Regeneration of industrial landscapes: the restoration of the silk mil “Casale Santo Janni” in Pacentro (AQ)

The silk mill “Casale Santo Janni” is a proto-industrial heritage. Its typological features are strictly related both to the production system and to characters of territorial identities of mountain areas of the Abruzzo region. The building is located in the district of San Giovanni, near the Pacentro town.This territory, traditionally suited to the production of mulberries, was divided into districts, which had small devotional churches. The first silk mill was built by monks of Pacentro; in 1832 its enlargement was due to Giannantonio Lozzi, member of the Parliament of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, who wanted to transform the building in a modern silkworm farm. The "casale" is the result of a transformative process which appears really singular from a typological point of view; in fact, it includes several features: those of fortified architectures, those of a modern silk mill and based on the model of Venetian countryhouse called "Barchessa". The paper wants to propose the outcomes of an experimental design which tries to match the historical knowledge and the conservation of proto-industrial heritage with the restoration and the regeneration of productive landscapes. Pursuing the goal of an active conservation, the project proposes a way of industrial reuse which appears consistent with original nature characters of spaces and with an updated layout that combines silk production with cultural promotion.