Summary of the Proceedings and Papers Presented at - World ...

Un Piano per Pompei (A Plan For Pompeii) was the
title of an interdisciplinary project undertaken by
the Soprintendenza Archeologica di Pompei in
1997, made possible due to initial resources provided
by the World Monuments Fund. Completed in 2002,
the project’s aim was to draw up a technical instrument that
could subsequently be used to manage the many activities
that contribute to the main objective of preserving Pompeii.
Our hypothesis, based on the experience gained during
the years we spent working in Pompeii, is that conservation
can only be really effective if it is flanked by parallel design
activities that involve modification and change.
Conservation and change are, according to this perspective,
two sides of the same activity: that of project development.
In Pompeii, the project has been developed with
sustainability in mind, hence the definition of “Sustainable
Pompeii”. This meant coming up with a viable development
plan so that Pompeii may continue to be used by millions
of visitors in the future—thereby fulfilling its cultural role in
today’s society, while at the same time, its material aspects
may be conserved, and in some instances even revitalized,
so that it may survive well into the future.
This meant looking at a bigger picture than the one normally
considered by archaeologists; in other words, we exam-
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Sustainable Pompeii -
Conservation, Fruition and Designing
New Architectural Interventions
by Giovanni Longobardi
ined subjects such as changes in the surrounding landscape,
and carried out a detailed study of tourists’ movements and
patterns of visitation that have changed significantly over
the last 25 years.
From this broader perspective, the problem of conserving
Pompeii becomes more complicated because of the interactions
of “external” factors, which have a direct impact
on the site and whose effects must be properly evaluated.
“A Plan for Pompeii” has therefore resulted in a project
that aims to reconsider the relationship between the archaeological
site and the contemporary city that has grown
up around it, in an attempt to connect the elements of these
two entities that, in 250 years of Pompeii’s modern history,
did not have the chance to develop links.
The project is already being implemented with the opening
of a new entrance for visitors, more or less halfway between
the two existing ones. This entails making use of a large
green area (abandoned during the last twenty years) that will
act as a link between the ancient and the modern towns.
From a superficial point of view, the site will gain a new
identity, but this should not be seen as the only effect of
this intervention: the central location of this new entrance
reduces the distance between the two towns and creates
an ideal opening in the archaeological boundary where past
and present meet and mingle as complementary spaces.