ABSTRACT
Transport infrastructures—in particular railways—have a “special beauty”, punctual and systemic at the same time. On the one hand, infrastructural architecture can be exemplary works of technical merit which express adherence to practical functionality and the wise use of materials according to their nature and costs. On the other, each infrastructural work has an “added value”: it belongs to a complex landscape system of greater scale through which it affects the visual, physical and cultural quality of the inhabited landscape. The recent closure of many obsolete railway lines makes it necessary to redefine the landscape character using a new design strategy more attentive to the preservation of identity characters, to avoiding the homologation of the contemporary landscape. This kind of design strategy proposes the enhancement of railway architectural characters, thus avoiding a nostalgic reconstruction of their original form. The goal is to implement a new design paradigm which works with surviving elements and signs, produced by time, and looking for to ensure successful integration between old and new. When the engineering works are abandoned they gain a unique character—becoming aesthetically interesting. Residual elements are also used in many fields of Contemporary Art to give them new life and new social functions through post-production processes and formal contaminations. These artistic techniques can be applied to reuse abandoned railways too: hybridization, repetition and serial fittings can generate surprising and expressive new projects.
