Number125
Tafter Journal n. 125 – 2025
Laura Lucarellia*, Arturo Gallozzib, Michela Cigolab and Marcello Zordanb
aDepartment of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Cassino, Italy, laura.lucarelli@unicas.it; bDepartment of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, University of Cassino and Southern Lazio, Cassino, Italy
Many historical centres in southern Lazio represent valuable heritage to be preserved for their unique landscape, urban, and architectural qualities. The study of these areas is particularly complex and requires an approach prioritising the reuse, enhancement, and conservation of their material elements. Various factors that have shaped their evolution have resulted in diverse architectural styles distinguished by type, structure, and technology. To preserve and enhance these centres, it is crucial to implement conservation guidelines based on a thorough understanding of their construction and material properties. This approach should aim to maintain the authenticity of local structures while incorporating technological advancements found in contemporary housing models. Achieving this balance between conservation and innovation requires a comprehensive understanding of the built environment and its surrounding context. Strategies for preserving smaller historical centres highlight the importance of focusing on specific case studies as exemplary models. In this regard, the ancient urban centre of Atina is considered a distinctive example that warrants particular attention, with an analysis of some of its architectural surfaces through a reinterpretation of the Colour Plan.
Introduction
Most Italian municipalities are small towns that house just under 20% of the total population, but they represent a considerable environmental and historical heritage that needs to be enhanced and reused. Dealing with small historical centres implies understanding problems related to socio-economic, evolutionary, and dimensional characteristics that differ from those found in the ancient centre of a medium or large city (Zordan 1996). These places do not contain great monumental episodes but rather a connective tissue in which these episodes are placed. In close contact with the current building, with streets and squares, it is a strongly recognisable urban context called a “minor historical centre”. In particular, the inner area of the Lazio region is covered by a continuous network of small settlements integrated in a context with strong landscape values (Cigola, Gallozzi, Lucarelli, and Zordan 2023). An ideal field of investigation, paradigmatic for its morphological and settlement connotations, is identifiable in the so-called “Valle di Comino”. Located in the southeast of the province of Frosinone, it includes many minor historical centres, among which we will analyse the municipality of Atina.
This study forms part of a broader research project conducted by the Laboratory of Documentation, Analysis, Survey and Architectural Techniques (DART) at the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio. For many years, the laboratory has been devoted to the systematic analysis of historic centres in southern Lazio, investigating both architectural and environmental heritage assets, and addressing the theme of recovery and enhancement of minor centres through multiple disciplinary and methodological perspectives. In particular, for several years, the DART Laboratory has established a fruitful collaboration with the Municipality of Atina, which has been articulated through numerous research and design initiatives. Among these is the stipulation of an agreement for the drafting of the Colour Plan for the historic centre, carried out in collaboration with the research group coordinated by Professor Mario Centofanti of the University of L’Aquila. This experience represented a fundamental opportunity to develop integrated methodologies for analysing architectural surfaces and the historic chromatic features of the urban fabric.
Concurrently, the Laboratory has conducted various experiments in the field of integrated survey of Atina’s historic centre, employing advanced digital acquisition and documentation technologies. These activities have enabled the construction of a detailed body of knowledge concerning the local architectural heritage, functional both for scientific research and for planning conservation and restoration interventions. A further area of collaboration has involved the development of innovative gamification projects applied to the knowledge and enhancement of architectural heritage. Through the use of educational-recreational tools and interactive digital technologies, the aim has been to promote innovative forms of fruition and awareness-raising directed at both the local community and visitors, with the objective of fostering greater consciousness of the historical-cultural value of the historic centre. The methodological approach outlined herein proposes to investigate the built heritage of Atina’s historic centre through a critical reinterpretation of the Colour Plan, understood not merely as a regulatory instrument, but as an opportunity for an in-depth reading of historical stratifications, traditional construction techniques, and the material characteristics that define the architectural identity of the town.
The case study of the historical centre of Atina
Located at 490 meters above sea level, Atina is a village regarded as one of the most beautiful in Italy. Founded by the Volsci, it developed during the Sannitic period and became a Roman colony in the 4th century B.C. It rises on the slopes of Saint Stefano, a spur of Mount Prato that lies to the southeast of the Comino Valley. Although unknown, its locations possess centuries of history and authentic, evocative landscapes. The Atina municipality covers an area of 2980 ha and is divided into three regions.
