Ruins preservation, transformation in use: projects for the old town centre of Palermo

Abstract

Palermo has a particular history, being a geographical topos that has been inhabited for twenty-fi ve centuries, whose most evident material expression is found in its architecture and urban morphology. Palermo has its own unique quality: it has been the centre, the place of encounter and confl ict for many civilizations that dominated the southern area of the Mediterranean, from Punics to Romans, from Arabs to Norman-Swabians. Few other places have achieved such a degree of homogeneity as has this city ‘tutto porto’, home to people so diverse in terms of traditions and customs, religion and race