INFORMATIONS:
Florence and the cultural inheritance of its religious heritage