- The historical centre, on the remains of the ancient Roman city, contains the late medieval and modern settlements;
- Not far from the historical centre, there is the area called the “Colle di Santa Croce”, with the homonymous church built in the XVIII century;
- Finally, in the lower part of the territory is “Atina Inferiore”, born after the Second World War near the Melfa River, which became the municipality’s commercial area.
Its landscape, cultural, and architectural heritage, currently at risk of compromise due to changing lifestyles, must be investigated on multiple levels. In this sense, it becomes of fundamental importance to document the state of fact through different architectural survey methodologies and the most appropriate graphical representations to provide analytical information. Only in this way can the natural and architectural peculiarities that make up its precious landscape be potentially valued, recovered and developed (Lucarelli 2023). In any project that aims to enhance a historical centre, there is a first phase of specific and careful knowledge of the territory that highlights the close relationship that the centre has with the landscape in which it is located. The direct connection between the natural environment, the built environment, the settlement’s shape and position, and the paths and hydrographic characteristics of the site can be easily observed using QGis, the open-source software (Fig. 1). The concentric scheme of the old town of Atina belongs to the oldest type of the Early Middle Ages, during which villages were transformed into fortified cities. In its urban structure, we can see a triangular shape, with the vertices originally occupied by three medieval gates: Assunta, Santa Maria and Fontana doors (Recchia 1982). The preservation of the ancient urban system and its limits means that an interesting element, such as the “Palazzo Ducale” (Fig. 2), the heart of the historic centre, volumetrically determines the space, assuming a role as the generating pole of the entire urban organism (Zander 1953). It is precisely around this area that the attention of the Colour Plan is concentrated.
Volumes, spaces, surfaces
An initial approach to knowledge is the schematisation of the basic elementary entities of the urban fabric: volumes, spaces and surfaces (Capozza 1976). Volumes are three-dimensional elements that identify the building aggregates in their physical consistency. Spaces like streets and squares, defined as two-dimensional elements, are empty areas delimited by volumes. Finally, surfaces, the boundary layers between volumes and spaces, represent the interface between a building and its environment (Bellini, A. 1990). In QGis, from the base of the 2014 Regional Technical Map of the province of Frosinone, isolated layers represent geographical features such as points, lines, and polygons for thematic display purposes. The subdivision of these entities is functional to the reading of the complex organism, such as the historical centre (Fig. 3). Observing the consistency of the volumes and their negatives, it is possible to highlight those spaces of relationship generated within the centre.
Among these, we recognise two main areas: the space surrounding the Palazzo Ducale, formed by Piazza Veroli, Piazza Guglielmo Marconi, via Roma and via Trastevere and the area at the intersection of the main streets of the centre, in Piazza Garibaldi. The quality of these public spaces is directly related to the form of degradation or recovery of the entire urban scene and individual residential units.
The architectural surface is, instead, the entity profoundly and directly connected to the colour theme. Studying surfaces, surface finishing and colouring systems is essential to safeguarding and transmitting urban fabric to the future. These notes refer to methodological aspects related to the Color Plan (Figures 5-7) drawn up in October 2011 by Centofanti M., Cigola M., Dialmi F., Giannandrea C., which is an integral part of the “Project for the restoration and rehabilitation of housing in the historical centre of Atina” (Del. G.R. Lazio. n. 72/2007) (Centofanti, Cigola, Dialmi, and Giannandrea 2011) to be considered as a reference for the recovery operations of the historical centre of Atina.
The Colour Plan requires a methodical and multidisciplinary approach and follows several steps. The preliminary analysis focuses on understanding the cultural and environmental context through historical, iconographic and photographic research to identify the site’s specific needs. The following fundamental phase is the town survey, which allows us to collect data and the essential information to define the most appropriate colour choices. Analysis of the state of architectural surfaces, with the survey of existing materials and conditions of degradation, is essential to identify the typological characteristics of the context and understand the interaction between colours and the surrounding environment, allowing for correct colour mapping. A well-conducted architectural survey, as also pointed out by the Guidelines of the Lazio region for the recovery of minor historical centres, ensures that the plan respects and enhances the identity of the existing context.
