Urban Syntax and Building Semantics in the Process of Quali-Quantitative Signification of the Historic City

This study proposes amethodological and operational model of critical observation of the historic city according to a multi-level approach describing the semiotic nature of a building-urban fabric relevant from the point of view of its existing values and their evolution in the overall progress of the urban context of reference. The elements of this ascending cognitive pathway are articulated in three areas, each characterized by an increasing degree of abstraction: the first consists in the identification of the salient references for critical observation; the second identifies the classes of concrete values that support the semantic reduction; the third consists in the formalization of the relationship between concrete and abstract values in support of the “real estate signification”. The case study is the Borgata di Santa Lucia in Syracuse (Italy), of particular interest due to its intermediate location between the well-knownOrtigia—the ancient nucleus whose value is increasingly appreciated worldwide—and the new town due its prevalent functional value. The study aims at supporting the formation of the DetailedUrban Plan implementation by providing a structured mapping dynamic databank of the capacities, values and prices.