Survey between protection and orientation of transformations. The case study of Floridia.

The purpose of the study is to evaluate surveying experimentation conducted on Floridia, a town on the outskirts of Syracuse. Property speculation deriving from the economic boom of the 1960s and 1970s, unfortunately, triggered a process of widespread degradation of the historical centre of the town. Such a process encouraged an uncontrolled development of a new ‘concrete jungle’ without any architectural value and any relation with the surroundings and at the expense of the late XIX century urban planning characterized by a minor Liberty Style still perceptible in small fragments around the area of Floridia. The research was carried out through an approach connected to the detection and documentation of these widespread fragments and of the small late XVIII century ecclesiastical heritage, using innovative technologies of digital surveying. The experimentation is the result of the fruitful synergy of the Laboratory of Representation of the University of Catania and the Urban Center of Floridia municipality. The purpose was to detect and protect valuable fragments and typological features of the old urban fabric through the implementation of an informative and morphometric database of the architectural elements of the town. The expected goal is to steer the management and the future transformations of the urban planning towards interventions directed to the protection and enhancement of fragments of ‘minor’ architecture.