The study of architectural surfaces: the Colour Plan
The Colour Plan is an instrument that aims to recover historical identity and continuity with tradition. The use of colour highlights the architectural features of buildings and creates visual harmony in the urban context. The goal is to make the historical centre more attractive as an environmental and urban monument. In this direction, the analysis between the site of a building and its surroundings is significant for the definition of the tone and colour intensity to be adopted for the colouring of the facades. The urban scale thus has a strong influence on the building scale. It is evident how this shifts the colour theme from individual facades to the whole. This means that interventions substantially affect the qualification of public spaces, determining their homogeneity or diversity, balances or dissonances. The “surface of architecture” carries time signs, whether anthropogenic or natural. The regional guidelines for restoring and rehabilitating historic centres indicate the steps to draw up a project that guarantees sufficient homogeneity in the design choices. The buildings’ architectural surfaces are considered essential parts of the historicised urban fabric and should be preserved as important testimony documents. From the facades analysed in Atina’s plan (Fig. 4), it is evident that the objective is to connote the urban characteristics of the building curtains enclosing some of the main urban spaces. The “inside” of the historic centre, about the urban area between Piazza G. Marconi, via Trastevere, Piazza Veroli and via Roma, surrounds two architectural symbols of the city: the cathedral of Santa Maria dell’Assunta and the Palazzo Ducale.
Cognitive analysis is the key to making choices that fit the context. Only through this, with the necessary critical reflections, can the most appropriate lines of intervention be used to preserve the historical, figurative, and material values of a building and its harmony with the context in which it is located. A delicate aspect, which always concerns the question of the whole and individuality of the component elements, affects buildings that result from the aggregation or fusion of several building units. In these cases, for example, the use of two different colour intensities can guarantee a double reading both in the unitary and aggregate key of the building. Reading and understanding the architectural layout (Fig. 5) helps to identify and emphasise the constructive elements and the architectural syntax that characterise the language of the building.
The critical survey (Figs. 6 and 7) highlights all the features that distinguish today’s facades, including their state of preservation and degradation. This indicates optimism about the types of finishing to be retained and pessimism about those to be removed. In some cases, it was necessary to elaborate detailed documentation of the most interesting architectural elements that characterise the analysed facades to form an abacus that can be used as a model in the case of replacement or remaking of the individual components. The simplicity of the restoration is directly proportional to the accuracy of the survey (Marconi 1993).
As a check for the Colour Plan, an additional relief of the main fronts has been produced with the Structure From Motion (SFM) processing. The survey was aimed at building photorealistic and metrically validated 3D models, helpful in analysing in detail the characteristics of the context. Finally, to validate the procedure and the results obtained, a comparison was made with data processed by a laser scanner survey of the same area and buildings (Fig. 8).
Comparisons, future expectations, and practical suggestions
There are almost no centres with a Colour Plan in the Valle di Comino territory. The case of Atina is an exception. The absence of a Colour Plan in the smaller centres of the province of Frosinone has several implications that can negatively affect both the aesthetic appearance and the historical and cultural coherence of these places, often rich in history and tradition. The lack of chromatic guidelines can lead to a loss of historical and cultural identity. This encourages renovations and new constructions that use contrasting colours and materials, compromising the harmony and coherence of the urban environment. The redevelopment of colour brings a social and economic return for the historical centre itself, favouring the enhancement and promotion of tourism. From an urban regeneration perspective, it encourages coordinated interventions that improve the quality of public and private spaces, making centres more liveable and attractive.
From an economic point of view, the redevelopment of historical centres through Colour Plans involves a significant initial investment. Still, it offers long-term returns through increased tourism, real estate development and improved quality of life. Socially, these interventions help to strengthen the cultural identity and promote a sense of community among residents. The main practical and financial challenges include adequate funding, coordination between various stakeholders, and management of interventions in buildings with different levels of quality and conservation. The strategies for implementing a Color Plan also involve specific data collection and appropriate indicators, such as the increase in tourist flow (measured by the number of annual visitors), real estate development (assessed by the possible rise in real estate prices), satisfaction of residents (measured through surveys and questionnaires); number of buildings redeveloped (monitored through the intervention census) (Facca 2013.).
Looking ahead, advanced digital technologies offer innovative tools such as photo modelling, augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), revolutionising Colour Plan design today. These technologies allow realistic simulations of colour choices, allowing designers to preview the effects of their decisions and make changes in real time. The efficiency and accuracy of the design process are thus greatly improved. Despite the significant advantages of these technologies, there is a need to codify the design process through some practical recommendations. First, it is essential to develop detailed guidelines that all municipalities can follow uniformly. These guidelines should include clear instructions and standardised procedures for using digital technologies in colour re-skilling, ensuring consistency and quality in results. Secondly, the promotion of professional training is crucial.
