Knowledge and/is safeguarde:via Umberto and the Rinazzo quarter in Catania

In the XIX century urban fabric of Catania, amid the neoclassical façades rose on the new road system – Via Umberto and the Axis of the Avenues – designed for the expansion of the city towards the sea, its historical memory is still preserved. Memory made of modest architectures, comb-like alleys and narrow courts which testify the social, cultural, architectural and environmental values of the time. These are the signs of a complex, well-established and highly historicized reality. Once they are interpreted through Survey and History, they reveal the original identity of the quarter of Rinazzo: it is a suburban district rose spontaneously outside the walls and would undergo a transformation of its structure at the end of the XIX century by being included in a plan for the reorganization and expansion of the city with the opening of Via Umberto I. Indeed, the resulting difference in height between the new road system and the already existing district would involve a series of actions for the adjustment of the different heights (which can be still seen) as well as the restyling and the realignment of the facades. The methodology of research adopted to study these phenomena is based on the critical interpretation of archival resources, historical maps and images along with Survey and Representation. Through digital synthesis models capable of conveying the identity of the places, the memory and the “old knowledge” which produced their physical features it has been possible explicit the different hypotheses and speculations. A deep knowledge of the city and its material and cultural aspects makes it possible to use it in a consistent, sustainable manner by taking into consideration the present needs, as well as taking appropriate and profitable measures for preservation-development: knowledge which is an active and competitive safeguard of the territory.