Sustainable recovery: water as a source of territorial valorization -L’acqua come fonte di valorizzazione ed elemento resiliente del costruito storico

This paper deals with the current and lively debate concerning the defence and enhancement of protected areas and the minor historical building redevelopment. The aim to be achieved is related to the valorisation and proper management of the water, intended as a resource to satisfy the needs of rural communities and at the same time as a local architecture element, which has contributed to the characterization of the built heritage and its landscape and has influenced the places economies. This goal is achieved by interpreting the water resource as a common thread of several aspects linked to daily life: the rainwater recovery, water as a source of life as well as a tool for territorial revitalization and resilience. The recovery methodology developed is based on the dualism linked on the one hand to the values respect and, on the other, to technological innovation. It materializes in a mix of compatible microinterventions. This methodology was applied in a marginal area of the rural village of Fontecchio, located in the province of L’Aquila, whose history, as the name already indicates, is strongly related to water. The importance attributed to this element, that is fundamental in the settlement system definition of this minor historical centre, is revealed by the rediscovery of underground canals, the recovery of some architectural emergences, as well as the enhancement of the Aterno river environmental value.