Local technicians and artisans must be adequately trained in the techniques of chromatic redevelopment and the use of new technologies. Specific training programs and practical workshops can help develop the necessary skills, ensuring that interventions are carried out competently and professionally. Another key element is creating a regional digital database of historical colours and their variations. This database should be accessible to all professionals involved in the design process, providing a valuable resource for research and consultation. Detailed information on historical colours will help to preserve cultural heritage and ensure respect for local identity. Finally, public-private partnerships are essential to ensure the funding and sustainability of interventions. Collaboration between public bodies, private companies, and other stakeholders can facilitate access to financial and technological resources, promote innovation, and implement high-quality projects.
Conclusions
The colour plan also applies to urban design, focusing on using colours to identify urban spaces, improve aesthetics and create a sense of community. One of the main challenges in redeveloping minor historical centres is balancing the need to preserve the historical and authentic appearance of buildings with the need to make them functional and attractive for modern residents and visitors (Marconi 1993). The Colour Plan offers a solution to this challenge, allowing you to add value to existing urban spaces without compromising historical integrity. Colour strategies can accentuate historic buildings’ architectural features, improve public spaces’ readability, and create a coherent visual sequence along the main streets. Colour is a historical element characterising the image of urban centres and, therefore, must be protected and preserved.
When we talk about colour, we are faced with two types of problems: the first is that of the building scale, and the second is that of the urban scale and the landscape scale. The answer to this problem is often ignored or overlooked by interventions. The operational difficulties encountered in managing and controlling recovery operations represent a concrete problem that has been widely debated. In addition, the slow and inexorable abandonment of places such as minor historical centres aggravates these criticalities. In particular, the many small settlements of southern Lazio are rich in historical and architectural values to be protected in a continuous network. This consideration suggests getting out, not only from the logic of the single building but also from the municipal area and operating more broadly. The analysis should be grouped by territories characterised by the same historical-cultural and constructive identity, with the identification of a standard “chromatic dialect”. In this way, combining administrative action with the culture of town planning and the practical practice of restoration, it is desirable to coordinate the design of the various municipal initiatives. Colour, elements and materials reflect the diversity and richness of visual details in urban construction and landscape (Fig. 9). These words suggest a methodological approach to heritage management, indicating the need for careful architectural surveys, in-depth analysis and targeted interventions. The interest in the conservation and enhancement of urban and architectural heritage must pass through the interpretation of the natural and built landscape and the connections and organisation of urban spaces to achieve continuity in the shape and structure of the city.
References
[1] Zordan, L. 1996. “Lettura tipologica del costruito, metodologia critica e strumenti operativi.” In Centri antichi minori d’Abruzzo: recupero e valorizzazione, edited by Gangemi Editore. Roma, Italy.
[2] Cigola, M., Gallozzi, A., Lucarelli, L., Zordan, M. 2023 “Instrumentos de conocimiento para salvaguardar y valorar los centros históricos menores”. Proceedings of 2023 ReUSO XI, Cáceres, Madrid, edited by Dykinson S.L. 28-39.
[3] Lucarelli, Laura. 2023. “Knowledge and exploitation of local resources: the historical centres of the Comino Valley.” Tafter Journal n. 122, 2023. https://www.tafterjournal.it/knowledge-and-exploitation-of-local-resources-the-historical-centers-of-the-comino-valley.
[4] Recchia, A.P. 1982. Atina. Storia della città.
[5] Zander, G. 1953. “Il palazzo ducale di Atina e il progetto di restauro”. In Palladio.
[6] Capozza, M. 1976 “La morfologia della città”. In Architettura pratica, edited by UTET. Torino, Italy.
[7] Bellini, A. 1990. “La superficie registra il mutamento: perciò deve essere conservata, in Superfici dell’architettura: le finiture”. Proceedings of 1990 Scienza e Beni Culturali, Bressanone, edited by Libreria Progetto, 1-11.
[8] Centofanti, M., Cigola, M., Dialmi, F., Giannandrea, C. 2011 “The Colour Plan in Project for the restoration and rehabilitation of housing in the historic centre of Atina”.
[9] Marconi, P. 1993. Il restauro e l’architetto. Padova: Marsilio.
[10] Cigola, M., Gallozzi, A., Petrucci, S., Strollo, R.M. et al. 2019. “Citizen science, gamification, fotogrammetria per il contrasto al rischio di oblio dei beni culturali minori.” In Archeomatica, edited by mediaGEO soc. Coop. Roma, Italy.
[11] Facca, A. 2013. “How Façade Improvement Programs Can Benefit Your Community.” Plannersweb. https://plannersweb.com/2013/10/how-facade-improvement-programs.
