Una progettazione culturale di valenza pubblica: il magistero di Sara Santoro e la valorizzazione della villa tardoantica di Aiano (San Gimignano – Siena)

Cavalieri, Marco;et.al.
(2022) Archaeologiae Una storia al plurale. Studi in memoria di Sara Santoro — ISBN: [9781803271040], p. 367-380, published

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Sara Santoro dedicated herself to a broad variety of interests. Her deep involvement in the field of archaeological heritage conservation is, possibly, not very well known. Actually, since her early years as scholar, back in the 80s, she developed the idea, at the time still in a nutshell, of a “museo diffuso e integrato” (Integrating Ecomuseum). This entity was intended like a museum without physical limits, integrating the current archaeological activity to a constant long-term project based approach, sustained by appropriate socio-economic investments and involving the whole archaeological process (digging, studying, providing protection and conservation and promoting the public engagement) in order to open a dialogue between the archaeological site and the contemporary world avoiding that the first would have perceived as an obstacle for the second. According to this aspect, the study of conservative solutions in situ was one of her main engagements, since the beginning of the 2000’s. She created a database for archaeological coverings, characterized by innovative solutions in term of materials, costs, environmental impact and conservation effectiveness. For this reason, we decided to introduce in this occasion a paper investigating the issues of long-term planning and valorisation for the archaeological heritage, focussing mainly (but not exclusively) on the Late Antique villa of Aiano, Tuscany, a site which over the last ten years has been at the centre of a study directed by UCLouvain (Belgium), based on the concept of long-term planning, which has now reached its final stages, involving the conservation and the valorisation of the site for the forthcoming opening to the public. At Aiano (San Gimignano – Siena) the natural landscape surrounding the archaeological area is of doubtless beauty and integrity. This aspect makes very difficult and sensitive each type of intervention aimed at protecting the integrity of the archaeological area and at opening it to the public. Two different challenges are linked to a possible intervention: from one side the relationships with the natural environment and the ability to integrate new structures with the existing landscape; to the other side the even closest relationships between the landscape and the ancient structures, aiming at not altering and facilitating the perception of the structures, while fully respecting and preserving both their physical essence and their complex morphology. In these cases, the road to follow has to be sought in the “lightness” on the landscape scale, but also in the choice of the materials. The new architectures should offer respect and research the dialogue, avoiding each form of overwhelming and arrogance. The coexistence between a contemporary structures and an ancient landscape is possible only if choosing the language of simplicity, which means communicating with solutions shaped according to the real needs, using a basic language, free from formal excesses. In the case of Aiano the simplicity of wood was chosen. Clearly, this material more than others has problems of durability and involves an unavoidable constant maintenance and consequent costs. This problem will find a solution by selecting an ancient Japanese technique, the Shou Sugi Ban, which is effective for protecting the wood, through a process of surface carbonization. The main cost involved by this technique is, clearly, the necessaire labour. The civic and social value of this project stays precisely in this last aspect: the council of San Gimignano hosts a small number of refugees, who are keen to share their time in profitable way for the community. This potential will allow to synthetize two different actions: from one side, the active participation to the project and the sustainability of the costs and, to the other side, a public engagement, based on a philosophy of integration and welcoming immigration policies. A dimension of integrated research already pioneered by Sara Santoro.
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Cavalieri, M., & et al. (2022). Una progettazione culturale di valenza pubblica: il magistero di Sara Santoro e la valorizzazione della villa tardoantica di Aiano (San Gimignano – Siena). In S. Antonelli et al. (ed.), Archaeologiae Una storia al plurale. Studi in memoria di Sara Santoro (RES II. Reports, Excavations and Studies of the Archaeological Unit of University G. D’Annunzio Chieti-Pescara, p. p. 367-380). Archaeopress Publishing Ltd.