The Representation Process of Local Heritage for Territorial Projects

This essay aims at overcoming a functionalist and ‘modernising’ vision in theory and practice of spatial planning. Starting with a definition of the concept of territorial heritage in its structural nexus with proactive patrimonialisation practices, it describes some essential features of the concept of bioregion, applied to territorial planning and design, congruent with the contemporary need to foster a reconstruction of morphological structures in a historical perspective (i.e. to reactivate the process of territorialisation) and to give new centrality to representation, here considered not as a mere technique but, rather, as a “representation process of territorial heritage” involving local communities in its very development. The essay, then, recommends a new practice of patrimonial representation of territories by describing some cartographies that should support significant moments of the process of bioregional planning and design, from territorial surveys to design scenarios.