Re-signification of Abandoned Productive Assets for New Communities and Urban Qualities

The paper takes its cue from the Grant Research "The productive heritage: Research into the memories left on the territory" carried out for the university project called "The importance of business in the development of society: How to read and value the cultural heritage inherited from productive activities". The interpretative reading carried out in case-studies within the national territory, has made it possible to investigate processes of re-signification. These are conceived within complex dynamics of innovation and promotion of the context and joined by the intent of stemming the erosion of the productive heritage and to enhance the potential of urban spaces, which are also associated with a value of identity. These are processes that treat the legacies deriving from the productive heritage as "new archaeologies" according to a logic that understands urban archaeology, not only as a way to make the stratified historical values evident, but as a possibility to generate new urban qualities which are relevant to the recovery of physical space, accessibility to tangible and intangible heritage, and to the well-being of the community. Therefore, consideration should be given to the possibility of assigning a renewed quality understood as the ability to generate safe spaces for everyday life into a wide area, previously affected by productive processes and now fragile patrimonies and to guarantee places, a salient element of living space, for new work communities, culture and welfare.