Recomposition of architecture in the historical city. Case study of Pontemanco village, Italy

The work we propose concerns the theme of the recomposition of public spaces in the ancient village of Pontemanco, near Padua. The village was born around two old mills built on the sides of the Biancolino, the canal that unifies and devides the little community. The spatial aspects and formal image of the transformations in Pontemanco are studied as a premise for the design of the new architecture that completes the existing buildings. The working method is based on the belief that, in the study of urban morphology, is basic to analyse the history of the city. The history becomes an indispensable tool to know the deep reasons of the urban structure which is the memory and the image of the community. The methodology contemplates the urban form as a result of its spatial structure. The life of the urban form is investigated in its physical specificity, the only one able of giving reason of its special nature over every social, economic and political aspect, certainly important but not sufficient. Our teaching at the University of Padova (Italy) is based on fundamental 1960s studies about typological analysis. The old village of Pontemanco is one of the subjects investigated by our students, thought as an opportunity to reconfigure the lost unity of this very symbolic and representative place were the waters of the Biancolino Canal flow.