Acqua e verde in territori antichi per costruire lo spazio pubblico. Water and green in ancient territories to build public space

The contribution considers natural and historical resources as a great opportunity to transform urban space, aiming at the construction of public spaces. This thank to the ecological approach proposed since several years in many sites such as INU, AISRe, SIU, ERSA. It is illustrated the case of Reggio Calabria, the ancient Reghion, an Italic settlement dating back to the III millennium BC, then place of foundation of the Calcidese colony and for centuries reference of the Magna Grecia. The “River contracts” offer high opportunities to act effectively on the territory thanks to the involvement of local communities. Fact of great importance in situations requiring deep requalification actions because characterized by particular conditions of social degradation, abandonment, lack of environmental quality and above all of hydrogeological risk created by incautious localization choices. Because the scientific and technical awareness on sustainable development formed in the past decades, today there is the possibility to redesign the space through an integrated strategic use of the green and the water resource. Both to be recovered and reused through corridors and ecological nodes, with the aim of creating public spaces. Thus the city can regain its function of public space and not only be a place of economy. A regeneration, according to the indications of the Landscape Charter, aimed at proposing a contemporary landscape that can be a methodological reference for similar contexts.